Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-04
Protection-The National Policy.

-itany consideration have begun to exam
inc it. a general investigation of it is
desirable,-itis neee ssary, sinceit isby the
popular ose that questions of public pol
icy are to be ultimately determined.
While most of the papers taking part
in the discussion, which have come to our
hands, take the side of Protection, there
are some which advocate Free Trade.
Although we do not profess to have at
tanned the degree of Doctor in the science
of political economy, or to understand
thoroughly the question under considers
ton, We cannot but notice, occasionally,
some palpable errors in papers which
adopt the Free Trade theory. For exam
pie, we find in one of these papers the
following;
"We assert that our manufacturers
would be far more prosperous, and ma
chinery much more generally used in this
country, if We had enjoyed Free Trade
eve since we achieved u independence
from Great Britain
1t is not easy to imagine how a man
could make this assertion in view of well
known historical facts. If without pro
lection, it is so easy to establish manufac-
lures, why didthe people; after their indie
pendence had been achieved, suffer seven
long years the bitter effects of the monop-
oily of their markets by foreign manufac-
turers, especially those of Great Britain ?
The country was flooded with British
goods, and our ports crowded with British
shipping; and the country was drained of
its money to pay for these goods and for
their transportation bither. This influx
Of foreign goods was disastrous to the me
chanieal and manufacturing industry of
the country.
The late Edward Everett, in a public
address delivered many years ago, allud-
ing to the condition Of the people during
the period referred to, spoke thus "When
their independence was attained, they
found it was a piece of parchment. The
arm which had struck for it in the field,
was palsied in the workshop; the indus
try which had been Burdened in the colo
mics, was crushed IN the free States; and,
at the close of the Revolution, the mechan-
les andmanufacturers f the eountryfound
themselves, inthe bitterness of their hearts,
independent-and ruined
Now, if manufacturers can be as readily
established without protection as with it,
why did not men at once go to. building
manufactures, and supply the country
with the goods they wanted2 Under a
system of high protective duties for more
than a hundred years, the manufacturing
interest had become firmly established in
Great Britain. What progress would any
.adv%enturer in this country have made in
the business with the limited capital at his
command? Were not men then as D
bleof judging of their ability to compete
with the great foreign capitalists as the
writer ofthe paragraph above quoted is at
the present day2
AT a much later period, when cap
ital had materially increased, attempts
were made to manufacture for ourselves.
but the attempt failed. Establishments
which had been erected during the war of
1872, under the protection afforded by the
double duties imposed to obtain o to
prosecute the war, were ruined after the
return of peace and the reduction of du-
lies, by the large importation which fol-
owed Why did not their owners keen
hem running if they would prosper as
veil under a system of Free Trade as un-
Ter a protective system? And why, after
manufacturers were prospecting under an
ineient protective tariff, have they been
ompelled to close their establishments. at
great loss, when, by Free Trade congress
policy was changed?
1t isa standing argument of the advo-
ates of Free Trade, that when a country
ripe for a certain manufacture, or when
rcumstances are favorable, then capital
III naturally seek investment in such
.anufaeture. II, mt SO late a period as
lat during the existence of the compro-
nse act of 1S33, and when our manufac-
ring interest had become comparatively
rong and Vigorous, why was it utterly
before the lowest point of re-
petlon liked by that tariff had been
'ached? In view of the facts to which
g nave r9ierred, it seems natural to con-
without protection no attembt
establish 'etures is likely to be
ecessfnl.