Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1905 — POLITICAL COMMENT [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT

Postponement Not Abandonment. It is given out from Washington with ’an air of semi-authority that President Roosevelt will not discuss the tariff in his forthcoming message, and there is an inference implied that he has concluded there should be no revision. If it Is true that he has abandoned his intention of recommending a change In the Dingley schedule, The Blade ventures to say that it Is not because he has modified his views on that subject. As every one knows, President Roosevelt’s heart is set on bringing about a reform in railroad rates. He believes religiously in a government supervision that will put an effectual check on rebates, discriminations and unreasonable charges. He knows,'as every one else knows, that there is a radical defect in the present system. He knows,too, that this defect spreads to almost every branch of human activity. He thinks that he can confer a lasting benefit on the people if he can discover and apply that remedy. He looks upon the existing condition as threatening the country’s prosperity, as militating against the many to the benefit of the few, even more acutely than do the inequalities of the Dingley bill. It Is the President’s natuife to grapple the most pressing questions first, and if he is silent on the Dingley bill in the message he is now preparing, it is because he regards the railroad rate question as paramount, and its solution most urgent. That important matter out of the way, the stand-pat-ters may rest assured that he will return to the tariff question and thresh it out with all his accustomed vigor. The President is too close to the people not to know that they are demanding of the Republican party revision, and he Is too well versed In commercial life not to know that this demand is both just and reasonable. As to the extent of this revision, as to how it shall be brought about, these are problems a Republican Congre&s must determine.—Toledo Blade.

Massachusetts Republicans. The action recently taken by the Republicans of Massachusetts In State convention is remarkable as showing the growth of tariff revision sentiment. f That rock-ribbed fastness of the Home Market Club, spoke for revision and the distinguished Senator Lodge him’self, hitherto a strong stand-patter, declared that the tariff schedules should be changed by the friends of protection. It was a propitious sign, too, that the radicals, headed by the irrepressible Foss, did not insist on forcing their claims for reciprocal trade relations, but declared themselves satisfied with the concessions made by the standpatters. It Is a hopeful Indication that the Republicans of the Old Bay State will go into the fight this fall united. Both wings of the party in Massachusetts are as firm as admantlne for the upholding of the great principle of protection. There is an honest difference of opinion as to the extent revision should take, and happily in this respect each has met the other halF way. The tariff plank fulfills this condition admirably and is In line with the conservative thought of the party. The nomination of Curtis Guild, Jr., . who is a prominent revisionist, for Governor, and the harmony that has been brought out of the controversy over the tariff, promise the Republican party In Massachusetts a victory of the good old-fashioned kind.—Toledo Blade.

How It Happened. The value of general exports was heavier for June than the months before, which shows a much larger foreign demand, and contradicts tne fears of the Free-Traders that this country Is losing its foreign trade because of the Protective Tariff. The value of breadstuffs exported hi the last June was much over $2,000,000 more than in June of last year. There is still another point of importance to the labor of this country shown in the report, and it is. that with the short wheap crop of last year there was a much smaller export of wheat and the figures for flour sent abroad remained nearly the same as the year before. That was caused by the importation of more Canadian wheat, which was made into flour by American Workers, for wages, and then sold outside the country. That happened under the Republican policy of business for Americans, capitalists ns well as Workers. —Worcester “Telegram.”

The Logic of Facta. , in short, the exports of manufactured goods under the Dingley law, which free-traders claim would Injure our export trade, are Just double what they were under a Demomrntlc tariff designed for the express purpose of our export trade, according to the accepted logic of the free-trade-tariff-re-form school. This demonstrates the trouble with free trade and tariff reform arguments. They are all right for closet purposes; but the irresistible logic of facts persists in proving the precise contrary to the closest deductions. Nevertheless, It is to be expected that the Democratic free traders nnd their tariff reform allies will persist in their claim that the present tariff law is txd for expansion of foreign trade—-

not just now, maybe, but at some time in the future it will work out that way. It has expanded our exports steadily for nine years, but that does not prove anything to the free trader. —Seattle Post-Intelligencer. No Hurry. The New York “Staats-Zeitung,” the most influential German American paper in the Atlantic Coast States, hears from its Berlin correspondent that the German government Is disposed to extend the present tariff arrangement with the United States beyond March 1, 1906, when the new general tariff law will go into effect in the Kaiser’s dominions. It is said that the Berlin government will continue the present tariff provisions without change, as far as they concern the United States, for an indefinite period in order to allow this country ample time to arrange its tariff schedules so as to take advantage of the “conventional” schedules of the new Teutonic law.

There is little doubt that the “Staats-Zeltung’s” information is correct; far more correct than that of Gustav H. Schwab, who is trying to make the commercial organizations believe that our exports to Germany will fall off to little or nothing if we don’t hurry up and show the white flag. There is no cause for hurry. Germany will give the United States an indefinite period of time, all the time it wants, to decide whether or not to go into a reciprocity dicker. “It may be for years, and it may be forever.”—American Economist

Many Objections. Commercial reciprocity sounds well but it is usually open to many objections. It violates the principle that a protective tariff to be justifiable must be for all like, and it Invites competitive aggression by helping to reward it It also grants favors to the less friendly which to the more friendly are denied. Germany imposes a high duty on American products and therefore gets a special rate on certain things it sells In the American market. Great Britain admits American merchandise free, and is therefore debarren from sharing in the concession which Germany enjoys. That is how the principle of reciprocity works out, and there is no need to direct attention to the inequity of the result. There will probably be no reciprocity treaty with Germany. How far the discrimination to be practiced under the new tariff will injuriously affect the United States remains to be seen. Possibly it will not do so to any considerable extent. Should the contrary happen and should it become necessary for this country to protect itself a special schedule for the benefit of German imports can easily be prepared, as was done recently in Canada, with consequences which led the Germans to regret they ever began the scrap.—Philadelphia Inquirer.

Help from the South. From the Southern States comes the promise of help in maintaining tariff 'stability. What time the tariff revision and reciprocity elements of the Republican party in Massachusetts and other States are bending their energies toward the demoralization of the prosperity producing system which is 3" the outgrowth of the “cardinal principle” of Republicanism, the Democrats of the solid South are veering away from free trade—the “cardinal principle of Democracy.” There are numerous Indications of a determination on the part of Southern Congressmen to withhold their support from the movement to force upon the Fiftyninth Congress the revision of the tariff. Representative Lester of Georgia, who is entering upon hls ninth term as member of Congress from the Savannah district, expresses the opinion that Southern Democrats will hereafter be slow in favoring tariff revision downward, and that there will be no tariff legislation during the coming winter. The situation seems to be that while the South Is not actively and openly for protection Its Industries are too largely the gainers through protection to warrant any Interference with that policy. It is a healthy and encouraging sign.—American Economist

Cowardice. If there is anything despicable In manhood it is that element which runs when the first threat of a charge reaches fts ears. We refer to the people now crying for free-trade, free-er trade, reciprocity nnd other kindred schemes for opening our home market to the cheap producer of Europe because Germany nnd a few other countries have declared they will scrap us commercially If we don’t. Great Caesar! are we cowards? It looks like some of these think we are! But we are not. It will be found that our policy, which is purely American, was mnde for Americans and is not for Europe. We are for the American laborer, producer, manufacturer. The rest can go hang.—Salem (Ore.) “Statesman.”

If Left to Farmers. If left to farmers, the present tariff schedules would not be touched. But it is easy to guess what will happen if the Importers, who sit by the seaside and take toll, are to decide the tariff policy of the United States. —Burlington "Hawkeys.”