Gilpin observer., 1916-01-06
THE TARIFF As AN ISSUE

THE TARIFF AS AN ISSUE
A majority of the members Of the
Republican National Committee, ac-
cording to poll made by the Wash
ington corresponds mt OF The World,
believe the tariff will be the princd-
pal issIe in 1916
To the Republican organization the
tariff is naturally an appealing is
sue, because the industries that de-
mand extortionate protection Will be
the emily source o. Republican cam
paign fund next year. But how much
Of popular issue is the tariff like
ly to be, and how sharply are the
rank and the file OF the two parties
likely to divide?
Until the war has ended and the
belligerent nations have begun their
economic reconstruction, there can be
no Intelligent rev sion of the tariff.
II Elihu Root, Senator Gallinger, Sen
ator Lodge, Senator Penrose, Joseph
G. Cannon, James r. Mann and Sen
ator Smoot were shut UP in a room
and asked to prepare a Tariff Bill
which would meet all the industrial
and revenue needs of the United
States after the war, they would be
helpless. Senator Underwood, Speak
er Clark and all the Democrats who
helped frame the Underwood-Sim-
mons tariff would be equally help
less. Nobody knows; nobody can
know.
T ere is a foolish superstition pre-
valent that after the war some of
the belligerentss particularly Ger
many, will dump the vazt quantities OF
manufactured products at very low
prices upon the American market.
That is all guesswork. 1t is much
more plausible to assume that the
great losses of men and the great
burden of debt, frcm the effects Of
which every bellig srent must suffer,
will make it more difficult than ever
for them to compete with well-or-
ganized American industries which
have gained a tremendous impulse
while Europe was burning up its
capital and slsughtering its workers.
This too, however, is mere assump-
ton.
Before the tariff can be revised
inteligently again, the American peo-
pie will have to discard most of their
parochial theories about imports and
face the issue frankly as great
question in world economics. The
United States is now in position to
hold commanding position in the
worlds trade, but it will not hold
that position lorg if it attempts to
impose prohibitive duties on foreign
imports. Discriminating tariffs are a
game that two can play at. Great
Britain, Germany, France, Russia,
as easily as we can, and unquestion-
ably will II we try to close the Amer.
lean markets to item. 1t is only by
trading with us that they can buy of
us. Even Great Britain will have to
revise her revenue system after the
war in order to obtain money to pay
interest on her debt, and in the course
Of such revision it will be an easy
matter to deal a smashing blow to
American industry.
American manufacturers can retain
their trade supremacy If they are
wise, but they will not retain 1t il
the United States by excessive tar
ifs tries to hcg tie trade of the
world. That is the surest way to
lose 1t. All the tariff laws ever en-
acted by congress are now so much
waste paper. Not one of them Is
worth cent as a guide to the re-
vision Of the tariff that must newt
ably result from the war. But of all
the political elements that are unfit
to be trusted with tariff revision, the
most unfit is the element that be-
lieves in monopoly schedules for the
sake Of monopoly schedules.-N. Y.
World