West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1915-12-23

Republican national committee. ac-
cording to a poll made by the Wash
tngton correspondent OF The World.
believe the tariff will be the princi-
pal issue in 1916
To the Republican organization the
tariff is naturally an appealing issue.
because the industries that demand
eXtortionate protection will be the
only source OF Republican campaign
fund next year. But how much OF a
popular issue is the tariff likely TO be.
and how sharply are the rank and file
OF the two parties likely to divide?
Until the war has ended and the
belligerent nations have begun their
economic reconstruction, there can be
no intelligent revision of the tariff. IL
Elihu Root, Senator Galliger, Sena-
tor Lodge, Senator Penrose. Joseph
G. Cannon. James X. Mann and Sena-
tor Smoot were shut up I'm n room and
asked TO prepare tariff bill which
would meet all the industrial and rev
enue needs OF the United States after
the war. they would be helpless. Sem
ator Underwood. Speaker Clark and
all the Democrats who helped frame
the Underwood Simmons tariff would
be equally helpless. Nobody knows;
nobody can know
There is a foolish superstitution nre-
valent that after the war some OF the
belligerents. particularly Germany.
Will dump vast quantities of manufac-
tured products at very low prices up-
on the American market. That ia all
guesswork. IL is much more plausi-
BILE to assume that the great losses OF
men and the great burden of debt
from the effects OF which every belli-
gerent must suffer. will make Il more
difficult than ever for them to com
pete with well-organized American in
dustries which have gained a tremen-
dous impulse while Europe was burn
ing up its capital and slaughtering its
workers. This too. however, is mere
assumption.
Before the tariff can be revised in
telligently again. the American people
will have to discard most OF their ma
rochial theories about imports and
face the issue frankly as a great aues-
tion in world economics. The United
States is now I'm a position TO hold n
commanding position in the worlds
trade, but 1t will not hold that posi-
tion long IL IL attempts to impose pro-
hibitive duties on foreign imports.
Discriminating tariffs are a game that
TWO can play at Great Britain, Ger
many. France, Russia. Italy and Japan
can erect tariff walls as easily as we
can. and unquestionably will IL we try
to close the American markets tn
them. 1t is only by trading with us
that they can buy OF us. Even Great
Britain will have to revise her reve-
nue. system after the war I'm order to
obtain money to pay interest on her
debt, and in the course of such revis-
ion IL will be an easy matter to deal
a smashing blow to American indus
try.
American manufacturers can retain
their trade supremacy IL they are wise.
but they will not retain IL If the Uni
ted States by excessive tariffs tries TO
hog the trade Of the world That is
the surest way 10 lose H. All the
tarih laws ever enacted by Congress
are now so much waste paper, Not
one of them Is worth q cent as a guide
to the revision OF the tariff that must
Inevitably result from the economic
readjustment that must follow the
war. But Of all the political elements
mat are unfit to be trusted with tariff |
revision, the most unfit is the element
that believes in monopoly schedules
for the sake of monopoly schedules-
New York World.