Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1916-07-07
Personal Prattle e esa% =; ss Hs.s,
John j. Carney
Contributing Editor

the House by reclamation, and which
created tribunal to arbitrate and
do justice between the public and
great corporations; it makes no men,
ton of the Seamen's Bill, which pass.
ed without an opposition vote record
ed against it, nor of the Alaska Rail-
road Bill, which provides for the
opening of that great country. One
finds no denunciation of the Agricul-
tural Extension Act, which helps in.
crease the productiveness of Ameri-
can farms; no fault is expressed with
the Rural Credits Act, which extends
banking facilities to the farmers, in
fact, so necessary and praiseworthy
has been the entire program of the
Democratic administration that even
the expert critics engaged in framing
that platform were compelled to sill
ence-eXcept as to the tariff.
Tariff Bugaboo Is Dead
The tariff as political issue is dead.
The three congressional elections
since 1910. prove it. The failure of
the Republican party to fulfill its tar
if reduction promise of it's platform
in 1908, was the chief instrument in
the removal of that party from power
four years later. Yet, in order to pro-
vide funds from tariff beneficiaries for
the campaign, the party seems to
have been forced into denunciation
Of the Democratic law, which has
proved its merit by the income tax
provision, and by the demonstration
of the fact that the prosperity Of the
nation does not depend upon tariff
schedules. This fact is so generally
recognized that the inference that its
presence in the Republican platform
is for financial effect seems amply
justified. 1t was fully recognized by
Mr.. Jacob H. Schiff, prominent New
York banker and life long Republican,
who in an address delivered at BAN
quet of the New York Republican Club
in January last said:
81 want to explain that nothing can
stop that great prosperity we now
have except a renewal of the tariff
agitation in the next campaign. Stand
ing here on holy Republican ground
say without fear or favor if you re-
new in the next presidential cam.
paign the tariff agitation of the past,
if you threaten the country and show
it you want a renewal Of special pri-
vilege and high protection, the people
will have none of it. The people have
learned the workmen and the farm
ers have learned and they can not
be misled any longer. l do not say
that because l love the Republican
party less but because l love it more.
My heart is for the Republican party
but my common sense makes me a
Democrat"
In this region, the Democratic tar
iff law has been held by some of our
Republican friends to have been re-
sponsible for the depression of the
lumber industry in the past few years,
in the face of the known fact that
this industry was languishing long be-
fore the enactment Of this law. The
production of lumber in the United
States in 1912 was 7,5O0000,000 feet
less than in 1909, and in the same
period the production of shingles fell
off 1859, 100000, all under the benefici-
ent Payne-Aldrich tariff law, while the
demand for lumber today is greater
than ever.
In looking over the field of issues
present, one Is struck with the awk
ward position the Republican party
would be in should tn european war
cease, and the Mexican trouble be ad.
justed before the November elections.