Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1901 — TARIFF RETALIATION [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TARIFF RETALIATION

ALARMS CONJURED UP TRADERS. - - r —-- “ No Basis in Fact or Probability for Their Predictions Resrardinx the Formation of a European Trade Alliance Against the United States. Those who no' confidently prophesy foreign tariff combinations against the United States may be riglily suspected, of allowing their wishes to influence tlieir judgment. Apparently they would like to see \Vhat they expect to see. The dire possibilities of International trade war are conjured up by free-traders and former protectionists as the strongest possible argument—indeed, the only possible argument—ln favorof theabandonmeut by the United States of the protective policy. So we are told nearly every day that European countries are conducting secret negotiations looking toward a trade combine against this country, and that our only safety in this emergency is to repeal the Dingley law and get right down to an unrestricted trade basis. First of all, there Is no evidence whatsoever of the existence of a plot to form a continental tariff alliance against the United States. Still less •evidence is there of the contemplation of a European alliance. If a European combine should be attempted, Great Britain would have to be left out of it, and Great Britain is very much the best customer the United States has among European countries. England must have our foodstuffs and raw materials, and she is not going to join anybody in a scheme whose object is • to make those commodities cost more in the British market. Coming to the possibility of a continental combine, we And little more likelihood of it on the continent than in Great Britain. Germany has been making some experiments along the line of discrimination against American products, and her experience Is instructive. Consul Diedrich writes from Bremen to our State Department some pertinent facts relative to the operation of the inspection law whereby importations of American corned beef and other beef products are prohibited. Not long ago Dr. Karl Frankel, professor of hygiene in the University of Halle, declared that this law is nothing more than a cloak, faded and worn, hung over the agrarian idol. He showed that, while the Government had declared that the passage of the law was required in the interests of public nealth, “nothing suffered more from said law than did the public health of the nation. The prevailing high prices of meat necessarily lessened Its consumption, while the health of the nation demanded an Increase,” As a matter of fact, fully one-half of Germany’s population is to-day suffering hardships by reason of such tariff discrimination as Germany has thus far seen lit to Impose against American foodstuffs in obedience to the demands of the German agricultural Interests, and it does not seem probable that the situation will be subjected to any additional strain of the same sort.

Excepting Russia, all the continental countries of Europe are more or less dependent upon the United States for their food supplies and certain raw materials; while Russia, albeit independent of us in the matter of subsistence, must either buy a considerable line of manufactured products from us, or else pay a higher price for them elsewhere. The situation and outlook as to a European trade alliance of any kind against the United States are well summed up by the Baltimore Herald, as follows: “When it comes to building universal tariff walls, this country might suffer a depression in trade, a slackening in industrial progress; but Europe would sustain from such a course not stagnation alone, but utter prostration. In any case, we would have an abundance of all things for the home supply. Another result would soon ensue—the underfed millions of Europe would begin to swarm to our shores in an increasing ratio, looking for relief from unbearable home conditions. If any nation can stand alone and depend entirely upon her own resources, this nation can. Most surely In the squeeze of a tariff war, we should not be the first to cry quits.”

Tom Johnson and Bryan. On the morning before thq election of the Hon. Tom 1,. Johnson as Mayor of Cleveland, by a plurality of nearly G,000, the principal Republican newspaper of that city, the Leader, remarked: “Tom Johnson’s election would put new heart luto Bryanism In this part of the country.” The oue thing certain Is that Mr. Johnson’s election will not put new heart Into Bryau, in his part of the country. The main result will not be to reluvlgorate Bryanism, but to Invest what we may call Tomjolmsoulsm with a political Importance In Ohio, and perhaps elsewhere, which It has not previously possessed. For TomjohnsonlSm Is as different a thing from Brynulsm ns Tom Johnson Is different individually from the leader of the Democracy In the last two Presidential contests. Both of these eminent and interesting gentlemen are politicians of the opportunist school, but their opportunism Is not of the same sort. It Is easy to exaggerate the significance of the recent municipal elections In Ohio, In which no national question was Involved and no Issue warranting the Idea that there has been the slightest political reaction during the five months since that State gave McKinley and Roosevelt a majority of 70,000 New York Sun. The Fceptfcr of Power. .«■ ; Over and above the excess of exports which our own country shows

In comparison with Great Britain and Germany, it has this great advantage—namely, a large balance of trade in its fsfvor, as against a small balance for Germany and a balance the other way for the British islands. Th.e great American trad£ balance stimulates home industry, protects its money supplies and is steadily making the world its debtor. The scepter of commercial and financial power, so long in the hands of England, is being transferred to this nation, which, from all present indications, will hold It for generations? to come.—Topeka Capital. Thines Are Different Now. Mr. Jerry Simpson, some time a member of Congress from the State of Kansas, according to a Kansas dispatch, has just sold cattle to the amount of $7,223, and has received every cent but S2OO of this amount in cash. It was Mr. Simpson who, as the Kansas City Journal recalled, stated upon the floor of Congress, not so many years ago, that the men of his district were selling their honor and the women their virtue for bread. But that statement was made during the time when we were trying the experiment of a “change” from protection to free trade. Things are different now in Kansas, as in the rest of the country. Free trade no longer paralyzes the industries of the country, and Mr. Simpson is no longer a member of Congress. It was the return of economic sanity, which Kansas shared in common with the rest of the country, which retired Mr. Simpson to private life. Yet Mr. Simpson cannot consider this change of view on the part of his constituents and others as wholly unkind to him, for, while it resulted in his retirement to private life, it at the same time, as now appears, made his private life a prosperous one. And probably down deep in his heart Mr. Simpson prefers the actualities of protection prosperity even to the opportunity of making sensational speeches in Congress concerning the poverty of his constituents, such as was afforded to him in free trade days. Ascuinaldo and His Champions. If Aguinaklo was worthy to be called “the George Washington of the Philippines” he cannot violate his oath of allegiance to the United States without sacrificing his personal character as a man of honor, which is essential to patriotic leadership. A man who has vio l lated his oath, given under solemn circumstances can never Inspire confidence again. Hence, Aguinaklo is disposed of, as a leader of Insurrection, unless his character Is as bad as some have painted it. If he is the man that th# anti-imperialists have proclaimed him to be he must keep his oath. Alas! for Sulzer and Lentz and Pettigrew; alas! for Bryan, too, that they are placed in this embarrassing position! First they said the United States army could never put down the Philippine insurrection. But it did. They said Aguinaldo would never give up. But he has. If they now assert he was influenced by the flesh pots of Manila, or money, then they must have been sadly mistaken in dubbing him “the George Washington of the Philippines.” If they were right in that estimate of his Intelligence and his fitness for leadership, then they must accept Ills belief that it Is for the best that American authority shall be accepted.—Kansas City Star.

The World la a Good Customer.

Why Should We Be Foollah? “I favor repealing uot a few sections of the pingley Tariff bill, but the whole act. The United States is too strong commercially to erect a barrier against the world. For the good 'of Its own people, It should throw open Its markets to the world.”—Judge Harmon, Cleveland's Attorney-General. We are “too strong commercially” to take down the barrier that hgs made us so. Why should we throw open our markets to the world nud impoverish our own people? Does Judge Harmon open his house to the rabble? Does he send every clleut that comes to his rival attorney? The government slioujd protect the Interests of Its family the same as any parent employs safeguards for his children. And the less Judgment the Individual has the more prohe needs. Bryan’s M indie. Mr. Bryau did not know when he cabled Agulnaldo an offer to open the columns of the Commoner to Insurgent pleading that “Aggy” had already taken the oath of allegiance to the United States and had gone over, bag and baggage, to Imperialism. “Oaths are but words, and words wind,” and Agiilnnldo may change his miud; but to all appearances the cost of that cable message will prove a dead loss to the Commoner.—Philadelphia Record. The Irreconcilable* st Home. The Filipinos In safety In tohls country say that they will fight on. The FlHpiuos in the Philippines are surrendering.—Philadelphia Psewi.