Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1909 — CONGRESSMAN KORBLY’S VIEW. [ARTICLE]

CONGRESSMAN KORBLY’S VIEW.

The fight over the tariff bill has now been transfered to the senate, Indiana will likely be conspicious in.the debates, as it la announced that Senator Beveridge is going to be active on tho Republican side and it is known that Senator Shively will uphold the Democratic view with great ability and enthusiasm. Senator Shively has mastered the tariff question as few men have. During the last campaign the tariff speeches made by him and John W. Kern were model expositions of the Democratic party’s position.

"You may have noticed," Senator Shively said In an Interview a few days ago, "that the word economy has practically disappeared in late years from the vocabulary of the Government. Recently we have Tieard some sporadic protests in Congress, but no warnings have come from the White House. It is a notorious fact that we are spending an enormous and dangerous amount of money. In 1861 the per capita cost of government was 32; now it is $6, not including the interest on War bonds or the money paid for pensions. Usually the growth of a business concern, privately and capably managed, is accompanied by economies in production. The reverse is true with the Government of the United States. A little $5,000 appropriation by Congress is made for some obscure and seemingly innocuous purpose. Year by year the appropriation grows until there is a regular department with an army of clerks, and, perhaps, a new and costly building.”

When the State Board of Education meets again on April 22 to oonsider the matter of making contracts for school books they doubtless will remember that every change made in the text books means a lot of extra expense to the people who have children in the public schools. No change should be made unless the books now in use is unfit or the price unfair. The State Board of Education must stand between the juggling and joeking publishers and agents who have no interest in the matter except to crowd another fellow’s book out and their own in. There is general confidence that the state board will do the proper thing. Governor Marshall and State Superintendent Aley are members of the board by virtue of their offices and they have been close enough to the people to know what the public sentiment is on the school book question. The legislature last winter refused to take from the state board the power to make contracts for text books but the matter was so much discussed that the action of the board to be taken on present proposals will be scrutinized rather closely.

Replying to a letter from E. C. Atkins & Co., of Indianapolis concerning the Payne tariff bill, Charles A. Korbly, representative in congress from the Indianapolis district, has written a letter of which the following is a part: “Allow’ me to say that 1 am not a protectionist in any sense of the word and that 1 made my campaign by declaring myself on this question with all the insistence and energy I could use. I note with considerable interest what you say concerning the price of saws and the changes that will be made necessary if the rates in the Payne bill are adopteed. “I am not one of those who believe that wealth flows from legislation or wise administration. I believe that legislation can, and in truth does, interfere with prosperity. I believe that the tariff is a tax. I believe that taxation is a burden, but that it is a necessary evil; that it is never a blessing, no matter what its guise, and that the measure of the justice of a tax is the equality of its burden and the needs of the government, economically administered. "I believe, therefore, that the tariff Is excusable as a revenue producer, but not otherwise. To levy a tariff for any other purpose Is a violation of the rights of property and natural rights of man,

which rights the government can not give and can not take away.”