Little Falls herald., 1912-10-18

the plea made few years ago in -
behalf of the tariff. The argument ,
was used that the tariff should be =
revised by it's friends. We were
told that it would not be safe to =
entrust it's revision Of the tariff =
to it's enemies. We fell in with: =
this specious plea. We know the .
result The friends of the tariff =
= revised it upward.
The Expert Commission Dodge.
But this betrayal of our confidence
raised storm of protest. Then they:
bethought themselves of that old de-
vice called tariff commission. They,
said that the tariff was too compiI--
Gated a question to be dealt with by.
you and me, or by our representatives..
In Congress. 1t required a commits
sion Of experts. And so they created
commission to investigate and report
not to Congress, which has the pow
er to make tariffs, but to the Presi-
dent, who has no such power. The
President could make such use of their
report as he pleased. If it suited him,
he could pigeonhole the report and
refuse to give it out, or refuse to make
any recommendation with regard to It.
This was safe method for them. II
they could control one man, the Prest-
dent, they had nothing to fear. Their
profits were safe. They had fooled us
with thir device once before.
= -
When the demand for tariff re-
duction became too urgent to be
ignored in the eighties, a tariff
commission was appointed with >"
power to investigate and report,
this time to Congress. The COM p
mission was appointed. It investi- =
gated, and then it investigated =
some more, and after much delay =
and while other important issues =
engrossed the attention of the
country, it reported to Congress.
Congress promptly pigeonholed
the report, and we have heard
nothing from it since. That was
about thirty years ago.
4.
And now they believe that we are>
ripe to be pIucked again in the Same,
way. 1t is for you to say if you wills
swallow the hook. If you do, you wills
know what to expect. },
It is not strange, therefore, that the
trust magnates should seek to stem:
the rising tide of Indignation against
the extortions of the trusts by simi--
lar device. Those who have been
watching the trend of events have
been looking for this to happen. Wo
knew that it was coming whenever
there was real danger that the people
would demand relief so strongly that
something must be done to appease
them until their attention could bo
drawn to something else. And, sure
enough, within the past year they have
put forth scheme to regulate trusts
and fix the prices of their products by
commission. a
George w. Perkins fathered the =
scheme, and the President of the
= steel trust adopted it as his own.
Those who own or draw profit
from the trusts are all in favor
of regulation. They expect to
control the appointment of the
regulators.
+ = = + So p
The bare statement of such plan,
when advanced as remedy, ought
to condemn it. If We are to be treated
to a dose OF regulatory flimfam, cut
on the commission pattern, we want
none of it. The proponents of this
plan cite the work of the railroad
commissions in support of their enter
prise. It is time that our would-be
leaders came down out of the clouds
of theory long enough to contemplate.
the cold, hard fact that railroad regu~
11%s IN
it on means the regulation of the pe0--
pie by the railroads. One thing the.
| railroad commission system of regula-~
ton has accomplished: It has practi.-
| cal1y destroyed the little competition,
between the roads that we previously
had, and to that extent it has been Of
serVice-tO the railroads.
Fixing Prices Through Commission.
Impossible.
No one not blinded by self-interest
can fail to see how impossible is the
proposal to fix the prices of trust-made
goods through commission. Practi-
cally everything manufactured in this
! country is controlled partly or wholly
! by some trust. The scheme, then,
/ means the fixing, by a commission, OF
the prices on nearly everything.
t + X +
" Imagine, if you can, a commits
sion fixing the prices of hundreds
and thousands of commodities =
manufactured in this country, fix >
ing them, not permanently, but =
from day to day, to meet the fuc-
tuating needs of supply and de- =
mand. 1t is too absurd to have >
originated in good faith outside of -
bedlam. A commission charged ..
with this impossible duty would p
be buried so deep under the ac- =,
emulation of complaints that it p"
would never see daylight, and the
trusts would reap harvest that D.
would throw all their previous per-
fOrmances into the shade. D.
| = + >.
How 1t Would Work.
| 1t is law of Nature that all things
man included-proceed along the.
! line of least resistance. Such a COM
mission, being composed of men, would
! come under the operation of this law.
| On one side organized business with.
self-interest as it's motive and vast re-