Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-07-15

and its bearings on industrial condi
tions at home and abroad gives tire
mendous advantage.
| President Taft and Republican lead
ers are aware of the benefits to b,
| derived by this country in years t.
come, from the services of a permanent
tariff commission of experts on tha
all important subject. After the No
vember election, If President Taft /.
re- elected, the tariff commission whicf
the Democratic party has legislated out
of existence by refusing to make APP
preparation for maintenance. will bt
reestablshed. The fixing of tariff
schedules no longer will be left to the
fickleness of political exigencies.
The tariff commission plan is one oil
the most progressive of all the social
ed progressive ideas. 1t is in distinct
keeping with the best Of progress
There is no argument against it. The
Democratic House realized its impo-
teney to overthrow the commission by
any logic or respectable manner of
procedure so it adopted the eowardly
way of cutting off the provision for
maintenance.
But we We're saying that business
interests are prompt to recognize the
inevitable issue in this campaign. 1t Is
not battle over men but over great
fundamental policies.
Woodrow Wilson, could he be elected
on Republican principles of govern
mental and business stability would
be a safe proposition; elected on Dem
ocratic policies framed to appeal to
sentiment of unrest, he would be .
menace to peace, prosperity and happi-
ness.
The New York Journal of Commerce
and Commercial Bulletin (Indepen-
denD says;
THE only issue upon which the two
political parties have set themselves
suuarely face to face as antagonists III
their platforms is that of the nation
tariff policy. That furnished the FIRST
dividing line between parties, as taf
back as the Federalists and Demo-
Gratis of the days of Hamilton and JEFF
ferson, persisted in the division be-
tween Wings and Democrats until the
slavery question arose to disturb the
af
War in the Hayes and Tildeen cam
paign of the centennial year. 1t has
held a more or less conspicuous place
in party contests ever since, but has
been confused from time to time By
the currency question and agitation
over the regulation of interstate com
merce ad the control of great corpora
lions.
"These platforms Republican and
Democratic nationaD put one party
souarely ON record as believing in pro-
lection by tariff as fundamental
principle to be maintained with care
in any revision of schedules of duties,
and the other as devoted to tarlff
for revenue only as the object of ulti.
mate attainment in revising the sehed-
ules The positions are clearly defined
and the opposition is direct on funda-
mental principles, for the first time in
many years
New York correspondence of the
Boston News Letter (FinanciaD says:
1T is no secret, l believe. that one of
the big reasons why some of the great
est of the financial powers favored an
other term in the White House for
Theodore Roosevelt is that he is in
different as to the tariff. The Colonel
never professed 10 understand that
dull, intricate problem. Is the tariff to
be an issue in the campaign? Party
platforms furnish a plain answer to
this qeustion, the Republican being un-
equivically for protective duties, the
other as decidedly for a reduction in
duties. For the first time in twenty
years then the tariff is an issue in
presidential election. With their great
interests in the manufacturing indus
tries the financial powers, / under
stand, will line up in this contest on
the side of President Taft. Business
interests generally a financier remark
er to me are with Taft. Because he IS
for protection both of industry and the
judiciary they want him reelected One
does not have to mingle much with
manufacturers and merchants and bus
mess men generally to hear many cor
respondening views"
The Springfield (Mass.) Republican
independently says the tariff commits
sion idea is no EXPERIMENT and adds:
Germany has abundantly demon
strated the usefulness of such a COM
mission. The tariff board of that
country devoted seven years to study
of Industrial and trade conditions with
the result that the German tariff is
not a hap-haZard piece of legislation,
but a scientific instrument for the pro-
motion of all the varied interests of
that nation. Such Progressives as
Beveridge, La Toilette, Bristow, Clapp,
Cummins, yes, and Roosevelt himself,
have declared unequivocally for tariff
commission and precisely for such n
handling of the tariff as is proposed In
the Republican platform. They can
have no possible quarrel with the Re-
publican party on that score. If they
represent as they claim to, real and
substantial propresS then the Demo-