The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-08-13
N hope IN
Commission PLAN
MOI IL That Way Will 1t Be Pos
sifls to Take the Tariff Out
of Politics.

COMMISSION anu luuS W 'oNN wv
Tariff out of polite" always
~ p announced in this connection
4baf eminent BUSINESS men are giving
fheIr names and money to the under
.fsksug. The ease with which the
sub,ecr is exploited is convincing
,-.Jy5Df pf the earnest desire of Ameri-
can business men that the Tariff
g7Uasfiun should be taken out of poll
mes But students of history know
Thai me Tariff has been very much
IN poliiics-indeed, has been the
u1aIu and most constant bone of con-
tention between political parties in
anss-ics for nearly hundred years.
Originally both parties in this
country were Protectionist. The
F'res-Trade agitation was made pos
sibfe ty the insistence and wealth of
foTStgn manufacturers and importers
ant the rise OF the sectional slavery
Controversy eliminating in the Civil
War So long as Southern States
and Senator's and Representatives to
Washington, not on any real issues
of rne present. but on ancient preju-
siices of 1S2S-1S61, and so long as
rae agents and representatives of Eu-
1ropean manufacturers enjoy easy ac-
cess TO the American press and there
ny exert an influence on American
politics, SO long will the Tariff ques-
ton Ire IN politics to stay and hun
Sired expert. non-partisan Tariff COM
missions cannot possibly prevent it.
There is an irreconcilable antagon-
Tor revenue and Protection and Tar
IN for revenue only, which is to say,
IN practical effect, Free-Trade. A
non partisan" Tariff commission is
Il grotesque misnomer. A bipartisan
1Aere could be on which Protection
ISIS and Free-Traders were both rep
--esented. But what would such
commission be but a body exactly
like The present ways and means Com
Inillee or the Committee on Finance
of Congress? Those are both bipar-
tfsan organizations composed of Re-
pEniicans and Democrats, Protection
ISIS and Tariff-for-revenue-only men.
whose principles are soutterly at var
rance that they never have agreed on
'khE shaping of a Tariff policy and
never can. When the Protectionists
are in power the PrOtectionist ma
iority of the committee makes up a
Tariff bill. When the Free-Traders
are i'm power the same work is per-
formed by the revenue only majority.
In ussE1hsr case is the other side-the
minority side-consulted, not because
~ my unfaIness or discourtesy, but
because it is tacitly acknowledged
that oil and water will not mix, and
that Protectionists and Free-Traders
sitting down together to write Tar
m hill would produce a result wor-
Thy Of bedlam.
TAs Tariff can be taken out of
American policies in one way, and |
that alone by popular defeat Of the
Free-Trade party so decisive that the |
Tariff question was settled nearly |
twenty years ago. A majority of the |
people are and long have |
been believers in the Protective prin-
eiple. President Wilson was elected |
on an anti-PrOtectionist platform, but
that platform commanded the support
OF only minority of the qualified
voters of the United States. Mr..
Wilson became president by a politi-
cal accident, which temporarily di-
yided the Pretectionist party into two
giligs. Dne Progressive. one Republi-
can, both of them believing in the
Pro- ectionist policy, as their plat
k0r7ns Enthusiastically declared. These
two Protectionist parties together
President Wilson's par
~ 10y majority of upward of a mil
lion. And at least in the Northern
States it is thorough
~ well understood by all observers
81 political conditions that a great
probably a great majority
Df those who habitually vote the
ticket do not believe in
'ree-Trade or anything like it, In
New England, for example, the most
successful Democratic party leaders
.a-rf frankly described themselves as
On the other hand there are many
party leaders in the South, and some
a the North who are sincerely op-
,osed in principle or by force of ha-
vi TO fhs'Pfotective system. Siding
sifh Them against an adequate Pro tt
ective system is the Whole Influence i
seIlded by Eurobeah mshufaeturers1 !