Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-04-10

are to be to which they will be reQuir-
ed to adjust themselves. 1t is clear
to the whole country that the tariff
duties must be altered. They must be
changed to meet the radical alteration
in the conditions OF our economic life
which the country has witnessed with
in the last generation. While the
whole face and method Of our indus
trial aud commercial life were being
changed beyond recognition the tariff
schedules have remained what they
were before the change began or have
moved in the direction they were Civ
en- when no large circumstance Of our
Industrial development was what 1t Is
today. Our task is to square them
with the actual facts. The sooner that
is done the sooner we shall escape
from suffering from the facts and the
sooner our men of business will be
free to thrive by the law of nature
1.-THE nature Of free business, instead
of by the law of legislation and arti.
fetal arrangement
How Tariff Has Grown.
We have seen tariff legislation wan
der very far field in our day-very far
indeed from the field in which our
prosperity might have had normal
growth and stimulation. No one who
looks the facts squarely in the face or
knows anything that lies beneath the
surface Of action can fail to perceive
the principles upon which recent tariff
legislation has been based. We long
ago passed beyond the modest notion
of protecting the industries OF the
country and moved boldly forward to
the idea that they were entitled to the
direct patronage Of tho government,
For long time-a time so long that
the men now active in public policy
hardly remember the conditions that
preceded tive have sought In our
tariff schedules to give each group Of
manufacturers or producers what they
themselves thought that they needed
In order to maintain n practically ex-
elusive market MS against the rest OF
the world. Consciously or unconscious
ly we have buih up a set Of privileges
and exemptions from competition be-
hind which 1t was easy by any. even
the rrudest, forms Of combination to
organize monopoly, until at last moth
ing is normal. nothing Is obliged to
stand the tests of efficiency and econo-
my. m our world Of big business. but
everything thrives by concerted ar
rangement, Only new principles OF
action will save us from a final hard
; capitalization Of monopoly and = COM
plete loss OF the Influences that quick
en- enterprise and keep independent en-
ergy alive.
Must Abolish Privilege.
1t is plain what those principles must
, be. We must abolish everything that
bears even the semblance Of privilege
or of any kind Of artificial advantage
and put our business men and pro-
ducers under the stimulation or a con-
slant necessity 10 be efficient, econom'
jcal and enterprisiny masters OF com
petitlVe supremacy, better workers and
merchants than any in the world
Aside from the duties laid upon arti'
q Giles which we do not and probably
: cannot produce, therefore, and the
duties laid upon luxules and merely
t for the sake of the revenues they yield
l the object OF the tariff duties hence
forth laid must be effective compei
ton, the whetting Of American wits by
contest with the wits of the rest of the
world.
1t would be unwlse to move toward
this end headlong, with reckless haste