The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-30


rested under any suspicion of being his friend
could be confirmed
FIGHTING THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE.
From the NJ T. World.
1t was stated in Washington despatch to one
of the morning papers that Mr.. Greeleys reason
for decIininp the commssonership to examine
the Pacific Railroad, is, that he has engaged to
t,;;. book this summer in defense of protec-
t;on We welcome this evidence that the totteg7
ing tariff is felt by its foremost advocate to need
proppng up; but, if we may borrow one of Mr..
Greeleys favorite SMILES, he is like the bull that
planted himself a railroad track with his
butting head defantly turned towards the COM
ing locomotive, expecting to resist and stop it.
Here in New York, where Mr.. Greeley has been
advocating protection for nearly thirty years,
the cause has been steadily losing ground The
Times, which was formerly a protectionist
organ, now leans the other way: the Express has
deserted the tariff cause and become an open
supporter of free trade; the Commercial AdCer-
tiser has ceased to print protectonist articles;
Mr.. DANA q Jealous protectionist when mana
ging editor of the Tribune has never word to
say on that side in the Sun; the Courier and
Enquirer long since merged its existence in that
of free trade organ. The Tribune is left alone,
as the sole surviving representative in the New
York press of the expiring cause of protection,
and it has not produced a new argument on the
subject for the last ten years.
If we look abroad over the rest of the country,
oracles are smitten with dumbness, while nearly
every Western journal which has the elements
of vigorous life is scouting protection an
obsolete absurdity. The Western public men are
moving in the same direction as the western
press Some two years ago, the tribune had
occasion to take Senator Grimes and other
Western Congressman sharply to task for their
desertion of the cause in a critical Juncture.
Even the Massachusetts manufacturers are be-
coming convinced that n protective tariff ope-
rates against their interests. Dagon falls down
in his own temple and puts his worshippers to
shame.
If Mr. Greeley turns his view to other countries,
he must find the prospect still more dishearten-
ing Since he commenced his labors, protec-
ton in England has been completely OyerthroWn
and eradicated. There is no longer any politi
cal party in that country, nor any segment or
fraction of political party, that processes any
lingering fondness for the defunct cause. There
is no organ of British public opinion that does
not habitually speak OF 1t with the contempt due
to superannuated absurdity Those English
men who have given to Mr.. Greeley's anti-slavery
sentiments their Jealous sympathy, like Golden,
Bright and Mill, are among those who have eX-
erted the most powerful influence i'll exploding
protection. France has been for some time
moving in the same direction with England, as
the Golden treaty long ago bore witness.
The kind of facts to which we have now
alluded, impressive as they are, do not so con-
clusivey prove that protection is contrary to the
spirit of the age as some others whose bearing
on this subject is not quite so obtruslye. The
most remarkable monument OF economical pro-
gress in the last thirty years is the growth and
wonderful extension of communication by steam.
1t is within this period that steam cOmmunica-
ton has been established between the two con-
tinents. 1t is within this period that nearly all
the railroads of the world have been constructed.
The most distinguishing achievement of this
most remarkable age is the wonderful multiple
cation of quicker and cheaper means of inter
course between all nations, and between all the
parts of every civilized country. But what is
l,nf il fha .,1xr Nft
vaunted achievement, the proudest boast of the
period? Ii the protectonist theory be correct,
this marvellous multiplication of the means
of cheap intercourse is all Il mistake. a
most fatal and mischievous blunder. Ac-
cording to the protectionists, every locality
ought to supply its own wants; the producer and
the consumer should be i'll close proximity;
goods manufactured mt Il distance should be shut
ont by artificial barriers, in order that home
producers may have the monopoly OF the homo
market There is no method by which th
result could be reached with so much certainty
as by the destruction OF cheap means OF com
munication. A tariff laying fifty per cent. dutie
may be evaded by smugglers but II 1t costs nit.
per cent of the price of goods to transport them
that is protection against which the smuggler
are powerless. FIJI up the Erie Canal, tear NJ
the tracks of all the railroads between the Eas
and the West, convey all goods between the Al
lantic coast and the Mississippi valley in wagons
and Western manufacturers would be perfect
safe against the competition of the Eastern State
and of Europe. The cost OF transportation woul
make the Eastern goods so high by the time the
reached the Western markets, that the Wester
manufacturers would easily undersel them.
home production is true economy, if shuttin
out all foreign productions is proper means {
fostering and building up home industries, the
our exultation over the most conspicuous achieve
ments of this age is an empty, foolish boast an
the thousands of millions of money that hay
been invested in steamships and railroads hay
been worse than thrown away: Protectlol
10
and contradicts the common sense of mankin'
The protectionist theory is as hostile TO Il
imnroyements in machinery by which produ
tion is SO wonderfully cheapened, as II is TO y
new facilities for intercourse. Machinery cheal
ans nroduction only when the production is on
large scale. few hundred yards of cloth eoul
he Far more cheaply made with an old-fashione
band-loom than in one Of the great factories
Lowell. II costs so much to construct the ny
chineTy that, unless il can be Kept eons1anV