Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], December 04, 1915, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
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I rntv(.MSity of Utah. H
I Goodwins Weeklj
Vol. 25 . SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, DECEMBER 4, 1915 No 25
v
An Independent Paper Published Under
:: the Management of J. T. Goodwin ::
EDITORIALS BY JUDGE C. C. QObDWIN
Some Work Ahead
THE majority in congress will not meet in the
same mood next week that they were in
when they convened two years ago. Then the
thought was: "At last we will show 'em." Now
the thought will be, "What kind of a showing can
we make to save our faces, and at the same time
have a little something to our credit for next sum
mer's campaign?"
"When they attained to power, they proceeded,
against every protest, to smash the protective
tariff which had a little fenced the American
field against the starving stock of the outside
world. And when they had completed that work
they held a praise service of thanksgiving, the
praise being mostly praise of themselves. In this
President Wilson was the chief tenor and Mr.
Underwood, the deep-chested contralto.
They praised, too, a far-reaching income tax
law.
Now the results show that despite the great
increase of revenue from the income tax there is
a mighty deficit and it is plain that except for
vastly increased business due to the war, busi
ness generally would be so dead today that their
party would be in a state of hopeless coma.
The operation of the present tariff smashing
law, was suspended, on some articles, at the time
, of the passage, for twenty months. The tariff on
sugar was one that was suspended.
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' Now we hear that the tariff on sugar is to be
continued, "for revenue only," as though any
' tariff was ever levied for any other purpose.
There will be a tremendous effort, evidently,
to set the shipyards ringing on new ships, the
necessity being laid to the war abroad, as though
that necessity had not been just as apparent every
hour for a quarter of a century past, as it is to
day. And how to run that new fleet by making
up its deficit out of the treasury instead of imitat-
ft ing the great marine nations, will require some
, more very adroit reasoning.
When the program shall be completed, we
shall all be able to see how much more effective
is the prospect of a political campaign in the
immediate future to restore our merchant marine,
, than the example of the great ocean-carrying na-
r- tions through the past thirty years has been.
-U
We are all waiting to see whether any change
will be recommended of that policy which Mr.
Pinchot inaugurated a dozen years ago which,
jK briefly stated, was, "Our most benevolent gov-
" ornment wants the eager 'pioneer to go on the
) ffi waste places of the west and occupy and subdue
' , them, but we caution those pioneers that if they
5f" find anything out of which they may nurse a hope
-,. of making a living, we shall be constrained to
W'i . spread reservation over it in the interest of all
the people of the country and some others who
may come to us from beyond the sea."
There are many other subjects which should
worry the majority a little; such as our place as
neutrals, the Mexican program that has been
pursued, the possibility of having to issue bonds
to keep the gold reserve solid, etc. It is not go
ing to be altogether a holiday for the majority
in congress this winter.
McAdoo's Plan
BECAUSE of his official and personal relations
to the president, we suspect Secretary Mc
Adoo outlines the policy which the president will
urge in his message next week for the restoration
of the United States merchant marine through
the building by the government of some lines of
steamships.
That will be better than nothing at all, but it
is not the best way. The proposition will be put
out as a necessity because of the vastly increased
exports of the country due to the war and the
need of the ships as auxiliary ships for the navy.
Of course all this is but beating the devil around
the stump, because every steamship built in the
United States has been an auxiliary of the navy
when required, and the increased exports are due
solely to the war and of necessity must be limited
to the war's duration. The effort is to find ex
cuses for building ships and for charging the
necessary deficits, which their running will incur
directly to the government. Before Mr. Wilson's
election he had a plan to fill the seas with profit
able merchant ships that were to run without
subsidies or bounties.
What would have happened to him had he ex
plained that their losses were to be made up by
going down into the treasury and taking out the
people's money to meet the deficits. Was he
afraid that some one would ask him what differ
ent in tho result that would be from paying di
rect bounties or subsidies? And when Mr. Secre
tary McAdoo ascribes the necessity for this to
the war, and to the immense sums now being
paid foreign ship owners, that is to laugh, for
there has not been a country editor who under
stood the question, who has not been pointing out
those tremendous sums paid to foreign ship own
ers, at least once a week for the past twenty
years, and how American trade was handicapped
by such a policy.
Now Mr. Secretary points it out as a great
new discovery that has dawned upon him.
But his present attitude shows that even a
hardened Bourbon can sometimes grasp a new
idea, which is a hopeful sign.
But while it is better than nothing for tho gov
ernment to build and sail the ships, it is not the
right way, for these reasons: First, it is another
centralization of power in federal hands which is
not at all desirable; second, government officials
do not understand the class of ships to build, as
ship owners and masters know; third, govern
ment officers do not know what the trade re
quires, and, bo long as their salaries are paid
them, they will not much care.
Finally, it Is all wrong in principle, it is a dl-
rect interference on the part of the government
with the private business of the people, for which j
there Is no possible justification. "H
It is the business of the government to remove
all possible obstacles from tho paths of citizens M
and taxpayers, not to put obstacles in their way. M
Mr. Perkins Again Active H
A NOTHER national election is drawing near; 'M
Mr. George W. Perkins is again writing es- M
says. We have one before us in which tho gentle- M
man says to prove that "we are as unprepared for M
peace as we are for war." M
He does not tell us anything new but ho writes M
interestingly. Ho tells us that "every man from M
Maine to California who is in any way engaged in M
banking or industrial pursuits know that when M
this war broke out, the business of this country H
was rapidly shutting down. Factories were clos- M
ing or going on short time. Thousands of men H
were being thrown out of work and an Industrial H
depression was upon us." M
The first thing to attract attention in the M
above is the distinction that Mr. Perkins makes '
between "banking and industrial pursuits." Wo M
had thought that banking was an industrial pur- H
suit, for tho bankers have certainly run this coun- H
try's business since 1893. But no matter. Two H
years before tho war came, some of us predicted lM
what would happen should there come a Demo- 'H
cratic tariff-smashing revision of the then exist- H
ing tariff, but that did not prevent Mr. Perkins H
from putting up the money to place Col. Roose- H
velt in a position to elect a Democratic president. H
Now he favors a non-partisan tariff commis- H
sion. A tariff commission has been advocated by H
thoughtful men for years, but how is it to bo H
made, non-partisan? H
No other question has been discussed so mucn H
as the tariff question. Every argument for and H
against it was exhausted half a century ago and H
every man is for or against it. The acts of the H
present administration have established that the H
Bourbons now in the saddle are incapable of H
changing their minds on that question, but that H
with every new generation they come like the
seventeen year locusts, to eat up every green
thing. Mr. Perkins thinks that the need of pro
tection is so great against what will come to us
when the great foreign war closes, that a great
petition will move congress this winter to provide
for a tariff commission. Maybe, but It will not
be for the reasons given by Mr. Perkins; it will
be from fear of what will happen the party next
summer unless something is done.
Mr. Perkins wants a great merchant marine
and mournfully deplores the fact that tho Pacific
Mail Steamship company has been obliged to sell
its 224,000 tons of steamships on the Pacific and
ascribes this necessity to the La Follette shipping
law.
Mr. Perkins is a banker and cannot see the
real cause. The Pacific Mail company had not
paid a dividend in fifteen years before its sale.
Possibly Mr. Perkins cannot comprehend that
by inverse action the law that demonetized sll-
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