THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14015, 21 September 1909, Page 2

THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

SPEECH BY MR. TAFT.WOOL SCHEDULE TOO HIGH. By Electric T«legrafth.-Copyright. NEW YOBK, Sept. 20. Speaking at Winona, Minnesota, President lift declared the TariffßUi j;as a substantial achievement in the if ßo^ «* * downright revision. It was utterly useless to Aalk of another revision during the present Congress. He admitted that the wool schedule was much too high. Mr. Taft defined the purpose of revision as the redaction of those excessive rates which tempted. the formation of, monopolies, not the. reduction of prices % admrttSa foreign competition. -—»•*•«* Practically the revised duties beyond doubt are a shade higher than the old: and wherever foreigners seemed to be gaining ground they have been made almost prohibitive, says the New York oorrespondent of th P Sydney Herald, ihe Belgians, for example, hare been sending in large shipments of "punched steel building materials," the dES uppn # which, ten doUars a ton, wii relatively to value, quite" low! Bit! now, although the duty on steel railshas been cut in half, this "punched steel" is raised to 16 dollars a ton— a three-fifths dncrease. • The woollen schedule is about the same as now— or, perhaps, a shade higher; and much ' WMMMmwh.Mld about all the "textiles." Indeed, the net result if this attempt to lower the "tariff as a whole" is plainly a pitiful defeat— just as was predicted by all veteran noliti- , mans, and for the obvious reason that a genesal attack compels all the beneficiaries to Join their forces and to defend abuses, even the most flagrant, at aU hasardS, rather than let the system fail. The only alternative remedy is attack by detail, and special, and special assaults next winter upon the wotlen and the steel schedules are already threatened. But success in that way is only possible should the new, law fail to bring, on a great revival of trade; and in that case they will be. unnecessary, because a renewal of the general attack will then surely come, and will end probably in the election of a Democratic Congress, and also in a bad split in the Republican party.