The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1912-06-28

able profit to the American
manufacturer. Accompanying
this there was an admission
that some of the rates in the
then law, known as the Dingley |
law, were too high, and there
was a promise of revision. Mr..
Taft, in his campaign speeches,
assured the people that this was
a promise to revise downward.
That promise was kept by the
enactment of the present law
which was a revision upward
and not downward. The plat
form of 1908 also promised a
tariff commission to ascertain
the difference between the cost
of production here and abroad.
But it all came to naught. The
new platform just adopted, and
which seems to have been read
by very few people, omits all de-
mand for the reasonable profit
for the American manufacturer,
substituting the following SEN
tece: 1--WE hold that the import
duties should be high enough,
while yielding a sufficient reve-
nue.. to protect adequately
American industries and wages.
The principal paragraph Of the
Republican tariff plank is as
follows:
eve hold that the import duties
should be high enough, while yielding a
sufficient revenue, to protect adequate
ly American industries and wages.
Some of the existing import duties are
too high and should be reduced. Re-
adjustment should be made from time
to time to conform to changing condi-
tions and to reduce excessive rates, but
without injury to any American indus
try. To accomplish this correct in
formation is Indispensable. This in
formation can best be obtained by an
expert commission as the large volume
of useful facts contained in the recent
reports of the Tariff Board has demon
Strated'.
1t is admitted that "some of the ex-
listing import duties are too high and
should be reduced" But it will be
noted that there is no promise to re-
duce them. The only promise of relief
is the appointment of an expert COM
mission" to gather the information.
This is the old, threadbare, worm
eaten, musty device of the standpat
monopolists. 1t has fooled the people
many years. While the Republican
party extols Lincoln as its prophet and
seer, it can never accept as true his
assertion that ''you cannot fool all the
the people all of the time. :" The old
device has succeeded so long and so
we'll that it is perhaps natural that the
Republicans should have come to con-
slider it immortal
The high protection interests have
taught the people that the protective
tariff is not only sacred but that it is a
great mystery which only the barons
themselves and the commissions they
appoint can understand. In point of
act there is nothi ng of mystery about
it any more than there is about other
taxes. If taxation on houses and lands
is too high the people want to reduce
it and they will, if they have the chance,
reduce it down as low as it can be re-
duced without gripping the public SER
vice. If the tax on sugar or blankets
or clothing or food is too high, it ought
to be reduced by the same measure.
The people of this country know by
this time that the Republican tariff
platforms are devised for the purpose
of fooling them and confusing the is
sue. They are perfectly we'll satisfied
from their experience that the only
way to get the taxes reduced-even
those which the Republican platform
says are too highs to turn the Re-
publican party out of Congress and out
of the White House. You might as
well expect the Prohibition party to
change its attitude toward the saloons
as to expect the Republican party to
moderate its tariff exactions.
more Sun.