Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1903 — POLITICAL COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT.

The Tariff and 1034. Some of our Republican contemporaries are making a mistake in their comments on William B. Allison’s recent remarks on the Issues of 1904. He says that the tariff win he the principal question which will be discussed In next year’s canvass, intimating that ..the—Democrats will force It to the front. “On this and’’"oßTTße~tn»t-a«d money Issues the Democrats,” he declares, “will assail the Republican party.” He adds that there are “all shades of opinion regarding the tariff. The shoe manufacturers of New England want free hides, while the cattle raisers of the West bellove that It would be disastrous to their Industry to remove the duty. Some persons want the $2 a thousand feet of duty on lumber removed, while those engaged la the lumber industry do not desire any reduction In the present rates.” In this way he goes over many other schedules, and he shows that there are wide differences of opinion respecting the duties on important commodities which ought to prevail. A Republican paper here and there, as well as many Democratic papers, assume that the lowa Senator means the Republicans will frame a tariff bill in the coming session of Congress, so ns to head off the Democratic attacks. It Is safe to say that the Senator has nothing of the sort in mind. If any one thing In the national politics of the country for the next twelve or fifteen months can be said to be certain it is that the Republicans will prepare no tariff bill hi the coming Congress. —No changes in any of the tariff schedules will be qtade next winter or next summer. The tariff will remain precisely as it Is now until after the election.

except as the Cuban reciprocity treaty compels a slight change. The Republicans _are_ in. easy control of both branches of Congress. They know the peril of fooling with the tariff immediately before an important election. Experience has shown that the party responsible for any tariff tinkering at such a time has an excellent chance to suffer In the ensuing election. No chances will be taken by the Republican party on this issue' in 1904, notwithstanding its preponderance among the voters of the country.

The lowa Senator himself has pointed out the danger of any fooling with the tariff on the eve of an election. As he shows, there are wide differences of opinion among the representatives of the various activities as to the rates of duty which ought to prevail op certain articles. These divergences of view would make the light on the duties, If any change at all were attempted, long and disturbing. It might take four or five months for a tariff hill to go through the Senate alone, and the chances are that it would he altered there as robustly as the Wilson bill 6t 1894 was changed in the upper body. With a tariff fight under way in Congress in the spring and summer of 1904, the Republicans would be seriously embarrassed, despite the fact that they have an immense dominance among the voters of the country. None of the experienced Republican leaders of the House or Senate will urge an overhauling of the tariff in the coming session of Congress, and, of course, none will be attempted Iti the short session, which will begin after the election takes place.—SL Louis GlobeDemocrat.

The Man Behind the Law. President Roosevelt said on Saturday: “Just as, on the battlefield, It is the man behind the gun who counts most, so, In civil life. It Is the man behind the law.” This remark was made in a thriving town in Wyoming where, less than thirty years ago, there was no town, no county, no State.

When the Black Hills country was opened to settlement there was much talk of the lawlessness that was sure to prevail In n district so remote, but under the law, and through the pioneers who settled in Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas, a territory as large as the German empire has been made to blossom with all the advantages of civilization. Peru, in South America, was settled by Spaniards more than .’lot) years ago. It has had a republican form of government since 1H27. It has hot developed In the essentials of civilization to as great an extent in 800 years as Wyoming has in twenty-five. clsed no perceptible influence in favor of the republican form of government. The man behind the law was not equal to the duties that he was called upon to perform. In Wyoming, however, the men who conquered the wilderness, the men who had the nerve and courage of soldiers advancing on an enemy, gave Impetus to a movement that has given to the Union new States, that has turned a wilderness Into a prosperous commonwealth with its towns and cities. Its school houses and colleges. Its farms and ranches, its railroads and mines. This process of development Is not peculiar to Wyoming, or Montana, or the Dakotns. It is the same American Idea of development that made Illinois and lowa great States, that started the march across the desert aud the mountains to the Pacific. It Is the process successfully worked out by the pioneers of a hundred years ago. It Is In accordance with the policy that gave us the territory west of the Mississippi In Jefferson's time, and that gave us the Philippine* and Porto Blco in Mc-

Klnley’s day. Wherever the American " goes, civilization and good government follow, because there is always the right kind of law and the right man | behind the iaw.—Chicago liiter_Ocean. 1 No Reversal. L’Eeonomiste Francois, a financial | Journal of Paris, says: “The period of 5 great business activity In the United States Tins already lasted “longerany analogous period in history.” L’Economiste finds signs In the United J States that often precede a crash, but warns Europe that these signs do not mean necessarily that there will be a S crash this year. This conservative French Journal, like other European Journals, dates our period of prosperity from the panic of 1893, and, holding to the tradition that prosperity comes In cycles and caiyiot be prolonged beyond a limit fixed by European precedent, predicts that we must meet another panic in the near future. Our period of prosperity dates from 1897, not from 1893. It came with the settled conditions assured by the adoption of certain definite policies in 1896. It has continued because those policies have been maintained and strengthened. It will continue because there is little opposition to our sound-money policy and little disposition to reverse or change our economic policy. The European financiers seem to be- 1 lieve that 1904 will be a year of financial disturbance In the United State* because of the uncertainty incident to the presidential election. This does not follow. There is likely to be as little doubt about the result of the election in 1904 as there was about the election iu 1900. ——-i e- S The American people know what brought the present period of unexampled prosperity and they are not likely to vote a reversal of prosperity policies in 1904. If they do not, prosperity will continue for the same reason that it continued after the presidential election of 1900.—Chicago Inter Ocean.

Free Trade and Coal, 3 The Great Falls Tribune asserts that “Instead of hurting the coal mining Industry in this part of the State, the repeal of the tariff on coal is likely to cause nn increase In the consumption of Belt and Sand Coulee coal.” The Record certainly hopes such will be the case, but nothing that the Trifir'l une offers would lead to that conclusion. The Tribune argues that the action of the Canadian mine owners will lead to this Increased consumption of home coal. This action consists In reducing the price of Canadian coal 25 cents a ton from what it has been selling at In the American markets. The Tribune argues that this reduction will make American consumers so wroth at thafl selfishness of the Canadian companies that they will buy more coal than ever of the home companies. Let us hope so, although we don’t believe a word However, that Is no argument in favor of free trade—or, as the Tribune would put It, “tariff reform”—which would put coal on the free list for all time, instead of for a year as a temporary expedient to relieve the dls- " tress In the least caused by the short- ' i age. The reduction of the duty Is 67 cents a ton, and the Canadian companies could make a reduction to that extent If they so desired In order to control the markets this side of the line. They can mine coal cheaper than* wp can, because they employ Chinese and Japanese labor, with Asiatic wages, while American mines pay American wages.—Helena (Mont.) Record.

A 1 ways Looking for Cheap -ess.* The free trader always approaches men from the standpoint of the producer only. They are advised to vote for cheapness, with the Implied promise on the frye trader’s part that ail other things shall remain as they are. But they never do remain as they are. if mi era of cheapness comes upon a country, everything becomes cheap. Including la I sir and the product of the manufactories. The result is that while everything is cheap and theoretically within the -reach of ihe poorest, the ability to buy Is so curtailed that the sunt total of profits Is reduced and poverty ensues. We are to have another - cnun.aign upon the tariff, and there will i nothing new Injected Into It but the specious claim that the tariff is reK|K>UMible for the trusts, and this is not new. The result of this next contest will depend altogether upon whether men are short-sighted or far sighted. \\ bother they are capable of learning from experience so recent that It seems inqtoHHlblc that any could forget.—Cellar Itapids Republican. The richest market in the world, the priceless Jewel of commerce, is tbs 1 market of the United Ktates. The protective tariff holds its treasure securs i to the American wage-earners and all ; the American |>eople. This Is the simple essence of protection. It Is tbe ear- j dlnal principle of tbe American tariff system which has been made a national policy by the itepabllcan party: which, with the control of the "lnista,* , -i Will t>e the great issue on which Mr. Itoosevelt will go to the voters next year asking them to elect him Urealdent of tbe United States.—New York Press.