The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1913-09-05

tuNaNly u IOCdi ANbut anu lOl Vi i'd
tional character or Importance.
PheTe are not more than one thou
sand people in Kansas directly inter-
ested in the raising of sugar beets or
Interested in the refining of sugar.
While on the other hand, there are
about one million seven hundred
thousand people who have no inter-
est whatever in the business, and who
must purchase sugar, ~
This Is the first tariff bill since the
civil War which has disregarded the
local interest proposition.
The main idea throughout the bill
has been to place the necessaries of
life on the free list, regardless of
where they are raised, or produced,
in Order to secure the greatest bene-
fits for all the people, and to reduce
the high cost ~ living, which has
reached the Highest point ever known
in this country.
The Democratic party has at last
become great enough 80 that it can
declare to the world that the tariff
question is no longer merely a local
issue, but nat it is national in char
acteH and is simply a means to as
siA in raising revenue, and is only
tolerated for that necessary purpose.
1t is no longer the business of the
government TO undertake to see that
certaiR classes of people are success
ful in business enterprises, II is no
concern of the government il these
classes cannot make a profit by the
merits of their own goods and the
economy IA their production.
knSwing the kind of tariff law
Payne and Aldrich gave the county,
it would certainly be dangerous and
expensive experiment t0 Permit the
Republicans to revise 1t.
1t would seerh That any one honest
ly desiring and advocating down
ward revision of the tariff would GER
talnly be in favor of voting for @ bill
which everyone admits greatly re-
duces the rates.
1t would seem, also. that the in
come tax feature az the bill, which
most progressive Republicans claim
to favor wonld especially appeal to
them, For more than twenty years
tae Democratic party has advocated
the income tax.
The greatest trouble with taxation
mas been in the fact that men of small
property often pay the highest taxes
in proportion to what they possess.
Every citizen should be happy to
nave an income sufficient to require
him to pay It,
This new system of taxation will
shift the burden from the financially
weak to the financially strbAg.
A dollar Is a burden for the abso-
lutely poor to pay. But what Is a
dollar to the rich; or a pound to
the physically strong?
High tariff laws are burden to
the masses of the people, for the ben
eflt of the protected industries
The trust question is the natural
outgrowth of the tariff. Corporations
combine and take advantage of the
protection given by high tariff laws
A syStem of what might be called
legshzed robbery through the iniqui-
tous tariff and special privilege legis-
lation has gradually grown up under
continuous Republican rule until
many of the necessaries of life have
gone beyond the financial reach of
the man with average means.
But the Republicans are long on
bowling prosperity, and giving us
poverty.
The people have ceased to be dis
turbed by calamity howlers.
The Democrats got together and
stayed together, and their example at
that time has been extended to
democracy everywhere, and through
this united effort great things have
been accomplished. The Democrats
are together now on the passage of
this tariff bill, and expect to remain
SO until 1t is law upon the statute
books.
Men running for Office should say
what they mean, and mean what they
say, and when they have been sue
cessful they ought punctuaily and
scrupulously to carry out their prom
Uses.
The time has passed when any DO
lltlcal party can promise one thing
and then do another.
Some of our Republican friends
charge that the Democrats want to
destroy business. This is a prepos-
ferrous proposition and a thing incred-
IDLE. This is Democratic country
as well as II Republican country.
We believe with Thomas Jefferson
in equal and exact justice to all men,
and in equal rights to all and special
privileges to none; and we are not
going to be driven from that position.
Under the present tariff system al
most every manufactured article
made in the United States is sold in
foreign country cheaper than it is
sold to us at home. This is un-Dem-
ocratic and un-American.
Great effort has been exerted on
the part of the Republicans in an at
tempt to establish that the farmer
has been especially singled out in this
bill and Disseminated against.
They seem to think that because
they have fooled the farmer for so
many years in the belief that he was
being benefited by the tariff, which
was simply given him in order that
they might tax the things which he
must necessarily use upon the farm,
that they can continue to fool him
and regain his confidence by trying
to prejudice his mind against this
tariff bill.
The truth is, he will receive great