Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-12-17


will be and should be framed by con-
eress and approved by the president.
1t is an admitted fact, however,
| that, beneficial or injurious in gener-
al way, no tariff ever framed has been
free from inequalities and inconsis-
tencies. The main cause of these de-
fects lies In the fact that the informa.
ton on which tariff laws have been
based has been furnished for the most
part by men who were themselves
either directly to be benefited by the
imposition of duties or directly to be
benefited by the removal of duties.
One set of such men on one side gave
us the repudiated schedule X. The
other has been successful in the de-
struction Of American steamship lines
for the benefit of foreign lines.
Moreover. the time at the disposal
of any congressional committee dur
| ing it's lifetime has been and must be
| insufficient for proper consideration
(, of the thousands of questions involved
in measure affecting every phase of
production, transportation and ex-
change of nation consisting, with it's
dependencies, of hundred million
souls.
1t is proposed that an impartial body
of men, versed in industry and COM
merce, shall be appointed as per-
manent body by the president. 1t is
proposed that this commission shall
not only give hearings to interested
parties who may have information on
this subject which they believe should
receive attention at the hands of the
national government, but that the
commission shall conduct original in
vestigation of business conditions as
affected by tariff law and report to the
government and to the public neither
opinions nor arguments, but facts.
It may be objected that a president
could not be trusted to appoint impair
tial men. If this objection were sound
lit could be met by causing the terms
| of Office of the commissioners to ex-
pire in succession and not as a body.
Since the discovery of anesthetics
the most miraculously helpful discov-
! cries in the world of medicine have
| been in the application Of rays OF light
to injury or to disease. One set OF
rays demonstrates the exact location
Iof deleterious matter, Though hidden
in the remotest recesses OF the hui
man frame, and accomplishes not al
deviation merely but permanent cure
by making possible the removal of the
cause of the disease. The application
of another set of rays cures one OF
the most loathsome diseases known,
for the germs that cause it simply
cannot live in the intensity of that
kind Of light.
| We propose in the future to let in
the light on the sore spots in the tariff.
Not to the body physical adone, but
in the body polite light means life and
health.
The permanency of such an investi-
eating body is the more necessary be-
cause of the swiftly changing business
conditions never so swiftly changing
as now which make the truth Of yes
terday the error of today.
| An immediate need Of the nation is
revenue. The present scale Of duties
20 years ago would probably have
produced surplus even above our
present increased needs, but we pro-
duce today in the United States so
| many articles that once were largely
imported that schedules that once
would have yielded ample returns now
WELD little or nothing
Editors Note-This is the second
article by Mr.. Guild on this subject
The third and last will appear on this
| page in few days. The first article
was published in The Courier Dec.
I12.]