Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1908 — ENEMY OF TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

ENEMY OF TARIFF.

Labor World Sees Danger in Bryan Plan of Tariff for Revenue Only. (From the Labor World.) Workingmen and producers generally should not delude themselves with the belief that, If Mr. Bryan shall be elected President, his plans for revision of the tariff win present no menace to the country. Mr. Bryan is the professed enemy of the tariff system. He would impose duties, if at all, for revenue purposes only. On articles competing with what he chooses to call trust-made goods he would have no duty at all. Any apparent deficit in import duties arising from revised schedules he estimates would be more than made up by increased imports. Of course, his hope is to strike at the great protection States, which happen to be Republican in politics, like Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, etc. It does not seem to matter to him that every dollar’s worth of foreign goods in the competitive class coming into the United States on a revenue or free trade basis necessarily by so much reduces the demand for home goods, thus displacing just that much American labor. What he wants to do Is to rebuke and avenge himself upon protected manufacturers who do not agree woth him in politics and who will have none of him at the polls, says an exchange. But while Mr. Bryan is gunning for protected industries and Republican States, once his proposed tariff law should be In force It would fall alike upon all sections of the country, the only differences between one State and another being in the degree of hardship imposed. We hear of workingmen saying that this time they intend to vote for Mr. Bryan, because for the past ten months we have had hard times. But what good will that do? How is a tariff for revenue, Ignoring the protection idea altogether, going to open the shops and mills? How will the election of Senators by direct vote start the wheels of industry? Or the publication of campaign contributions? Qr .the farther, harassment of the railroads? Or the reorganization of the House, so that the Speaker may be powerless? Why open this country now to the markets of the world when we have not sufficient demand to consume what we ourselves manufacture? Under Republican rule we have Just had ten years of unparalleled prosperity. Under Democratic administrations we have never had prosperity for any period, long or short.