Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-01-12

strated how far our steel and wooden
and cotton mills can hold their own.
Up to date there have been no seri-
Gus consequences. Our steel manu-
facturers have lowered their prices
to a level that closes the door to
foreign products, although limited
amounts may find their way to the
coastal markets in cases of rising
prices at home or falling prices
abroad Fine cottons and woolens
may come in more freely, but our
manufacturers, aided by free raw
materials, are already giving good
account OF themselves; and foreign
manufacturers show a wise hesita-
ton about invading the Amrican
markets. Time is necessary for as
certaining the full effects of the new
tariff, but thus far at least there is
no cause for alarm. Profits have
been cut down, and a few obsolete
plants closed, but this might have
happened in any case.
There has been no financial legis-
lation of such vital Importance as
the present banking and currency
bill since the success of the sound
money campeign by the election OF
President Mckinley in 1896. The
new bill is a big step forward in
placing the United States in the
front ranks of international financial
leadership. At last we are to have
an elastic banking and currency sys-
TEN, fitted to the growing require
ments of the country, and giving the
advantage of Capitalization under
public control with a view to pre-
venting it's abuse by private inter-
ests. The Importance of this step
cannot be Immediately gauged.
Months, If not years, will be required
to work out its results and to amend
any minor defects in the new plan.
Suffice it to say that it will give the
country a centralized banking sys-
tenn and an elastic currency with a
sound basis; one capable Of rational
expansion or contraction according to
requirements, and one that will
prove a bulwark of safety in time OF
emergency or panic. It's value in
future will largely depend upon the
type of men on the regional reserve
board, and a heavy responsibility
falls upon the president in the Sc
lection of men of adequate ability
and character.
Another very important develop
ment which should tend to the re-
storation of business confidence IL
the attitude of President Wilson or
the trust question. The presiden
considers the Sherman law sufficien
for all practical purposes, because
| the supreme court has read reason
into the statute. He is consequent!
opposed to changes further than sup
Elementary legislation for clearin
up ambiguous points. Still anothe
event of the highest significance wa
the offer of the Bell Telephone Com
pany to voluntarily dissolve in obedi
ence to the law, demonstrating
more conciliatory spirit between tn
government and big business. Nc
nopoly has at last bowed to publ
opinion; and, if this policy Is cal
ried out in sincerity, there is ever
reason to believe that the dangerou
friction which has existed for veal
between the government and OF
great corporations will gradually di
appear. President Elliott OF II
New Haven road is another strikin
example OF the new policy, which
"the public be pleased" in place (
"the public be damned" This doC
not mean that the millennium is
sight by any means, but it does mea
that the blind selfishness of monol
oily, one of the prime causes of ho
tility to corporations as well as OF
of the prime incentives to goverl
ment ownership, is being eliminate
: and that more amicable relations b
tween corporations and the publ
will now be possible. The cleariI
Of the political and commercial a
mosphere in these respects will
much toward removing the shack
from business and stimulating a r
vival OF confidence. President w
son was undoubtedly sincere whit
. he said his policy was ito build
business on sound basis" and
him must be accorded the chief cred
!, in settling the three disquietil
problems OF tariff, currency al
trusts-whether settled on ba'
pleasing to everybody or not.
Still another problem Of the gref
est Importance which is approachii
y solution is the railroad question, I
d details OF which are too familiar
require repetition in this revie