Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1912 — NEWS FROM NATIONAL CAPITOL [ARTICLE]

NEWS FROM NATIONAL CAPITOL

'By Clyde H. Tavener, Special Correspondent for the Jasper County Democrat.;). j Washington, D, C., December 27 —There is one way, and one way only, for the Democrats to remain in power ; by giving the i>eople after' election what they promised before election. The people don’t want ex-i fuses; they want deeds. This is Speaker Champ Clark's idea of what the democratic party must do to make good and to be retained in power. “If there there is anything I be- 1 lieve in strongly,” said Mr. Clark, “it is that promises made to win 1 an election should be religiously carried out after the election is won.’ i “Men should say what they mean and mean what they say; and they should speak the plain language of the plain people s o that all can understand. The voters of the land have a right to be treated honestly, candidly, fairly and courageously. They are entitled to that square degl of which 1 we hear so much and see so. little. “Robert J. Walker’s report on the tariff remains to this day the greatest paper on that subject. In it he laid down, this general principal ‘The highest rates should be on luxuries; the lowest or none at all on the necessaries of life.’ 'That should be the basis of our revision of the tariff to which we are so solemnity committed. “The rates should be arranged so as to produce the maximum of reveriues, while taking from the ultimate consumers the minimum of rnPney in the shape of tariff taxes. That statement may appear paradoxical, but what it proposes is, perfectly feasible. There is a maximum of revenue producing rate on each particular item which can be ascertained, and which should be ascertained. The moment the rate on any article goes above the mamlunim reve-nue-producing rate the revenue 'begins off, and the more the rate is increased the more the revenue dwindles until it disappears entirely, and the rate becomes prohibitive. “Such is the case with blankets nine feet long, worth not over 40 cents per pound, an article of prime necessity on which the compound specific and ad valorem amounts to a tariff tax of between 165 and 182% per cent. "Without going into wearisome details, it is safe to say that threefourths of all the tariff rates of the Payne-Aldrieh-Smoot tariff bill

are above the maximum revenlueproducing rates and should be reduced at least to a competitive point.

“The truth is that the words ‘a competitive tariff’ are more easily understood than the words ‘a tariff for revenue only.’ “A competitive tariff” is one which would give Americans the American market so long as they sell at fair prices, but would let in foreign products if the Americans undertake to gouge Americans. “A competitive tariff” would in practice be "a tariff for revenue.” The revenue can be increased more frequently by reducing rates than by increasing them. ' The present tariff, if thoroughly overhauled, could be made to produce a great deal more revenue and at the same time not cost the taxpayers one-fourth of what they now pay, for under the present system where one dollar goes into the federal treasury four or five goes into the icockets of the tariff barons. The rates in a new bill or new bills should be fully as low as the rates in. the bills which we passed during, this congress, and in some cases lower. "All the talk about the democrats wanting to injure business is absolutely preposterous. “What we want to do is to give every man an equal opportunity in the race of life, and not pamper a few at the expense of many. That plan would foster every legitimate industry in the land and injure none. That is one way in which congress can aid in reducing the extremely | high cost of living, which is really the most pressing, vexatious, and important problem with which we have to deal. What, the people demand is cheaper food, cheaper clothing, cheaper necessaries of life generally, and any cuts in tariff rates which do not accomplish that are not worth the trouble and la. bor of making. > “The revision ou,ght to be made carefully, scientifically, and in mony with democratic promises.’*