The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1915-05-22
WHY WILSON HAS LOST
POPULARITY


Mr.. La Toilette, of Wisconsin, has
been paying a visit of political inspec-
ton to parts of our interior states, and
he reports that Mr.. Wilson is not as
popular as when he was elected, al
though he may become so by 1916. Mr..
Wilson was not an extremely popular
candidate in 1912, when he fell short
OF a majority Of votes by some two
millions. Nor was be so last fall, when
a Republican would have been elected
il the choice of a President had been
before the people. Mr.. La Toilette is
not an unfriendly judge, for there is
no public man who calls himself a Re
publican who differs from the Presi
dent so little on the main points of
policy. The language he uses about the
tariff implies that that which bears
the name of Payne was a mass of
enormities, which Wilson did well to
overthrow, and that he vas to blame
ehiey for showing a spirit Of eompro
mise in dealing with it.
Mr.. Wilson is less popular than
when he was elected just because he
did not observe his pledges in the mat
ter of the tariff. He did not conceal
his purpose to make changes in it, and
everybody knew that those changes
would be a downward revision" in
the direction of free trade. But he as
sured the audiences he addressed that
they need have no apprehension of his
dealing radically or drastieally with
the protective duties, for ono honest
business would be hurt. Yet with the
passage of his measure, drafted under
his own direction and forced through
Congress by his pressure, almost every
manufacturing industry of the country
has suffered. Idle mills and factories,
unemployed workmen and reduced ex
ports (while imports inereased), were
the phenomena attending his dealings
with our financial policy. When he
heard from all quarters of these things,
he seems to have fallen back on the
metaphysical distinction between phe-
nomena and reality, and assured the
country that there was no substance in
all this-that it was a matter Of psy
chology, nothing worse.
While a protective tariff IS under
discussion its enemies nave the skill
to fasten attention on the capitalist )
side of the case, and to make it APP
pear merely a matter of employers
profits. And the mismanagement Of the
at Washington, by bringing !
thither a body of employers and no
workingmen, has e~o-operated with this :
juggling trick. The new tariff goes
through and its advocates foretell the (
arrival of the age of gold. Then the
w~orkingmen s part of the business {
comes to the front. Myriads, growing !,
millions, are out of work. The +
are at their wits ends to tell i
what to do with them and indulge in
all sorts of foolish experiments to
the bread line and keep wo- 7
men and children from starving. This /
is just what happened when the Viii
SON Underwood tariff went into opera
ton, and while some of our manufac-
lures have revived under the special
conditions created by the war, it is
just what is happening still in a great !
of localities.
No wonder that Mr.. Underwood, the n
second author of that bill, proposes a
what would amount to a boycott of 7
imported goods. He urges his country 3
men to buy things "made in Ameri t
ca" In this be follows the example Y
set by Jefferson after the second war +
with Great Britain. He says that he +
to buy any foreign article if he a
could get an American substitute !
which decently answered has needs. !,
Theory made Jefferson a free trader in
his youth; experience made him a pro :
teetionist in his mature years.-Robert {
Ellis Thompson in the Irish World. 6
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