Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-06-24

Free Trade and Protection.
from the Scientific Americana

CESC hh1 ANohtCtAoAs
From the Scientific Americana
Free trade in its unlimited sense,such free
trade as is preached by the most vociferous
of its advocates, means dependence upon
foreign sources for everything that can be
produced abroad cheaper than it con be
made at home. 1t means death 10 the man
ufacturing and mechanical interests of the
country, and the conversion of the enter
prising mechanics, who now add so much
to the industrial wealth of the nation, into
agrculturalisis. 1t means glut in tae
market of all agricultural products, and con-
sequent low prices and encouragement to
these engaged in agriculture. 1t means ex-
posure to sudden deprivation of those ne
cessaries of life for which we rely upon for
eign sources, at any time our foreign rela
tions become disturbed, consequent and
large advance in their price, and distress re-
suliing from diminished supply.
Protection, on the contrary, does not i'm
ply prohibition, as its opponents, many of
them,, unfairly claim. 1t means only the
proper adjustment of tariffs so that we can
compete with foreign producers in all those
industries, which may, with moderate en-
couragement, thrive here, and for which we
possess equal natural advantages with for
eign competitors. 1t means protection to
labor against forced competition with the
cheap labor of Europe. 1t means opporlu-
mites for those whose natural genius leads
them into other fields Of industry than agri-
cultural, to develop that genius and thus
add to the mental wealth OF the country as
well as to its material resources. All cannot
be successful farmers or merchants, and any
policy which tends to confine the abilities
of men to any oae channel, however broad
that channel may be, is bad policy.
We hear great deal about the distinction
between revenue tariff anG n protective
tariff, as though these were aud ought to he
considered separately; we do not believe in
this distinction. We hold that the best rev.
enue tariff will be the one that protects the
industries of commonwealth-the sources
from which all revenue must come, notwith-
standing the sophistry by which it is at
tempted to disguise important and funda-
mental truth.
No more fatal error has ever found ad-
herents in the political history of our coun-
try than the doctrine of "free trade. >
When mankind become one nation, one
brotherhood-when all produce equally, not
alone for self but for the good of the
whole-wben ignorance, and greed, and
lust of power no longer exist-when the
| millennium has come, free trade will be the
thing. Meanwhile we seem to live in an
epoch some thousands of years too early for
that blissfnl consummation.
The truth of the above proposition is
found not only in logical conclusions from
we'll established premises, but in the history
of the United States for the last half century.
| The tariff of 1888 produced its legitimate
results in the ruin of 1887, and the country
recovered only under the protective tariff Of
1912. The subsequent adoption of a free
trade policy in 1876 brought us to the very
verge of disaster in ls49, which was STAYED
off for few years by the gold production of
California. But 1857 brought the climax OF
| distress upon the country, ard there are
many young men who can remebcr that bit
ter lesson. To use the words Of Henry G.
Carey
| 'Once again do we find the country driv-
EN- to protection, and the public credit by its
means as well established as to enable the
Treasury with little difficulty to obtain the
means of carrying on war whose annual
cost was more than the total public expiden.
lures of half century, including the wal
with Great Britain in 1912. Thrice thus
with the tariffs of 1928, lSf2 and 1850, has
protection redeemed the country from al
| ulDob lulll, lhllNC tnuo, uutCi tHC iCfCuut
tariffs of 1917, 1884 and lS40, has IL beer
sunk so low that none could be be found sc
poor as to do it reverence. Such having
been our experience through half a century
1t might have been supposed that the ques
tion would be regarded now as settled, yc
| we do find among us men in office and ou
of office, secretaries and senators. owners o
ships and railroads, farmers and laborers, de
nouncing the system under which, at every
period of its existence, and more especially
in that of the recent wal, they had so largely
prospered-thereby proving how accurate
has been the description of them by al
eminent foreigner as the people who soonest
forgot yesterday"
These are well known and often asserted
facts, yet, blind to their teachings, the preach
ers of free trade are urging their views upon
the public, and enlisting in their behalf ever
the services of eminent divines and college
professors, in order to win by clap TRAPPED
certain class who are led by distinguish a
names and high sounding titles. Such men
distinguished for their want of financial
ability almost as much as for their great ac-
| quremeuts in letters and theology, are the
men who are to instruct the country upon
| political economy.
None are more likely to be deceived by
their special pleading than farmers; and no
class would be more seriously injured by the
adoption of free trade policy. Far re-
moved FROM commercial ccntns, and not
conversant with the details of trade, it seems
difficult for them to comprehend how cheap
ening iron and cotton goods should not be
beneficial to them. They do not see the
connection between the prices of manufac-
lured jods, and the prices Of their products,
and the value of land. The best way to
convince them is to point them to the indis-
putablc fact that when such goods have
hitherto advanced in price under the genial
influence of protection, their ability TO pur-
chase has always advanced in greater ratio
from the consequent increase in the value ol
farm products. We trust farmers will moi
permit themselves to be deceived in this mat
ters. Let them judge of the present and the
future by the past, which sheds clear and
unmistakabe light upon the subject, and in
the history of which stand yoked together
invariably, protection and prosperity, free
trade and disaster.