The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1912-01-04

suit of accident. They exist by design
and there can be no doubt that they
will be very zealously defended.
Able as Mr.. La Toilette is, it must
occur to most people that he falls far
short of the logical conclusion which
properly attends to his own reasoning.
He describes the Money Trust and all
the lesser trusts. He shows how they
have afflicted the people and how Re-
publican administrations have been
dependent upon them.
He denounces the Payne-Aldrich Jaw as
"the most outrageous assault by private
interests upon the people ever record
ed in tariff history"
Yet the gentleman is careful not to
say that he is opposed to the one vici-
Gus principle which underlies all Re-
publican tariffs, which supports all Re-
publican trusts and which has done
more than anything else to drive the
people to the extremity of initiatives
and referendums, in self-protection.
We refer, of course, to the dishonest,
the unjust and the scandalous misuse OF
power exercised in the taxation OF
Everybody for the benefit OF Somebody,
which is mistakenly called "protec-
tion."
Kill that false doctrine and the ex-
cuse for Mr.. LaFollette's candidacy as
an insurgent would disappear. Since he
does not advocate its destruction, but
openly champions the policy as pol
icy, in modified form, what can he
hope to accomplish 10y his present cru
ade? Why condemn the fruit and not
the tree?
In this respect the Senator's position
resembles that of Stephen A. Douglas
in his joint debate with Abraham Lin
coin more than fifty years ago. Slavery
was then doomed institution, as
everybody now knows, just as those
who have faith in justice and progress
at this time believe that Mark Hanna
protection as recently practiced for ex-
tortion is doomed. Douglas tried to
reconcile slavery with the spirit of az
age that was already determined not TO
limit it and not to ameliorate its con-
ditions, but to destroy it utterly.
That seems to be MIR. La Follettes
attitude toward the prolific mother of
trusts and monopolies, of political
blackmall, of colossal campaign funds
corruptly used and of all manner of OPP
presto Of the people. He would pre-
serve it. He would limitit. He would
make it acceptable. He would nourish
the tree that yields the evil fruit.
We do not believe that the progress
sive or the reformer lives or ever will
live who shall be able to correct the
wrongs which this system has inflicted
upon the people unless he goes to the
root of things and makes clean job of
il.
A plundered nation Is not to be quiet
ed by smaller percentage Of robbery.
A plundered nation is not likely TO be
satisfied with a little less injustice
when what it demands is complete
Justice. A plundered nation will no
more accept Mr.. La Follette's pallia-
tives than nation in revolt against
human bondage accepted Mr. Douglas
compromises that came too late.
The Republican party lives upon the
one idea of using the public power of
taxation primarily for private ends.
If Mr.. La Toilette is truly opposed to
it he must oppose it altogether There
is no middle ground between undoubt-
ed wrong and undoubted right. Pro-
lection must go!-St. Louis Republic.