, 1922-10-26
Same Old Clabtrob.

\ CRITICISM of the newly enacted protective
l. tariff, Democratic publicity mediums and cam
paign speakers are offering nothing new.
The violent denunciations and exagzcrations
which are made by the free trade outfit to4ny have
been made by free traders every time a protective
tariff was under consideration.
The last protective tariff to be enacted was the
I'ayne- Aldrich law. 1t was before congress during
the summer of 1909, passing the senate July s. of
that year and becoming a law August 8, 1909. Dur
the months it was under consideration the editorial
columns of Democratic newspa pers were filleJ
with savage onslaughts upon the bill and woeful
predictions as to results should the bill become the
law.
As a sample here are some of the expressions
from the New York World of that day:
1T is safe to say that this bill means nothing
less than ten billion dollars in taxation in one way
or another"
"Moloch himself was BIZ. little more cruel than
this modern Mammon of protection"
Cost of living will GO up % per cent" I
Tariff burdens are making the public round
shouldered."
man intellect the struggling people of this country
"Thc bill is a blow at the American home. the
American breakfast table, and the American
woman"
"No greater or more unjust burden in the guise
of tariff was ever laid upon a free people than that
in the proposed bill"
"To the American consumer the tariff bill dou.
.bles the price of one of the prime necessities of
'life-sugar.r
THE tariff on wool will make clothing higher"
Clothing will be increaed in price by % per cent
to 100 per cent
Does not this sound natural? Are not these
same charges being made today with scarcely any
Whatever variation there is, is il. the
direction of moderation. AS, for example. the
World charged that the Payne-Aldrich bill would
increase the cost of living ten billion dollars. This
is three times as much as the free traders claim
the present tariff will increase the cost of living.
Yet, as everyone knows, the Payne-Aldrich law did
not increase the cost of living at all. Neither will
the present law.
Mr.. Babson recently raised the alarm that the
present tariff law will increase the cot of living
10 per cent. Mr.. Babson is. very conservative as
ccmpa red with the New York Worlds prediction in
1909 that the protective tariff would increase the
cost of living % per cent.
We are hearing today the same story as was
then told in the World about the protective tariff
being a blow at the American breakfast table, rob
bling the American woman, raising the price of
to be a certain forerunner of a rise in the price of
clothing.
There was no justification for any of these wild
charges. The Payne-Aldrich tariff did not add
ten billion dollars in taxation. 1t did not double
the price of sugar. 1t did not increase the price of
clothing. 1t did not burden the consumers of the
country. 1t did not increase the tax on the working.
mans breakfast table. 1t did not work to the in
jury of the American woman. 1t did not hurt a
single American home. 1t did not make anybody
poorer.
P~ayne-Aldrich bill we're political claptrap. which
is resorted to by free traders in every campaign
in which the tariff is an issue. Democrats are
fond of denouncing in advance of its operation
every protective tariff law. But as soon as it is in
operation they proceed quickly as possible to forget
their predictions and foundations. They are al
ways pointing out what they say they fear a pro