system of protection will be returned to its natural place as one of the greatest of Republican policies. New conditions have developed which emphasize afresh the need and utility of a protective tariff as a defence against unprecedented forms of competition, as implied in the instability of foreign exchange and the growth of wholly new industries developed during the war. The Presi dent also has given an impetus to tariff discussion by his amazing suggestion that the principle of protection might well be abandoned in view of the exigencies of Europe, which, Mr. Wilson intimates, demand a surrender of the American market to Europeon products. Much tariff legislation must be of a more or less novel character to meet some of the situations which have arisen through the world-wide demoralization of prices; and American statesmen are giving attention to the proposal that in the next general tariff bill the duties shall be levied upon domestic rather than foreign valuations, as easily ascertainable and scientifically exact as a measure of the rates necessary to afford whatever degree of protection American business may require and Congress may desire to authorize. The object of a protective tariff is to stimulate American production and to favor American products in the home market, but this object often is defeated by the great variation in the costs of production abroad, costs which in many cases cannot accurately be ascertained. The theory of free trade has been given another black eye by unprecedented conditions in other countries which are causing the production of competitive goods at such low prices that already they are beginning to disorganize the American market; not yet in great degree, but effectively wherever they enter, as the current advertisements of foreign textiles demonstrate. It is known here that this phase of the economic problem will be made a subject of special study by the Committee on Policies and Platform. A THOUGHT FOR TAXPAYERS. What would American business men say if they should be informed that the Income Tax Division of the Treasury Department resorts to the practice of assessing taxes upon small corporations by the simple method of picking one schedule out of a batch, analyzing that and assessing the same amount of taxes upon all other corporations of the same class, practically regardless of the figures individual to each case? Some taxpayers must have been puzzled by the discrepancy between their bills and their returns, and been wholly unable to account for the difference. If the foregoing question is not based upon fact, someone that knows the truth has lied about it. THREE CANDIDATES NOW LEADING. Rather as a coincidence than as a result, the recent meeting of the Republican National Committee in Washington appears to have given a great impetus to three presidential candidacies and to have exercised practically no effect upon the others. The only men whose booms need be taken seriously at present are Leonard Wood, Governor Frank O. Lowden of Illinois and Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio. The na tional convention is a long way off but the forces back of these three - gentlemen are being thoroughly organized, all hands admitting that General Wood has a little the jump on all his rivals at the present moment. Some suspicion has been voiced that friction existed between John T. King of Connecticut, manager for General Wood, and Frank H. Hitchcock, who has been especially active in the General's behalf; but it is possible to say that if any misunderstandings existed they have been ironed out, and the two Warwicks are working in complete harmony of purpose and of method. The Calvin Coolidge boom for President has received respectful attention, but the recent gathering of leaders in Washington cannot be said to have added any material impetus to the boom. of MR. LANE'S RESIGNATION. The impending resignation. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, excites no surprise in Washington, where it long has been recognized that Mr. Lane would have quit the Cabinet years ago, as a simple matter of self-respect, if the country had not been at war. The Administration has no use for men so strong and popular that even members of the opposition party speak well of them. And with Mr. Lane will go John W. Hallowell of Boston, who will tell you when he gets back more of the "inside" of the "regency" which is now dictating the affairs of the country. Should Mr. Lane be succeeded by Alexander T. Vogelsang, Assistant Secretary, the Lane ideas would still live in the Department, for Mr. Vogelsang is loyal to his chief and is a very able man into the bargain, possibly too able and too loyal to be wholly acceptable to the powers that be. PROSPECTS OF THE PEACE TREATY. It is not unlikely that the peace treaty, containing the covenant of the League of Nations, finally will be ratified, but it will be with the Lodge reservations practically as they stand. It is doubtful if half a dozen men in the Senate, if left to their own judg ment, would vote to approve the Covenant as Mr. Wilson brought it home from Paris; and whatever the outcome, the prestige of Mr. Wilson has been seriously dimmed by the tactics he has pursued in trying to force the Senate to his will. The determination of peace is more certain than the success of the League, unless Mr. Wilson chooses to stand in the way of that, for Congress as a body is ready now to vote for peace. regardless of what becomes of the League for the time being; for the President has lost his grip upon a his party in Congress except the professional cuckoos, who, fortunately, are not in the majority. At the pres ent writing, the Administration is breaking its back to prevent a really able, sagacious and independent man Mr. Underwood of Alabama, from becoming leader of the minority in the Senate. Bryan as a go-between, të save the President's face, may prove acceptable to his fellow pacifists c the Democratic side, and to that extent improve the prospects of agreement on the Lodge reservations. Bu the fight for the Americanization c the treaty is as good as won, W. E. B. THE REVENUE PROBLEM. The revenue problem of the United States is a part of a world problem. The burden of staggering debts rests upon the nations of the earth. The following table shows the post-war debt and the pre-war wealth of the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy, as of January, 1919: Post-war debt. Pre-war wealth. U. S. $26,000,000,000 $225,000,000,000 Gr. Britain 40,000,000,000 France Italy 85,000,000,000 27,000,000,000 67,000,000,000 11,000,000,000 16,000,000,000 Our debt is the smallest of any of the allied nations except Italy's. It is about 6 per cent of that of Great Britain; it is $1,000,000,000 less than that of France, and $15,000,000,000 more than that of Italy. But our debt of $26,000,000,000 is only 8.1 per cent of our national wealth, whereas Great Britain's is 40 per cent; France's 40.3 per cent, and Italy's over 65 per cent. These debts cannot be repudiated, they must be paid. It has taxed the resources of statesmanship to raise money for carrying on the war and to meet the interest on the war debts. This country suffered far less than other countries in the losses of war and gained much more in commercial advantages and financial power. We met our war duties in a noble fashion. We must not shirk our post-war obligations. The revenue system of the United States must take into consideration world needs as it never has before. The wounds of the world are deep and recovery depends upon international co-operation. It is, therefore, in a broad spirit that we must consider the revenue problems of the nation. Vast sums of money must be raised, and to raise money the Government must go where money is. Taxes that would have seemed almost confiscatory a few years ago have been imposed and borne without complaint. The rich have paid in proportion to their riches, as is just, but the point has about been reached where heavy taxes on private and corporation incomes will prove an injury to the industry of the country. Business requires capital. If capital is practically confiscated by taxation, business will suffer, and if business suffers revenue stops. “་ It will be necessary to continue for soem time income taxes, the tax on profits and on luxuries. Senator Underwood was quoted some time ago as saying that we must have a wider distribution of taxes and said that this could be brought about through consumption taxes on necessaries. He might have found much nearer at hand a wiser and more legitimate source of revenue. He was the author of the present tariff law, a law that imposes upon imports from foreign countries the lowest average duty in our history. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, we imported $3,095,000,000 worth of goods. The average rate of duty on these imports. was 6.08 per cent. Seventy-two per cent of our imports came in absolutely free of duty. From these imports we derived customs revenue of. $184,000,000. England raised from customs duties in 1917-18 about $350,000,000. It was estimated that its revenue for the fiscal year 1919 would be $460,000,000. This is $10.25 per capita, whereas our customs revenue is about $1.70 per capita. Eleven per cent of England's revenue is derived from customs duties. We raise between three and four per cent of our revenue by duties on imports. Here then is a legitimate source of revenue which we have neglected to utilize during recent years. We cannot be charged with indifference to the world's need if we increase our customs duties, as our revenue from customs now is less than $2 per capita compared to over $10 in England, and is only 4 per cent of our total revenue, whereas in England it is 11 per cent. If we imposed taxes upon imports in proportion to England's per capita tax for this purpose, our revenue from customs duties would amount to over $1,000,000,000 a year. Here is a source of revenue that should be more fully utilized. It should be employed with discretion and with fairness, and so employed would increase the revenue of the Government and encourage the development and expansion of our industries. HOW TO COMBAT BOLSHEVISM. Conservative organized labor, the kind for which employers and the public have entertained some respect, all American labor, in fact, has a patriotic task cut out for it by the I. W. W. element which may be very easily accomplished if the right kind of men. among the employes are willing to do their part; and this duty, it may be said, will yield as much benefit to the wageworker as to the employer. An official of the Department of Justice who has much to do with suppressing the activities of the Reds in this country recently offered some sound. advice as to how to combat bolshevism, to the Washington correspondent of The Protectionist. He said: the American system, and they are open to all the evil influences the professional agitator can bring to bear on them, without a word being said to counteract the deliberate lies and misrepresentations on which they are fed. It is not surprising that bolshevism makes headway in some quarters even in the United States, for the victims of its monstrous doctrines hear only one side. Many of us who condemn the labor radicals, yet believe that the United States never can be endangered by the extremists, do not realize that many working men live in wholly another world than ours. They read nothing that we read, they hear nothing of the legitimate arguments put forward in behalf of The great majority of labor is patriotic and intelligent; but the agents of the I. W. W. also are inI know a great many telligent. of them, and they are among the brightest men I ever have met. In fact, it stands to reason that if they were not they could not pull the wool over the eyes of the men and women whom they make their dupes, and lead on to deeds which naturally these people never would commit or tolerate. Yet it is easy to counteract these false teachings if a little counter-organizing is done; if conservative workingmen, who also are true Americans, who own their own homes and who take a genuine interest in their work and thinking because no one is around This counter-activity requires no special training, for every real American knows that the prosperity of the country is based on the abolition of class distinctions, not the creation of them, and that to destroy the opportunities which our free and open system offers the workingman is to wreck all prosperity, with the workingman the greatest sufferer in the end. Lenine and Trotsky in Russia know that they could not last a week if the people about them could be told what every intelligent American workingman knows. Labor will be working for itself as much as for anyone else in organizing a campaign of rebuttal of this kind. W. E. B. JAPAN A WORLD POWER IN INDUSTRY. The Progress of Industrial Events.-British Manufacturers Combine to Regain Normal Conditions. The Home Market. From Our London Correspondent. London, Dec. 15, 1919. The President of the Board of Trade declares that the two principal trade competitors Britain has to face are the United States and Japan. The latter country can no longer be ignored as one of the great nations of the world, especially from an industrial point of view. British manufacturers come into contact almost daily with Japanese competition, and no one doubts that this state of things will grow keener. combine formed there with the avowed object of making that country the radiating point of a vast system of ocean transportation. During the war great strides have been made by Japanese shipping. It is estimated by experts that the annual output of her shipbuilding yards has nearly doubled during the last three years; but it should be noted that a recent despatch from Japan pointed out that owing to heavy freight rates and the increased. cost of labor, steel ships were now There has been a great shipping costing as much as $187 per ton to |