Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-04-06
PROTECT HOME INTERESTS.


We have been surprised, from time to
time, at the short-sighted policy displayed
by many of the public journals Of this sec
ton, upon matters affecting vitality the ma
terial welfare and prosperity of East Ten
nessee, and especially upon the question of
a Protective Tariff Instead of arguing
from established data and arraylng facts to
substantiate their position, they have gone
off into generalties and worked themselves
into frenzy over monopolies class legis-
lation, and the like; entirely ignoring the
benefits growing out of this much abused
Tariff System they SO senselessly assail.--
Now we hold that whatever policy will
best subserve the interests of East Tennes-
see is the true one for us to pursue, regard
less of what others may do or say i'm the
premises. That our whole interest lays i'm
the direction of agriculture and manufac-
lures no one will attempt to deny; neither
| will they deny that whatever builds up the
one will aid materially in the prosperity of
the other. Now there are certain manu-
| featuring interests, and those too most vi
| tai to East Tennessee, which cannot exist
without protective tariff; and the ques'
ton readily presents itself-would we be
better off without them and the tariff too
4 or sustain them by judicious legislation,
and at the same time sustain all other i'm
terests SO intimately related to them? If
| it were not for the difference in the price
of labor there would be no need for this
p.oteetion to our industries, but no just
man or lover of his race desires to see the
laboring men in this country. brought to
the same level with over-crowded coun-
tries of the old world; and while we do
not, protection must of necessity be at
greater expense, SO if we produce at all, it
must be by the aid of a wise protection ON
the part of the General Government.
That the cry of class legislation is falla-
cious, must be patent to every man, as all
trades are open to all men, and laws for the
whole cannot be prejudicial to any. But
again, the price we pay is not $50 important
as that other question, Have we the means
to pay?" If corn is worth dollar per
bushel, farmer can better afford to pay
six cents for a pound of iron than five, il
corn is worth only fifty cents per bushel
: and the same holds true i'm all the ramifi-
cations of the protection system. Where.
ever we have had high TARIFF, all oul
money has been kept at home, and all
classes--the farmer, the mechanic and the
merchant-have realized good profits and
there has been general prosperity, and will
low tariffs exactly the reverse, and in sew
: eral instances positive bankruptcy, as In
1857. n
But we do not admit that permanently
we could obtain manufactured articles
cheaper abroad than we do now at home
but only until our own manufactures hat
1 gone to decay and we were powerless t.
. produce-when the common rules of sup
4 ply and demand would compel us to pa.
!, any price the foreign producer saw fit b
!. extort. This 10 only common sense, an,
8 every man with half an eye cannot fail I.
), see the inevitable result of repeal OF on
T present laws for the protection of our owl
y industries; -
= But locally we have q very vital inter
est in this matter. We may talk never 8
r loudly of our mineral resources withou
g protection they are, for this generation
; worth no more than the paper on whic
/ we write.
L During the past year, the total produc
e of the iron manufactures in East Tennes
see, including Chattanooga and our uppe
e counties, assimilated TO something owe
e 100000. How many bushels of corn, an
y what did this buy of the farmer, and ho'
Is many goods of the merchant? How man
d debts did it pay, and who has not felt il
L influence? The great bulk of this iro
X hos haau sant IN Sfatae soufb and was