Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1906 — POLITICAL COMMENT [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL COMMENT

The Tariff Will Stand. At the conference of Republican leadins at Oyster Bay- it was determined that the party, In the congressional campaign, shall oppose all tinkering with the tariff at this time. President Koi>st>velt, ._Speakcr Cannon,..Chairman Sherman of the Congressional Campaign Committee/ and - the ‘rest of the Republican chieftains who were at tiie meeting, took this position. It will be proclaimed In the Republican textbook for 1900, which will be issued in two or three weeks. At the meeting, where the proofs were submitted to the President, the Anal touches were given to the text-book. Every campaign orator and every Republican newspaper will havq. a copy of the text-book by the formal opening of the campaign. It is well to have the party’s position on this Issue officially set forth at the outset In the, canvass, because in lowa, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and one or two other States there has recently been some talk in favor of tariff revision. Republican stump speakers and newspaper will, In 1900, have an easy and pleasant task in setting forth the benefits which the tariff has conferred upon the country. They can point to more prosperity at home than has ever been seen In the past, and can show the largest foreign trade which has ever, been rolled up. In the aggregate exports and Imports of merchandise the $3,000,000,000 mark has been almost reached. In

the fiscal year 1906 the exports aggregated $1,744,000,000,000 and'the imports $1,226,000,000. In each Item the highest figures of the past were left far behond. We sold to the outside world double as much merchandise In the Roosevelt year just ended as we did in (’leveland’s year just ten years earlier. The balance of trade in our favor, which was $104,000,000 In 1896, was quintupled In 1906, when it reached $515,000,000. If we count silver as merchandise, as we ought to do, although the government’s bookkeepers jierslst in putting it In a class by itself, the $3,000,000,000 mark in the aggregate merchandise exports and Imports would be left far behind, and the balance In< our favor on the trade account with the outside world would be $557,000,000. Chairman Sherman’s spellbinders must be instructed to present thojfe figures with a good deal of prominence during the campaign. leader Sherman must also Impress upon them the even more significant fact that the of manufactures have Increased faster than those of any other class of goods which we sent out. While the exports of agriculture have increased 48 per cent In the past ten years, the exports of manufactures have Increased 196 per cent. In the flica) year 1906 we sold over $600,000,000 In manufactures to the rest of the world. Hers is the real test of the strength of our industrial system as created by the tariff. At the outbreak of the rebellion the United States was still virtually an agricultural country. Under the operation of the Republican tariff system the United States made sych advances In the first twenty years of Rej»'ublicaa»power that we gained the first place among the countries of tbe world In the extent of our manufactures by 1880, beating the United Kingdom In that year, and our lead baa been steadily lengthening ever since. The tariff has been the principal cause of our pre-eminence in this field. By the protection which If has given the home producer, the tariff has Incited discovery and !nvent|on, constructed labor saving appliances, devel

of our peopleTffflT diversified their activities, caused domestic competition, and, while defending the producer against concerted foreign attacks, has reduced the cost and improved the quality of all sorts of to tbo American These advances have enabled us to feacli but farTber ll.’id'fffrtiTer Tor foreign markets as the home market has become Inadequate, and thus Europe has encountered what it calls th* “American commercial invasion.” The tariff can claim a large share of the credit for these conquests it home and abroad. Manifestly, a system which has revolutionized the whole industrial scheme of the United Spates, which has given us greater prosperity than was ever known before in any part of the world, and which has placed our country so far in the lead In wealth thal it.ls. aliead o/ its two nearest rlvals combined, will have something to say for itself in the canvass of 1906. The Republican party, as the creator and the defender of the tariff, will have some powerful arguments ready to its hand in this year's campaign.—St Louis Globe-Democrat. Sball Bryan Fix the Tariff! Mr. Bryan Is a free trader. In his latest generalized manifesto he says the tariff is one of the Issues he will discuss hereafter. But this is not a question on which he is likely to change his record in the least, nor can

he modify It essentlally wlttioilt'violating all Democratic precedent. Ju all that he has said er written In the past Bryan has wholly condemned the principle of protection in a tariff. His most noted speech in Congress was a long and elaborate argument against any protection in-any schedule. lie contended that the constitutional rights of the forbid the inclusion iji any tiQjflZ/ate of a purpose to build up AumlMn Industries or to Dialect AxuerlcaMoyages aga 1 nst_>>p«rn»reign competltloiL^tfe^-hettftliat a tariff si »uld be based entirely onl public revel ue requirements, and tlmt American m mufacturing Interests anlL--ttac~Wage~ 1 earners thmn should adjust. tbematdVes as best they ran to foreign production and wages. This is free trade and the Bryanites should not balk at the only fi?rm that sqtjarely expresses their position on the tariff. They are not tariff revisionists All parties are for tariff revision as occasion arises. Republicans have revised protective tariffs again and agalq, but always kept them protective, i in half a dozen words Bryan could have stated that be Is now, as always, a free trader. He prefers to postpone a statement of bls tariff position. If this delay could mean that he would consent to any protective schedule, he would be on Republican ground. Ha may juggle and Itefog his tariff views, but multiplying words will not change his free trade Intent Business men should realize this fact Wage earners should keep It in mind. In protuction Bryan is an absolute destructloulst With such a man at the bead of executive affairs tbe policy would be to sweep away every vestige of protection, a purpose that appears In everything lie has ever said in discussing the tariff. A business upheaval would necessarily be the result American Industries would halt until they could get their bearings in tbe markets and in margins of profit. With tills condition would come a corresponding lota In the scale of wages and opportunities of employment