The Republican Party has been constantly for the protective policy because it believed that we could not constantly buy a large portion of the things we consume abroad without robbing our own citizens of their national and natural right to produce and sell those things at home. The Democratic Party has been constant in its advocacy of the doctrine that the markets of the United States ought to be open to the world with the least possible restriction. that the products of the worlds labor ought to be free to enter our markets at all times regardless of tile effect upon our own production. The Democratic Party has affected to believe that we could maintain our present standard of living and compenT _V_1 sation for labor. and at the same time buy a large portion of the things which we consume abroad. and thereby expose American labor to the full force of competition with the labor of European and Asiatic countries. notwithstanding that the labor of these countries receives on an average of less than half the American wage. In the report upon the present bill the Committee on Ways and Means has said that they believe that the pledge of the Democratic platform of 1912 contains two esseintial ideas: First. the establishment of duties designed primarily to produce revenue for the Government. and without thought of protection. and second. the attainment of this end by legislation which will not injure or destroy legitimate industry. It is the pretense of the majority that It has conformed its action to these essential ideas in framing the present bill.