Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1916 — TARIFF IS OUT OF PULITICS, POLITICS IS OUT OF TARIFF [ARTICLE]

TARIFF IS OUT OF PULITICS, POLITICS IS OUT OF TARIFF

Democrats Did It By Creating Tariff Commission to Meet All Needs. ‘AFTER THE WAR’ CARED FOR Wilson Administration Has Provided In Business Way to Protect America, Whether War or Peace Prevails Anywhere on Earth.

BY WILLIS S. THOMPSON

Indianapolis, Oct. 28.—The tariff question has been a partisan one for a century. The Dingley act of 1897 became so odious by 1908 that the Republican party, in its national convention, promised a downward revision. On that promise they retained power. In 1909 the lobbyists gathered at Washington and foisted on the country the disgraceful PayneAldrich act, which betrayed the people by raising still higher the Dingley rates. The election of 1910 punished this base dishonor by sweeping out of congress nearly all its Republican membership. Even Ohio went 80,000 Democratic.

On Wilson’s election a Democratic congress passed the Underwood act without participation by a lobby. Of course, the changes wrought by time may require changes in our revenue laws. Insurgent Republicans and Progressives sought in vain for a nonpartisan tariff commission to make a scientific, impartial investigation of the whole subject and recommend all needed revisions.

At its last session congress made provision for such a commission. The tariff commission act is now a law, having been signed by President Wilson on September 8, 1916. Six commissioners are to be appointed, with salaries the same as United States senators. Not more than three shall be members of one political party. The commission is given the broadest power imaginable in the selection of experts to assist in making the most thorough investigation possible, at home and abroad, of the cost of manufacture of goods, with its effect on industry, labor and revenues. Three hundred thousand dollars for 1917, and the same for each year thereafter, is appropriated for the use of the commission in making its investigations and reports.' No commission was ever invested with broader powers, and it must report its investigations to the President and congress each year. Because of this each member of congress, new and old, can avail himself at each session of all needed information, and just alterations of schedules will be made without any Mulhall lobbyists supervising the operation. The tariff is no longer a partisan question. It will be a scientific one, with all available information presented to congressmen by the commission, some schedules of the present law are or may hereafter be too low, they can and will be raised without any partisan clamor or unholy graft. The Democrats passed this law. You can get a copy of it by writing to the Bureau of Commerce at Washington.