Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-10

/ privilege and preventing its abuses and
| in the preservation for the public OF
! what belongs to 1t. as well as IN amelio-
rating the legal status OF certain classes
| of the people, and in increasing the func-
tions of the government for the benefit
| Of the whole people.
question Of the relation of the general
government to business. or course. we
can have a general prosperity or appar-
! emit prosperity in which every one Is en-
ployed and all the mills are running full
tilt but in which the laws are being vio-
lated and the rights Of the individual
and of the people are not being vindi-
Gated as against corporate capital and
privilege. In the absence Of such abuses.
! however, prosperity in business Is what
those responsible for government ought
to bend every effort to secure and MAIN
tain. They should remove every obstacle
| in law or executive order which may in
| terfere with business and its prosperity.
Prosperity means good wages. 1t means
happiness in the home Of the working
man, the farmer and the business man,
and therefore what we must have is care
| in urging political reforms that In our
enthusiasm We do not enter upon useless
agitation that only interferes with bust
ness and has no definite public or indi-
vidual benefit as its result.
Discusses Protective Tariff.
One Of the places where the govern
ment touches business is in the protective
tariff. For fifty years the republican
party has maintained that in the interest
of diversified industries, in the interest
Of high wages for labor. it is wise to. i'm
pose a tariff on those products of this
country which because of competition
with foreign countries could not be pro-
The theory came at one time to be that
any tariff, however high. was good
thing. But after time 1t began to be
seen that through the instrumentality OF
monopolistic combination q tariff which
exceeded considerably the difference be-
tween the cost Of production here and
abroad furnished a temptation to q union
Of the protected interests here to take
advantage of the higher tariff and keep
prices above what they ought to be. The
movement to prevent the undue increase
Of prices beyond need Of legislative pro-
lection in the interest Of the consumer
was and is an important part of the pro-
gresSive movement.
In 1908 the republican party agreed to
revise the tariff. The revision was down.
ward in respect of many articles. and the
free list was largely increased. The
figures from the importations show these
facts. But the cuts in some of the sched-
ules were not what I hoped they would
be. or what they ought to have been.
There was much criticism and much
Misrepresentation as to the effect of the
complished great good. because in add
| ton to the reductions ! have mentioned. 1t
gave free trade to the Philippines, bene-
| fit to which that community was entitled
| it provided the means by which we could
avoid discriminating duties against us in
| foreign countries through what is called
| the maximum and minimum clauses; 1t
enabled the executive to provide tariff
board by which future revisions might be
made upon facts ascertained by scientific
| inquiry, and it resulted in changing a
deficit Of nearly fifty millions into a sub
stantial surplus.
Business System Rests on Tariff.
We cannot be blind to the fact that our
whole business system rests upon the
protective tariff system. 1t is not that all
manufac turers here need protection, but
it is that so many of them need it that II
it is to be removed. then the destruction
of those business interests will Affect the
entire business interests of the country
and necessarily the whole body OF wage
earners as WELL Hence 1t is of the ut
most Importance that We should maintain
the tariff system without its abuses, and
that we should do it Is such a way as
! least to disturb business.
One Of the schedules which was not re-
duced was the wooden schedule. schedule
X. This tariff board has made an investi-
cation showing that the wool and wooden
schedule is too high and ought to be re-
duced, and that it Is possible to reduce
1t substantially without destroying either
the wool growing or the wool manufac-
turing industry OF this country. A similar
result will probably be found in q report
of the same tariff board, non-partisan.
| and searching only for the truth, in the
cotton schedule.
Revision Schedule by Schedule.
Now what I claim is that the introduce
ton Of this method Of dealing with the
tariff schedule by schedule and upon
impartially ascertained facts. and of
moderating the protection to that which
is only enough to allow a living profit to
our manufacturers Is q progressive step
which revolutionizes the previous method
of fixing the tariff. and which enables
Congress and the whole business COM
munity to know in advance what is to be
the result Of the legislation proposed.
In this way We shall prevent exorbitant
prices; in this way we shall avoid busi-
| ness disaster: in this way the confidence
of merchants and Of manufacturers In
! the future may be retained. and prosper
| ity. which such confidence engenders
will be a certain result.
| Progress in Railroad Legislation.
| One Of the great abuses in the economic
history Of this country was the system
| Of Determinations by railroads in the
furnishing of transportation to different
businesses. BY a system Of rebates the
| great shippers were able to drive the
smaller shippers out of business, and this
| could only be reformed by an interstate
commerce law which made 1t criminal
to grant rebates and which gave close
regulative and supervisory power over
the conduct of railroads to an interstate
commerce commission. 1t took time to
! perfect this. 1t began with the passage
of the original act in 1887, which was
tinkered with in one way or another until
the Elklns bill was passed. framing a
different means of attack upon rebates.
ms was followed by the rate bhl,
which gave the Interstate commerce COM
mission the right to fix rates, and finally,
! in 1910 in the present administration. the
| last amendment to the interstate COM
merce act was passed which has greatly
| increased the regulative power OF the
commission and greatly bettered the
| whole system Of its supervision. AT pres
| ent it does not seem wise to have further
| legislation until this has been worked on.
and its defects, II any, are disclosed.
Generally 1t may be said that the rail-
roads are obeying the law, that rebates
are rare instances instead Of universal.
| as they once were, and that while the
defects of the system have not been
eradicated, machinery for eliminating 1t
| is at hand. Certainly this legislation
which passed by vote OF the republican
party and by the signature OF a republi-
| can executive was progressive In every
sense and definition Of the word.
Prosecution Of Trusts.
Then we had the question Of the trusts
and their prosecution The antitrust act