The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-07
THE FARMER, OCTOBER 7, 1916

TT
 Europe are just naturally going to
 pitch in and ruin the United States
 Having no troubles of their own, they l are going to turn all their energies
 to manufacturing more goods than
 anybody wants and dumping them or
 the United States-somewhere in New l Jersey,I think. So MT. Hughes tells
 us, and MT. Robert Bacon. The rem l edy is plain. We must raise the tar
 if and keep prices up.
 It's this way, you see: In Europe
 some millions of the able-bodied men
 the workers - will be killed, and
 other millions crippled. That will | make labor scarce and therefore
 cheap; which will cut down the price
 of manufacturing: let us have a high
 tariff for the U. s. A.
 | Again, many manufacturing plants
 are destroyed: most of those not de-
 stroyed are making war munitions and 1 nothing else, they will have to have
 new machinery, that will tend to cut
 down cost of productions; green hands
 will have to be taught the business,
 which will further lower cost of pro-
 duction: All together, everybody up! | ''The United States is in danger, let | us have a high tariff to protect us against Europe, or the things we would
 like to buy will be cheap"
 Nor is that all. The war will have
 to be paid for. For generations to come capital in Europe will have to pay taxes at rates hitherto unheard Of
 That Will further lower manufactur- ing cost let us have a high tariff in America to protect us from calamity. The worst is to come. These sol diers. these common working people, after trench and shell-fire and bayo- net, may not fear the displeasure of employers-not abjectly. Should they | ask for a higher wage, they might | Git is conceivable) persist in that de-
 mand, though the very lord of the
 manor should frown. They might even = horrible thought - make so bold as to dodge the policeman's club. And all those considerations tend to
 make wages higher and so cut down l the cost of production; let us put the Republican party in power and enact
 a high tariff ere it be too late. When I contemplate the frightful possibility of buying pair of three dollar shoes for four dollars, instead | of paying five for them as at present, ] l tremble for my country; and at the prospect of being able to paint my
 house, I cannot keep back. the un-
 manly tears.
 There is something naive almost lovab1e, in this frantic appeal that we now make haste to raise the tariff lest
 we be overwhelmed by disaster; the l disaster of having the things we need cheap enough that we can afford to l buy them. Here is not attempt to mislead or deceive. This is simple and artless inability to realize that quite a few people are anxious to pay less
 and not more for the necessities of l life. They do not know that most of us have to do/ without things we need because we can't afford them.
 I am not speaking now of the hu- man monographs, who play what ever record is slipped on, but of our record-makers: MT. Hughes. who would be our President and our lead CT, and MT. Bacon, who aspired to represent our greatest State in the Senate, N
 The trouble with men like these is that they don't meet enough ignorant folk to learn the news. But they are bothI sincere and understandable. l Theyj really want a high tariff. They see plainly that high tariff will make money for the kind of people they
 meet and have always met; for their friends, associates and clients. They
 see plainly that, while those friends of theirs are to-day able to manufac-
 ture and sell goods at profit, they would get much greater profit from
 the prices they could charge under a high tariff. They are not for a high tariff because of the revenue from import duties which would be paid on imported goods; but because of the
 higher profits to be gained from goods made here. And they honestly ex- pect us to show exceeding joy for, the opportunity to pay those higher prices. When a man tells me, f1at-footed, that he is for a tariff on the goods he produces because it will put money in his pocket, that position is intelli-
 gible to me. It is not high motive, but it is human. And it is honest, in the sense that there Is no attempt to deceive. If he adds that in order to get votes enough to put a high tariff on his own product he is obliged to give "a high tariff on some articles not of his production-as few as possible articles he would really prefer to buy cheaper-that, position is also in- telligible. Grant the suppressed premise that a mans first duty is to
 seek his own profit, and the logic is | unassailable.
 But when a man informs me, with flashing eyes and with a thrill in his
 voice, that the very principle of the
 tariff is so wise and noble and good l that none but the wise and good and
 noble can comprehend it; that those lives are not altogether pure and love- ly can never hope to fathom the bles-