Show national af affairs f airs written lor for the park record by FRANK P LITSCHERT political theories and contentions change almost as frequently as the styles in clothing even arguments proposed by the tree free traders and their allies against the protective tariff system are revamped occasionally A year or so ago it was maintained that with a protective tariff our foreign trade would fall off because the nations ot of europe could not buy from us since they would be unable to sell to us this theory has been thoroughly exploded by the figures of our domestic and foreign trade we still have our tariff and we continue to be prosperous and to pile up foreign trade so bo the arguments of the friends ot of the importers had to be remade the latest efforts against the protective principle make the assertion that protection to certain industries Is wrong because these industries are making enormous profits for some reason or other the average free trader Is opposed to big profits which do not tall fall into the hands bands of the importers in new york or the manufacturing barons of europe who grind the last ounce of energy out of their workmen at the lowest possible living wage these enormous profits are now being paraded before the eyes of the people of the united states especially the farmers and they are being told that this Is the result of the iniquitous tariff and that it if the new tariff bill passes they will be even worse it will be a little difficult to prove the content contention lon however that the tariff alone makes profits for it is well known to everyone that other elements enter into the picture profits of course depend on a ready market and big production and the ready market for american goods Is furnished by the protective policy but a concern must have something beside a market to pile up profits first there must be efficient management and progressive gr gres sive business policies there must be great great production too and the product must bo be worthy of public confidence so that the public will want it if the tariff were responsible for profits then every concern in a given industry would roll up tremendous profits yet we know that such a case Is not true in the manufacturing world some units are profitable and others are not the same thing Is true in business and on the farm to reduce the tariff on a certain commodity because some of the producers of that commodity had made profits would be just jast as reasonable as to increase the tax on all the furniture stores in the town because the biggest one was making too much money the tariff alone cannot make enormous profits for any industry it can protect the industry from cheap foreign labor and preserve the greatest market in the world I 1 for or american industry the rest of it la is up to american business and the american business man Is usually able to deliver the goods when given a fair chance the free traders and their allies however are not bothered with such mundane things as actual conditions their home is 18 in the I 1 intellectual te clouds where they can theorize to their hearts c content if a certain industry makes lots of money they blame it on to the tariff no matter whether this particular industry Is protected by a tariff or not it is not to be believed that the tea attack on the tariff because ot of the enormous profits it produces will be any more effective than that which charged that protection meant the drying up of our foreign trade granting the c charge h g that protection means swollen ale P profits r t it follo follows 5 that the way to deflate these profits Is to lower the tariff and let in a flood ot of foreign goods this of course would destroy profit by curtailing busti ness but it Is the american worker who would suffer in the long run and the buying public would receive little or no benefit suffering as it would in the gen vl eral business busine ss decline that would la be to follow anyhow it Is a poor polity policy i to tear down a building because became you tur off 1 think that too in much h money has haa bem baab spent on the frescoing ot of the belling cel ling |