The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-06-29
THE TARIFF QUESTION
IS A MORAL ISSUE
EDUCATION AND COMFORT AS
WELL AS FINANCIAL CON.
DlTIoN is INVOLVED.
Clos Angeles Republican,

The tariff is a moral issue, and fail
ure to recognize it as such is a colos-
sal political blunder The effort to
as taking sordid view Of political
issues, shows a lack of comprehension
of what is vital for the welfare of the
American people.
Military preparedness Is but one
phase, and minor phase, of that pre-
paredness which is essential for the
safety, happiness and ell-being of
the people of the United States. GEN
uine Americanlsm fits its expression
not merely in assertion of loyalty to
the flag, but in acts which show gen.
uine loyalty to the interests of Am
erica in times of peace as we'll as In
war.
Basis of Prosperity.
The tariff is a moral question be-
cause 1t is at the basis of American
prosperity, A child labor law is sup
posed to involve a moral question be-
cause it affects the education and ply
steal health of future generations. In
no less degree, and sometimes in far
greater degree, the tariff affects not
only the education but the physical
well being of our citizens. Following
the enactment of democratic tariff
pressions which made it impossible for
millions of American people to prop
erly feed, clothe and educate their
children. 1t became necessary for
parents to send their children into
private employment in order to sup
| plement the meager earnings of the
| parent, which, in normal times, under
a protective tariff, would have been
entirely adequate.
To cut off a mans right hand is a
crime but it is, from moral stand
point, no less a crime to cut off one
half his earning power, thereby de-
priving himself and his family of the
normal results of his toll.
A Form of Slavery.
Slavery involves a moral question,
but since we have had repeated de-
monstrations that free trade policy
means industrial depression and the
accumulation of individual and public
debt, and since a debtor Is to large
extent slave to the creditor, and par
ticularly an intellectual slave, the tariff
question, which has such large in
fluence upon industrial status of our
citizens, is a moral question differing
in character but not much in the de-
gree from the question of physical
slavery itself.
During the deplorable periods when
democratic free trade laws were in
full force, American business men
were deprived of opportunity for ac-
tivity and American laboring men
were forced into idleness. We had al
exhibition of economic disaster that
was more appalling though not so i'm
pressive because less tragic, than any
catastrophe in the history of the Unit
ed States, not excepting the Chicago
and San Francisco fires.
Industrial Treason.
To break down the walls of our for
| tifications in time of war to connive
with our enemies to admit them to our
shores, is treason as defined by the
constitution. From moral standpoint
it is treason to the American people to
enact a law which breaks down our
fertilization against foreign industrial
invasion and permits the foreign pro-
Queer to rob our people of the mar
ket to which they are entitled.
The tariff is a moral question and
| is so recognized by the American
people. 1t was this that brought the
progressives back into the republican
party. There is much difference of
opinion among republicans upon near
ly all other issues but there is no diff
| ference upon the principle of q pro-
| tective tariff. We all recognize the
moral duty of the government to pro-
tect it's citizens against physical and
mental suffering, economic waste, and
the idleness and crime that follow the
enactment of a free trade law.