The Stome Market blub THE PROTECTIONIST. A Monthly Magazine of Political Science and Industrial Progress. Signed articles are not to be understood as expressing the views of the editor or publishers. Vol. XVIII. MAY, 1906. No. 205. COULD THERE BE PARTIAL REVISION? the proposition to revise the tariff before the next Presidential campaign is based upon the supposition that a few changes can be made here and there and the main features of the law preserved intact. Most of the immediate revisionist leaders have created this impression. to There could not be a greater mistake. There is not an instance of that kind of revision on record after a tariff has been in force some years. If every Senator and Representative could agree, for example, that borax ought to be placed in the free list, no sooner could a bill be offered for that purpose than some Massachusetts member would introduce place hides, coal, lumber, leather, wood pulp, iron ore and scrap iron in the free list, or to reduce duties upon some of them, and then some member from the West or South would move to put shoes and machinery and blowers and cotton ties in the free list, and so it would go along the whole line of 385 Repre sentatives and 90 Senators, each having some special object to gain, and thus unavoidably the revision would become general. Thomas B. Reed in the last article he ever wrote, which every one ought to read now, spoke of the loose thinking on this subject as "that human unrest which is part of the history of the race," and he continued thus: We, being also of limited knowledge, are much given to be beguiled by generalities. Here is one line of generalities: Is the Dingley Tariff Bill the end of wisdom? If not, then it can be improved. A tariff bill could be framed, we think, which would be free from all the errors of that celebrated bill and retain its virtues. Where would you enact such a bill? Why, in your own mind, of course. Unfortunately, a bill enacted in the mind has no extra-territorial force. A bill enacted by Congress, like the progress of the world, is the result of a fierce conflict of opposing human interests, and must be so. When men talk carelessly of tariff revision, they talk of a tariff never yet established, and one that never can be. They dream of a tariff which exactly suits them individually, while a real tariff bill is one which measurably satisfies the country as a whole. Truer words were never written, and they fit to-day just as well as they fitted in 1902. But, say the agitators, the tariff is four years older now, and is it never to be revised? Not for mere age. It is not so old as the constitution or as its latest amendment. It is not SO old It party, to keep in power, must turn back upon its latest great success, how art the mighty fallen. What is proposed by revision? The moment that question is asked there is a chorus of answers and the chorus does not produce harmony. It does not promise success. The as most of the industries which it general expectation is that duties was in part designed to foster. is not so old by several years as the average schoolboy must be before he can begin to understand it. It is not so old as the anti-trust law which has not yet been half enforced. It is an infant compared with the average of our laws, state and national, and the killing of bills to change these laws is commonly regarded as the best work of every new legislature. The tariff should be revised when it has ceased to be adequate to its two purposes, the yield of sufficient revenue and the maintenance of sufficient protection. There are public men who think, or seem to think, that these considerations will take care of themselves and that revision should take place while the Republicans are in power. Business, how ever, is sensitive. It does not like to be disturbed for mere politics. Not long since one of the largest manufacturers in this country said, "Think of the effrontery of certain political leaders assuming to change the existing order, to which business is conformed and under which it is prospering, without so much as consulting the men who are responsible for its success!" If the Republican will be lowered. What for? Mainly because the opponents of protection say they are too high. But herein is an amazing lack of specification. Occasionally some man specifies a a sale of watches or steel rails at a lower price abroad than at home, but that practice is as old as commerce, has been more in vogue under free trade in Great Britain than under protection in the United States, and is no more the result of a tariff than it is of the harvest moon. The argument is not pursued and other cases are not cited, but pride of opinion keeps up the insistence. Pride goeth before a fall, and, when the fall comes, please remember that some said, "We told you so." Has it not occurred to Republican revisionists that if they reduce duties they are very liable to dislocate industries and that if they do not reduce them there will be the same old clamor? Doing anything to please the enemy is usually failure and thanklessness. If it were practicable or possible to make a few changes, quite likely the tariff could be a little improved. But since it is certain that the changes will be many, because there are many men of many minds, why hasten? A free trader can consistently answer Because we wish a different system; but a protectionist cannot say that; he has only the venturesome hope of improvement, and when he sets out he walks towards free trade. No protective tariff has ever been more defensible than the Dingley law is to-day. The party which enacted it can again go before the country with it better than with any concessions and promises. Concessions are weak and promises are distrusted, but success stands. BRITISH INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS. [American Manufacturer.] The industrial workers in England are most miserably paid. The fact that a man doing clerical work, of a high order, can only earn one pound a week, about five American dollars, proves that the nation is on the verge of pauperdom. Not only are the clerical workers poorly paid, but artisans and engineers, miners and laborers receive such small pittances for their labor that one wonders how they exist. While there are some things in England which cheaper than they are in the United States, in the main, living is almost as high in England as in this country. Rents, of course, are cheaper, but food products do not vary much from prices paid in the United States. are The British workman is always a tenant, never an owner of a home, his savings accounts, if he has any, never grow to proportions large enough to make him independent of his employer. Chances for advancement are not so numerous in Great Britain, and altogether, the free-trade policy of the country is making poverty stricken land of the "Staunch Little Island." It has been customary during presidential campaigns to go into details as to the difference in the pay between our English cousins and the workmen. Just now, however, the figures are not compiled for any purpose of educating workers. They are hard, cold facts The gleaned for no ulterior purpose. lot of the British workingman is a hard one. To add to his discomfiture there are hundreds of thousands of workmen suffering in idleness, especially in the more populous centers. As long as England's laboring element works at the disadvantage it is doing, American workmen should take warning and command their legislators to let the tariff alone, which is their protection from suffering a similar fate to that of their British friends. BRITISH WORKMEN AND TARIFF. Consul Liefeld, of Freiburg, reports that the six members of the Gainsborough workmen's commission, including three liberals and three conservatives, which was organized and sent to Germany by C. A. Moreing, the English tariff-reform candidate for Gainsborough, have returned to tell England the result of their mission. Mr. Proctor, whom the liberal workmen put on the commission at the head of the poll, and who is a well-educated, thinking man, admitted that the heavy tariff walls in Germany were bad for English trade. George Brown, a boiler maker and a liberal, considers that English manufacturers would have a better chance with their foreign rivals if a ten per cent duty were placed on foreign manufactured imports. HOME MARKET CLUB RESOLUTIONS. MASSACHUSETTS REPUBLICANS ASKED TO DISFAVOR DEMOCRATIC POLICY. A T the quarterly meeting of the Directors and other officers of the Home Market Club, which was held on the 13th of April, and was attended by twenty-eight representatives of all the leading industries in New England, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted: Whereas, In the month of January, 1906, a Republican member of Congress from Massachusetts, in a speech in the House of Representatives urging immediate tariff revision, used this language to indicate what is chiefly desired as the result of such a step: "It was suggested at our State convention that a specific demand be made that hides, coal, iron ore, lumber and wood pulp be placed on the free list. Personally, it seemed to me then, and it seems to me now, that there are sound reasons for urging that these articles be placed on the free list." Be it resolved, That we regard this as Democratic doctrine. It is precisely what the Democrats in Massachusetts were demanding at that time and are demanding now. It is contrary to the belief and practice of the Republican party, as expressed in its national platforms and laws and the speeches of its most distinguished statesmen. If car ried into execution, it would not only fail of its object, but would tend to undermine the whole fabric of protection. Therefore, Resolved, That such a misconception does not furnish a good reason for immediate tariff revision but puts Massachusetts in a false and compromising attitude before the nation. Neither economic safety nor party integrity can be maintained by accepting the policy of the Opposition, which is founded upon different principles. Resolved, That we ask the Republicans of Massachusetts, in their several conventions to be held this year, to repudiate such a dangerous extension of the policy of free raw materials and to renew their allegiance to the Republican policy of affording adequate protection to every domestic industry that is exposed to foreign competition. Resolved, That in our opinion as manufacturers and merchants no such important "changed conditions" in industry or commerce have developed since the last national platform was adopted as call for immediate revision, and to enter upon it, when all industries-even those that are most clamorous for special privileges are enjoying a full tide of prosperity would be to invite the resentment of every sufferer the moment this prosperity is checked, as it must be temporarily during the process of revision, and as it will be more permanently if there is a general revision downwards. Resolved, That it is inexpedient to revise a tariff shortly before a Congressional or Presidential election, first because time is required for a new tariff to be tested and industries to become conformed to it, and second because it is sure to be assailed and misrepresented before it can vindicate itself and receive popular approval. This is the lesson of our tariff history. Two gentlemen thought it might be expedient to revise the tariff while there is a good Republican majority in Congress, although they |