Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-18
PRESENT PROSPERITY
SMEARED WITH BLOOD
TContinued from First Page.1


last long and that we will soon be
back on a peace basis of doing busi-
ness. Wnen that day comes we Will
find ourselves confronted with the
problem of doing business under the
Wilson tariff. Every well-informed
businessman knows that before this
war broke out we had gathered con-
siderable downward momentum in the
business world under the Wilson
tariff; that had it not been for the
war we would by this time have been
fiat on our industrial backs because
of the Wilson tariff; yet the Wilson
administration which gave us this
tariff is proclaiming that the war and
not the Wilson Tariff caused the acute
business troubles of recent months
and that If it were not for the war
prosperity would be with us in greater
abundance than it is. There never
was a more absolutely false doctrine
and If the European war. ends before
the Wilson tariff is changed we will
find ourselves in a short time, facing
the same conditions that existed when
the war broke out, facing and
struggling with the same tariff prob
lens.
AS to the Wilson Tariff.
"In place of being made by experts
on the subject, by men capable of
framing a tariff law along scientific
and reciprocal lines, it was made, as
all our other tariffs have been made,
| by politicians along political lines.
During the last thirty years we
have had at least five revisions of the
tariff and several attempts at revi-
sion-practically a continuous per
formance of tariff tinlSering for
politics only, with the result that no
body has been satisfied. business has
been periodically upset and millions
of workers have often been in sore
distress We have never had and
never shall have, under existing con-
ditions, a fair and properly balanced
| tariff schedule. What we must have
is a permanent expert nonpartisan
"a number of efforts have been
made for tariff boards and tariff COM
missions, both temporary and per-
manent, and numerous bills have
been introduced. None of these bills,
however, has given the proposed COM
mission the latitude and the power II
must have If the country is to re-
ceive the relief and benefits 1t so sore
lily needs. Generally speaking, bills
have simply provided for commits
| sion to study the question, and to
speak when 1t was spoken to-" where
as power of initiative should be given,
also power to hear complaints and to
make reports of recommendations.
| If we are to nave a change in the
method of tariff-making that Is
worthy of our day and generation, we
must have q nonpartisan Tariff Com
mission, the personne1 of which will
command the full confidence of the
people, and it must be given authority
and facilities to deal with the subject
III 1if
sentiment will surely see to it that the
recommendations of the Commission
are followed by Congress
"The Commission should be a sort
of Tariff Court, to which the people
of any industry may at any time ap-
ply; and upon demonstrating thai
Injustice has been done and that re-
lief is necessary, steps can be taken
to have the matter promptly acted on
by Congress.
Under the Constitution, Congress
cannot delegate the enactment ot
tariff rates to a Commission. 1t can
Land should, however. delegate to such
Commission general supervision over
the preparation of tariff schedules
and Congress should be guided by the
expert advice that such Commission
would be able to give. Congress has
the power to wholly disregard the
Recommendations of such a Commits.
sion, and absolutely ignore 1t; but as
members of Congress would undoubt-
edly find such a course unpopular
there would be little likelihood OF
their doing so.
AS To Merchant Marine.
"The present difficulty of trans
Iporting goods to other countries, be-
tcause of the war, makes the need o1
American owned ships more apparent
than ever. We are indulging in much
bombastic talk to the effect that New
York city is speedily to become the
financial center of the world because
impossible so long as Europe ha.
practically all the ships with which
to carry the goods, has the large in
dustrial organizations with which t.
economically manufacture and dis
tribute the goods, and has the navie:
with which to protect their great ship
ping interests.
You gentlemen are all familiar
with the confusion now existing II
connection with our shipping inter
ests because of the La Toilette law
you are familiar with the efforts made
last winter by Wilson and McAdoC
to establish a government-owned mer'
chant marine, and you are aware tha
the present administration apparently
is still determined to push this lattei
idea again next winter. At the very
time when American owned and oper'
ated ships could be of greater value
than ever before in extending the
foreign commerce of this country, we
find ourselves confronted with the
confusion and uncertainty of the La
Toilette bill and with the present ad
| mi nj strationia determination IN piV(