Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1912-02-29
SPEECH OF
HON. VICTOR [. BERGER
THE SOCIALIST

The House being in Committee Of the Whole
House on the state Of the Union and having
under consideration the bill H. R.. ll0l9l to re-
duce the duties on wool and manufactures Of
woody
Mr.. BERGER said:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: IL is hardly necessary
for me to explain how highly ] appreci
ate the honor of being a Member of this
House,
There is probably no other legisla-
| tive body in the world in which there
| are so many earnest, bright and inter
esting men However, you i%ntrrprete
things as YOU see them, and you SEE
from the point of view of your class
the capitalist class.
TIL frst question you naturally ask
of any new Member is, What is your
message.
Now. Mr.. Chairman, have a message
to deliver from the most al vanced and
Intelligent section o the toiling mass
es-from millions of men aud women.
If YOU will bear with me in patience
for an hour | shall try to deliver a part
Of that message to the best of my abili-
ty.
lam told that oratorv counts for lit
tie or nothing in this House-that you
want facts. | am very glad of that, be-
cause | hope to convince you within D
minutes thatI am not an orator, and
within 10 minutes that | have some
facts.
Now, gentlemen. | just kindly ask
YOU to overlook my Milwaukee accent,
but TO overlook nothing else. Laugh
ter
sCANT PROTECTION FOR THE LABoRER
Some of the geptlemen here have re-
heated the old threadbare tallacy that
the high tariff is to protect labor.
Now | want it understood that there
is no such thing as protection TO labor
in any tariff bill. | want to say this
in the name of the many millions OF
enlightened workingmen in this coun-
try, and in all other civilized countries,
who think for themselves.
Moreover, gentlemen, you are not in
| the habit of making laws for the pro-
lection of labor. Applause on Demo-
cratic side.
You are continually making laws for
| the protection of life and property-for
the protection of the lives of those who
own property, and for the protection OF
the property they own. You are con
tinually making laws for manufactur-
er9, bankers ana MERCHANTS
But the workingman who has no 9th
or property than his labor gets scant
protection, indeed.
If he wants to be protected, he must
commit "a crime; he must steal or get
drunk and disturb the peace or becom
a tramp. Then the law gets hold OF
him and gives him protection. Then
he gets the protection of the jail or the
~penitentiary.
As long as he is we'll and decent the
law does not protect him. The high
tariff does not protect him.
THE KERNAL OF THE TARIFF ISSUE.
What is the philosophy of the tariff?
The history of the protective tariff is
the same in every country.
Agricultural countries gu bsidize man
ufacturers for the purpose of creating
industries.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries England became the foremost
manufacturing country of the world,
Germany, which before had supplied
the world With manufactured goods,
had been thrown back in civilization
and cultivation by the horrors of tne re-
ligious wars incident to the Reforma-
ton.
England bought the raw material OF
the world and sold he manufactured
product. In order to build up indus-
tries in their own countries the Euro
pean rulers tried to protect their manu-.
lecturers against the importation OF
English goods by putting up a high
tariff.
The history of the American tariff is
nou, ,.,,oA tba a IA n Tho apif III pnaNh- |
es back to the days of Alexander Ham
ilton and is based upon the same idea.
1t simply meant su bsidizing the man
ufacturers so as to build up industries.
1t meant that the Nation was paying
manufacturer a bonus for investing
money in manufacturing.
The result in every country has been
the same
The high tariff at first stimulated
competition. Everybody who had any
money or any business talent went into
the manufacturing business.
That tendency, of course, cut down
the profits 1t eliminated in this coun-
try about 1892, when one of those peri
odical crises which are a part of our in
system set in.
The result was natural enough. No
whether we have a high tariff OF
free trade, com petition has a tenden-
,y TO weed out the economically weak
Or concerns.
That process of wedding out is might
ly stimulated by these industrial crises
! matter to which | shall refer again la {
Ter.
COMPETITION ALWAYS KILLS COMPETE
TON. (
The process of wedding out went mer-
lily on in this country. Toward the end
If the last century a Der OF the re-
naming big firms found it more profit s
bile to unite than to continue the
!;
There you have the origin of trusts.
1t is not fair, to ascribe the origin OF
trusts entirely, or even mainly, 20 the
high tariff. |,
The high tariff is responsible for the
only as it stimulates competition
md inasmuch as it subsidizes b man
lfacturers. {
nut the outcome of competition is al {
Ways the same. Competition always
ills competition in tn" end. We find
in high tariff America and in
rec. trade England, We find trusts in
Germany and even in little Holland.
As a matter of fact, every t1ourishlng
industry winds up in a trust 4
/ can GO still further. | will say that
n auaPu notwithstanding country the |