OCR Text |
Show WABBLES ON THE TARIFF. There appears to bo a good deal of wabbling ou tho tariff question among tho supporters of the Colonel. This is natural enough, becauBo ho has wabbled so much upon that question himself, although al-though dodging it wherever dodging was possible. Ho is a froe-trader by conviction and a former mombor of the American branch of tho Cobdon club, as declared by thoso who claim to know in Now York. Ho haa passed through a long career of offico-holding without giving any Indication of his roal purposes pur-poses or his convictions on tho tariff. Ho has stated that he wants to see the benofltB of tho tariff put upon tho payroll pay-roll of Amorican employees, a Btato-nient Btato-nient which shows his utter ignorance or dIshonoBty upon tho whole question, bocauso it Is from the fact that tho bonefits of the tariff havo been put upon tho Amorican laborers' pay-roll that Amorican wages of laboring mon aro tho highest in tho world. This is tho easy, honest, and perfect answer to that sort of puerile discussion of the tariff in which Itoosovelt indulged when ho spoke of the benofltB of tho tariff upon tho pay-roll of tho laborers; for if that had not already been dono, thero would bo no justification whatever for the tariff. But in its platform the Uoosovclt convention declared, "Wo condomu the Pnyno-Aldrich law as unjust to tho pooplo." poo-plo." Mr. Muneey, howovor, who plays tho rolo of Roosovelt's chief newspaper expounder, stated when announcing his purchaso of the Now York Press, that 1 he advocated tho re-election of "Roose-'velt "Roose-'velt becauao he "wanted to see tho economic policies of the Republican party continuod in force," and further that Roosevelt's election "would mean tho continuance of a tariff that protects pro-tects tho American wage against the cheaper wages abroad." Hero Mr. Munsoy directly chnllcnges tho platform of tho Roosevelt party, which condemns the Paync-Aldrich tariff tar-iff law. Mr. Munsey also in making this declaration, expressly condemns the Roosevelt declaration thai he wanted to see tho tariff put on the pay-rol for Mr. Munsey declaros that tho tariff is already on tho pay-roll, raming tho American wago against the choaper wngoa abroad. In viow of tho inovilnblo discordance that arises whenever I ho Roosevelt coterie co-terie undertakes to discuss tho tarilf, it would certainly have been belter if nil concernod, including Mooncvelt himself, could have followed the first foosevolt idea of dodging the tariff altogether, for tho minute the tariff begins (0 be discussed dis-cussed by Roosevelt and his supporters, tho argumont falls all to pieces, just as described iu the?o instances now cited. |