The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1913-04-24
PROTECTION OF PROFITS"

A new phrase has been added to the
fits" This happy expression appears
with frequency In the report of the
ways and means committee formally
submitting the Underwood bill to the
house with the approval of the demo-
cratic majority The idea intended to
be conveyed is that the American
farmers, manufacturers and producers
of raw material are making an abnor-
maly large profit in which the cost
of production plays no part, that the
profit is arbitrarily fixed through the
agency Of the protective tariff. In
other words, instead of protecting
American industries and American
wage earners, the protective tariff is
in reality nothing more than pro-
lection to monopolists in extorting
enormous profits from the people de-
priving them of the benefit of compe-
tition As remedy the Underwood
bill proposes:
ITO introduce in every line of in
dustry a competitive tariff basis pro-
viding for substantial amount of
portation to the end that no con-
Germ shall be able to feel that 1t has
a monopoly of the home market gain
ed other than through the fact that it
is able to furnish better goods at low
er prices than others"
| 1t is hard to read such stuff as this
and preserve ones good temper. Men
still young wildly recall the same
sophistry that was INDUCED in back
in the '90s when the democratic party
undertook to reform the revenue sys-
ruin that followed their work is a
nightmare which no one likes to re-
call, while the possibility of its repeti-
ton makes one shudder with dreful
apprehensions. Above all other bene-
fits to be derived from the Underwood
bill. its trainers point to the certainty
that it will reduce the cost of living.
and the report of the majority dwells
with great force upon lowering of
prices by the opening Of our market to
the products of the world and placing
our own producers in free competition
with the foreigners. There has been
so much talk about the high cost of
living that the democrats make the
reduction of the cost of living the first
and foremost benefit of their proposed
tariff system. But there Is significant
silence on the wage question. Grant
that the democratic contention Is cor
rect and that the Underwood bill will
reduce the cost of living, does any
sane man believe that the prices of
all commodities that make up the liv-
ing of the people can be reduced. and
at the same time the present high
standard of wages remain undis-
turbed?
Give us rest on the high cost of
living. we grant that the Underwood
bill will reduce it. But how about the
wage Garner. will the prices of every
thing he buys go down while his
wages remain the same? If not how
will 1t affect him? If 1t was merely
n reduction in his wages correspond
ing to the reduction in the cost Of liv-
ing that confronted him. he might
stand it, but that is the small part OF
1t. Free trade means the supplanting
of American products in the home
market by foreign products. and as
consequence n curtailment Of the out
put Of American plants or total sus-
pension The wage Garner will there
fore be not only confronted with
reduction of wages. but with actual
idleness and no wages. And this
without taking into consideration at
this time the decline and losses In
land prices and all other kinds OF
property.