The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-09-25
NOT SATISFIED WITH MEASURE
Senior Senator Declares That Offering
of the Democrats was Far Superior to
Existing Laws and Made Provision
for Downward Revision

Reasons why he voted for the demo
cratic tariff bill, as lone republican
United States Senator, were announc-
ed today by Senator LaFollette in a.
complete analysis, as a leading edi
torial in LaFollette's Weekly He
claims that the tariff measure is in
fnitely superior to the ubiquitous
rates imposed upon the American PEG
pie by the Payne-Aldrich law
| @fNo tariff measure, with its thous-
ands of rates, can attain to perfec-
tion,' says Senator LaFollette. "The
question presented at this time is a
choice between this bill, with its gen
eral level Of duties on manufactured
products, reasonably just to home in
| dustries, excepting as I have indicat-
ed, and the iniquitous rates imposed
upon the American people by the
| Payne-Aldrich law.
con this issue, which, involves the
general welfare of the millions in
every walk of life, partisan politics
should have no place. The contest is
really between the people and en-
trenched privilege. 1t is an unequal
struggle, and calls for the highest
service which men now in public life
4
can render to their country.
"The trusts and combinations in
their relentless oppression Of the pub
lie, have been materially aided by the
monstrous tariff law enacted four years
ago. Their power will not be broken
when that law is supplanted by the
present bill. But it's passage is signi
fcant. 1t marks change. It is the
winning Of the first battle in the long
war which must be waged against in
| dustrial monopoly. This warfare is
not against legitimate business. 1t is
against the tyranny Of unlawful COM
binations, over-protected, over slim
ulated, over-capitalized Our indus
tries will of necessity feel the strain
of readjustment to normal healthy
basis "a basis of actual values.
Through this period, we must pass to
secure industrial peace and real indus
trial prosperity
Senator LaFollette says that after
considerable study, the trainers of the
tariff measure were driven to adopt
the principle of the difference in the
cost of production at home and abroad,
as means If measuring the amount
of tariff. They called it competitive
tariff rates."
GA tariff bill deals with thousands
of products, continues Senator La
Toilette editorial, "and reliable
/ data for determining the cost Of pro-
duction has as yet been worked out,
with scientific accuracy, upon only a
portion of the articles covered by the
bill. AS to products, the cost of pro-
ducing which is not known, any COM
mittee must make the best estimates
possible with the material at hand.
A progressive republican committee
would be compelled to adopt estimates
on production cost for a large number
of products. But a close study of this
bill will convince any unbiased mind
that in the maine excepting upon food
| products-the general plan and pur-
pose Of those who framed the bill, was
to lower the high and often prohi BIZ
tory tariff rates of the Payne Aldrich
law, to such level as to insure
enough foreign competition to prevent
the combinations, formed behind the
tariff wall, from continuing to exact
monopoly prices from the consumer.
And on the other hand the conclusion
will be reached that it was not their
purpose to admit enough foreign COM
/ petition to injure American manufact-
urers who are dealing fairly with the
American people
Upon the products of the farm
suitable for human food, those who
constructed this bill abandoned the
/ principle upon which the balance of
the bill was framed and placed those
articles upon the free list. The pur-
pose of this was manifestly to reduce
the cost Of living. And it is their con-
tention that as to those products The
farmer derives little or no direct bene-
fit from the protective tariff
| The senator analyses in detail the
tariffs on pig iron, wool, sugar and
other products of prime necessity, jus
trying his position in each case by