Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1913-05-04
By J. C. Tut. IN the ST. Louis Globe
Dcmocrat.)

tariff laws that has revealed II and
fixed II. We need no clearer and
stronger light on the subject than
long and profound experience has
thrown upon II. Any one familiar
with the secrets and effects OF our
tariff history knows pretty well how
To trent the different schedules In the
work OF revision. Such balance
| should be preserved as will give to
this country the utmost measure Of
protection consistent with the most
! liberal demand for importation. The
! protective power of some one schedule
| ought not to be augmented by reduc-
| Ing that Of some other schedule. As
| a general proposition the Democratic
/ party doesn't want high tariff, but
| certain Interests ask the levying of n
good round sum In competitive i'm
| ports, There Is fierce conflict, You
see, amongst the nonprotective adyo-
Gates. But no interest, of course.
should be favored at the expense Of
another The advantage In observing
this rule OF equity is that we main
tain n higher average rate than by
| discrimination.
1t is difficult, however, to arrange
tariff schedules justly and evenly
without some fixed standard OF judg-
ment. You will find no clearer and
more forceful elucidation OF this fact
anywhere than in the hesitancy and
! doubt manifest in the tariff discussion
OF the Democrats In congress- Under
wood is the head and front Of action
In the house, yet his leadership is
nothing more than nominal His ideas
arc no more definite than those OF the
men who make up the rank and file
! of his support He got his bill in
! shape for introduction, but not until
| the last minute. If he had been Civ
en- another month or two months for
| preparation he would at the end of
| that time be no nearer a definite and
satisfactory conclusion than he is now.
The difficulty is that his party mis-
interprets the nature of tariff, and
therefore has no fixed standard of
judgment. There is but one point
from which to judge the weight of
tariff duties, and that Is the point of
protection. Within the scope of pro-
tective acts we have the right to grade
duties, but we have no constitutional
privileges outside or below that.
History of our tariff legislation is
as old as that Of the government 1t
tells its own story. 1t is quite simple
but of prodigious import. Comment
on the tariff would seem quite unnec-
essary, yet 1t is prolific Of controversy.
The profundity Of the subject is evi-
dent in the fact that the functions of
government are 80 sensitively respon-
sive to any radical action upon 1t. In
/ the second quarter Of the last century
1t developed notification, which EN-
braced the principle of disunion and
Independent confederation. Since re-
construction II has been the greatest
of all instrumentalities in defining
nationalism and in providing against
the declination OF its power. This is
the standard of Judgment the Repub-
lican party has irrevocably fixed In
tariff legislation. 1t may be set aside
for a season. but 1t will resume its
place amongst the regulative powers
of the political and industrial worlds
There is nothing surer than this. The
necessities of civilization and popular
government compel IT.
1t is easy enough for the leadership
in a Republican congress to construct
a satisfactory tariff bill. 1t acts on
the theory of protection. Nothing
can drive ii or persuade 1t from that
ground. IT. has fixed standard OF
judgment. 1t has learned the law of
protection, and that is its guide. 1t
is not difficult to do this. The Re-
publican party has played pretty well
the gamut of protection. 1t is famil-
lar with the entire range of its ef-
fectiveness from its lowest to its high
est power. 1t is more extensively ac-
quainted with the relation of theory
and fact In tariff protection than the
leadership of any other party. And II
is by this close intimacy of practice
that it grasps the law of protection.
1t has learned II from an open book
very distinctly written. You never
saw tariff bill emanate from a Re-
publican congress that carried with II
the impairment Of national power.
That 1t does not do this is its dis
tinguishing mark. 1t Is the province
Of any leading law to augment the
forces that converge in the consttu-
tional or imperial creation known as
the government. Our tariff enact
ments are leading laws.
Ovcrstraining the Point.
But to the matter of fact mind that
sees nothing in a tariff except its in
dustrial significance the attributing
to 1t of the most eminent political
power seems, to say the least, an ex-
cessive overstraining of the point. But
1t isn't. The subject of government
is involved in all legislation, and more
profoundly in that touching the tariff
than in any other feature OF II. Every
tariff bill affects In one way or an
other the national constitution. 1t is
either an assistance in the enlarge
ment of its power or is a direct blow
to 1t. In legislation the tariff is fun
damental. 1t is Intern ediary between
statute law and constitutional law. II
is classed in the category OF the form
er, yet 1t is quite as much constitu-