The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-09-01
PROTECTION TO AMERICAN
INDUSTRY.
Letter from Hon. II. ". Clarke to the
Protection society OF cleveland.

Hon. Reader w. Olhrkei OF Oie1moub
member of Congress elect from the
9Th Ohio District. Mr.. Clarke has long
held a high rank at the bar of Southern
Ohio, and promises we'll to stand among
the ablest practical statesmen of the next
Congress;
BATAVIA, o, August %.
DEAR SIR: The object of your societyp
as expressed in your circular, meets my
decided approval, and be assured 1 shall
take pleasure, at all times and everywhere,
to give it encouragement snd support.
such are the wonderful resources of our
great country, the industry, ingenuity and
enterprise of our people, that we hold with
in ourselves the elements and facilities Of q
world; and if isolated from all other na.
lions, would march on rapidly to 8 condi-
ton ofunexampled wealth. / do not over
look the advantages of foreign commerce,
when attainshle upon just and equal terms;
Init the history of the world is conclusive
IN the fact that in all commercial inter-
course between nations the old and opu-
lent countries are tax. gstherers from the
younger and more dependant, and that, in
9 free commerce, the weak will be oppress-
ed and the strong increased. Let US pro-
duce at home everything our people neeo,
for convenience or comfort, and our gold
will be used in trade among ourselves, in
stead of going out of the country to return
no more. Every article we force into 8
foreign market to sell, loses something of
its intrinsic value, in the way of carriage,
shrinksge, Storage, commission, insurance
! snd duty, which might be saved in q do
nestle market. This too, would regulate
our currency, which even now, expanded
as it il to q thousand millions of dollars,
would be as good as gold, dollar for dollar,
were it not for the injurious influences of
the money-mongers OF Europe, whose bar
vest is always found in the disturbed con-
dition of the currency of nations. Green
backs will buy wheat, corn. -four and pork
in ONO, and shoes, cloths and cAlicoes in
Massachusetts,; but greenbscks will not
answer at Manchester OF Birmingham
Gold is required there, hence q discrimins-
ton is msde-the English banker requir'
ing the American merchant first to buy
his gold, and then, with British gold he il
qualified to purchase British goods
Greenbscks are near fifty per cent undel
pAr (gold being the stsndard), yet oul
government and people are pledged to the
payment IN gold of euery dollar Of green
backs. In q domestic trade, no such dis
elimination could arise. The money tina
pays debts aud taxes, buys land, clothing
and food-does all that money can do, anC
ought to maintain q par value with gold
for gold could do no more. And thl
would be so but for the mischiavous ten
denotes of our commercial dependence up
on Europe.
You exhort our people to 'qabor hard il
all branches of industry" They need n
spur to that end. No people were eve
more ready to labor persistently than our
Give them proper motives and they spar
not their muscle; give them wholeeom
food and fair wages and they labor cheer
fully, produce sbundsntly, grow rich, bull
school houses and churches, become edu
Gated, moral and happy. But if weexpec
all this, the Government must give then
its protection,-protsct them against III
equal and unjust foreign competition
Free men, they expect free men's tOGge'
and are not content to compete with th
pauper labor of foreign Governments
You protect our citizens by law sgains
thieves who steal their property,-yet b
permitting an English manufacturer t
bring here the product of pauper labor, an
expose it for sale beside the same fabric @
domestic make, you steal from the Ameri
can all of his labor except an equivalent t
that which pays the psltry wages of tn
British pauper.
The great purpose of free government
pTctectt0n1-fOr THIs we pEy our TAxesI-
protection of life, liberty, reputation an
property-protection not only against tn
vicious, but against every injurious mach
instion, whereby the product of honest toi
NAV be taken from the lSborer without
far equivalent. All governments but our
make protection the controlling object j
their laws regulating foreign trade. Tn
idea of Free Trade is q myth, and onl
American statesmen propagate the delu
sion. No other nation, with which we hsv
commercial relations, proposes any sue
thing they dare not if they wOuld,-ssl
preservation forbids it. Let England brea
down her tariff, and open her ports to IRE
commerce, and all her industrial interest
would perish, and the whole island woul
he nsnperInod. She derives n hundre
and twenty. five millions of dollars per an
mum from her taxes on imports and ninet
millions from excise, making two-thirds c
her annual revenue; not q dollar of whic
could she realize if she abandoned tn
protective system. Her other sources c
revenue would moi produce enough to pa
the interest upon her national debt, to So
nothing of the expenses of administration
including q standing army Of a quarter
q million, and q navy of correspondent
proportions.
Our grain, -four, beef, pork, whisky, tC
bacco-everything we take to the Englis
market is tsxed,-has ever been 30, an
will continue, though we should open on
ports and declare universal FTes Trad
So careful is England to protect her indui
try, that she exhausts her own resource
before she admits q dollars worth of foreig
commodities into her markets. Not q bust
ell of American grain is sold in England
if she can scrspe up that needed bushC
from the remoteet of her domain
So of every article OF trade, from this {
any other country. We only sell on
products, even the prime articles of food, {
England, when she can get them nowhel
else. She buys them only to escape stGrvc
ton. Upon these terms we al alWsy
rely upon her patronage, and upon non
other.
There are thirty millions of spindIes i
England, daily employed in spinning col
ton, with looms weaving it into clotI
whereof two hundred millions of dollar
worth are annually exported, and of woole
goods a hundred and twenty-five million
are annually produced and sent abroad fc
market-ofa all which, zoe are the best Gu.
toners. We have every means of supply
ing our wants with sIl these articles, j
we will foster the spirit Of enterprise anon
our own people, and not only retain tn
gold at home that must otherwise be sen
abroad to purchase them, but afford profit
sbleand constant employment to thousand
of our men and women who are now i'd
from sheer necessity.
In 1868 we received imports of foreigl
goods exceeding in value three hundre'
millions of dollsrs,-of which rGtD mate
ridLs, such as cotton, sOooL and hides, mad
q formidable part; deriving q revenue @
less thAn seventy millions. We have tn
country especially suited to the production
of cotton, wool and hides,-why go Abroat
Nth gold to purchase them2 The intelli
gent citizen of Ohio will smile to observl
in the list of imports, such items as cheese
~esrthenwsre, feathers, fax, hemp, grain
leather, pipes, onions, potatoes, tomatoes
tobacco and whisky, TO the amount Of mill
ions of dollars in value; yet it is true, ant
it will continue, and increase upon Us, if VI
do not encourage the labor that will pro