The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-10-31

That old saying that circumstances
alter cases is not infrequently given
point At any rate it applies when II
comes to defending or criticising
tariff law. Every since the special
session of congress in 1909, when the
Payne -Aldrich law was passed, the
democratic politicians and publicists
of the country have insistently and
persistently declared that it was
largely responsible for the high cost
of living. They drummed into our
ears the iniquities of the law and fig
ured out in dollars and cents just how
much more schedule X and the other
outrageous schedules of that law in
creased the cost of necessaries to us.
1t was natural to infer that reduc-
ton in the schedules most bitterly
denounced would reduce the cost OF
the articles of food and clothing al
fected by the law. In fact many
ardent advocates of revision down.
ward of the tariff based their sole
argument and appeal on the effect
such a revision would have on the
high cost Of living.
Now we have the new tariff law in
operation. 1t is genuine and decided
reduction over the former law. Inc
cost of living has not been affected in
the least. 1t has shown no downward
tendency whatsoever. 1t is true that
sufficient time has not elapsed to
give the new tariff a fair trial, and
the mere fact that the living cost
has not dropped in so short time
proves nothing. But it Is significant
and not a little amusing to note that
| many of those democratic politicians
and publicists, who SO lately were
exercising all the ingenuity of their
logic and oratOry to prove that a
| protective tariff was the cause for
| the altitudinous cost of necessaries,
are now painfully and laborously ex-
planning that many other complicated
and intricately related factors than
| the tariff are responsible for the high
price off the things we must have in
| order that we may live. The warn
| ing was sounded by no less a per-
| sonage than our underpaid but thrifty
secretary of state when the bill was
signed that the public should not ex-
pect any decided or appreciable re-
duction in the cost of living to follow
the enactment of the law. The vice.
| president has added his warning to
the same effect, and others, less dis
tinguished in the ranks of democracy
but none the less ardent in support of
it's program, have done the same. They
all point other causes, which appar-
emily had no potency heretofore even
| though they have existed longer than
The protective tariff. Some have the
.emerity to hold out the hope that
| the fall in the cost of living will fol-
| low the enactment of the currency
| law, though their reasons why are not
| rs clear and explicit as they were
when predicting that happy event be-
| fore the passage of the present tariff
law.
This thing of arguing two ways on
| the same question has the appear
| ance both of Inconsistency and dis
honesty. 1t may be inconsistent, but
| it Is not necessarily dishonest. 1t is
more particularly human, for it is
| somewhat true that circumstances
| alter cases. The good democrats who
| are performing these forensic gym
lastics are for the most part perfect
ly sincere and honest partizans, but
they are, 1t must be admitted, alto
| gether partizan. In that, also, they
| are human, and this is one of the most
satisfying results of the whole tariff
turmoil. 1t proves that all these men
| who have devoted themselves SO un-
sparingly to the reformation of the
| country after all are mere human be-
ings like ourselves. They are thus
seen to be neither wiser nor bet
ter than we are, and this knowledge
ought to help us hereafter to more
correctly appraise the value of their
advise, the accuracy of their asser-
tons and the reasonableness of their
predictions.
| It would be we'll to remember, in
considering the question of currency
reform, that the gentlemen now most
insistent that certain party measure
is the one specific for many of our
economic ills, are the same whose
confident promises before the enact
ment of the present tariff law have
changed to elaborate explanations
why those promises are not likely to
be fulfilled. 1t is we'll to remember
that it is apt to happen in regard to
the currency as with the tariff that
circumstances alter cases.