The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-26
THE TARIFF.
By Dr. G. A. Norton, a Noted PoIit- fcsI Economist and Pub1icist.)

I (By Dr. G. A. Norton, a Noted Polit- icsI Economist and PubHcist.) Chdca ago, Sept 26.-The very word tariff is of unsavory origin. It came from the name of the town Tar1fa, on the Straits of Gibraltar. a strategic point where in ancient times the pre- datory Moors held up incoming and outgoing ships and levied tribute In OUT day. the tariff wall has been used by the predatory Interests to hold up and levy. tribute on the American people. The tariff has been built up and perpetuated by the Republican party under the spacious guise of pro lection to American industries. The robbery of the ultimate consumer for years has been carried on under the cloak of protection.
 For fifty years. the American people have been enslaNed- and robbed by the Interest under the. false and 1aisIead- ing belief that the foreigner pays the tariff tax; that without the protective tariff business manufacturing would not prosper nor wages be sust tained. . All three of these arguments are false in their very essence, and vicious in their application.
 These political jugglers will show been and then assert that it is due to the protective tariff. They never remind you of the great panics that have conv u1sed this country: they nev- CT tell you of the hard times that have cursed the workingnen time and again. They say that the working
 
 paid i'll the world because of the tar tiff; thab the farmer is prosperous and thriving because of the tariff: that the business men have grown big because Of the pasotectlve tariff. These lies have been so often and loudly re- peated that many people have come to believe that there is some truth in them. +z
 william Jennings Bryan was once interrupted in the course of d public speech and asked: Does not the pro- far Day higher wages?'' MT. sBryan re- piled: .-Yes. it enables them to pay, higher wages, but it does not force them to do so, and so they never have done so.'
 The combination of free trade in the labor market and the high otective ideal situation for the trusts and cor poFations. It puts the dollar above the man and enables the nanufactur- CT to defraud both the 1aboref and the consumer The American working men are tine most efficient in the world Figuring their output against the output of men in other countries the American wage scale is lower than that of England for instance.
 The manufa cturers have waNed fat under the tariff which in it's original indus tries.;' but they have not divided fairly, with the workingmen who help ed them grow
 There are no infant industries now that require protection. The proof of that statement lies in the fact that the steel trust. the harvester trust, the shoe trust and all the great trusts. in cluding Standard Oil, are competing in the markets of the world and in many instances upderselIius the products of England and Germany; where we have been Ted to believe wages are low. They add the tariff to the legitimate profit Of manufacture in this country. successfully with countries where there is no tariff. But one conclusion can be drawn from this fact and that is that the trusts do not need the pro tecffve tariff and are ..gouging',, the American people by so much as the difference between the price they ac- 1 cept abroad and the price they extort at home.
 That the protective tariff has fos- tered trusts and monopoly which now-l threaten our very national existence no one douEts who is honest with him 1 self. The dragons teeth of otH~na- i tional dissoIution are already broadly | and deeply soNn. and as to whether an awakened people can prevent the log ] 3caf harvest remains to be- demon stra ated v. Certainly, this is no world i for pessimists and uuitters. One of by one great soul from out the polit- l icaa slime of special interests, and 1t | is that party that should receive the l support of every sensible man of all parties, and thus turning the tide of l public affairs sharply against the cor->l rupt current that is reading this. na- ton IOW9rQS LRe TOCkS O1 C61LidHIzdE tion the tonfbs of all the older. re- | publics. Tt takes soul to move a body; 1t takes a, hish-souI- 1 To move the masses even to a cleaner It takes the ideal to blow an inch in 1 side f The dust of the actual
 This inspiring deed was recently 1 done at Baltimore. and unless the i'm | gratitude Of republics is again to be 1 exenapIiied.i this high souled man, I Woodrow Wilson. will live to soon see the triumph at the polls of the eter- 1 nal F. tlcip1es for which he has ev- i CT fought.
 While history does not necessarily 1 repeat itself there is quite a. strong tendency in that cfirectiona To stem this old tide that has caught andsi hurled to trtter destruction all the ear. ly democracies is by no means an. easy task Tn Woodrow Wilson, the people have a truly great and truly wise leader, in whom never syn1p- tom of egorTla mia has ever been known. AItruisn dominates his being and 1t Is this spirit that this nation sorely needs to-day as it's guiding light out of its sfa rlaefuI decline. Such a. man as the first man of our. nation will act as a Ieaven in tf.e masses now pessirniStic as to attempts of refornlers to bring about the reali1a ton. of the dream of political righte ousness.