Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-04-20
A Tariff for General and not Special
Protection.

Protection.
In the debate in the House of Representa-
tives at Washington, in Committee OF the
Whole on the tariff, last Thursday evening,
Gen. Butler pressed some amendments to the
bill, looking to a reduction Of the duty on
some raw materials used by the manufactures
in his own district. Western gentlemen
were urging that fax and hemp, and other
products of the soil, should be protected as
well as the products of New England manu-
factories To this Gen. Butler had replied
that he desired to see manufactures confined
to New England he wanted all the duty
he could get on the manufactured product,
but he wanted to get raw material as cheap
as possible and that he never wished to see
the time when manufactures would flourish
at the West. This selfish doctrine struck
New England members and the House with
establishment. Several members from New
England at once repudiated this narrow view
of protection, and used the five minutes al
lowed by the rules to any one speaker to dis
claim any symPossy WIN Gen. Butfer1s
views. In the course Of the debate, Mr..
WILLARD spoke as follows:
Mr.. Chairman, rise for the purpose Of
expressing, as a Representative of New
England district, my amazement at the very
bold statement of the gentleman from Mass
achusetts Mr.. BUTLER as to his policy with
regard to a protective tariff. His idea of
protective tariff seems to be, that it is for
the purpose of building zap few manufac-
lures in his district, and of destroying man.
ulactures everywhere else, so that everybody
in the country must pay tribute to his con-
stituents. Certainly, sir, if we should fol-
low his views in this respect, we cannot turn
round and say that he has misled us by false
pretenses. He has stated with sufficient
clearness and holiness the ground on which
he bases his proposition.
Now, sir, l believe in protection not pro-
lection to American manufactures merely,
not protection merely for finished and COM
plete product ready for use, but protection
to American industry wherever that industry
is employed, whether on the farm, in raising
wool or cotton, wheat or corn, fax or hemp,
or in the shoe mandatory at Lynn, or in
the manufacture of hastings for making shoes,
or in whatever other form the industry of
the country may be employed. If asked
here protection for any industry in my dis
trict, and at the same time refused protection
to an industry in any other gentleman's dis
trict, l should feel that was acting entirely
from selfish considerations that l had
thrown aside all pretension TO craftsmanship
in my action upon this question that had
abandoned the idea that was a citizen of
the whole country, and was settling myself
down into the conviction that | was merely
a Representative of a district in Vermont,
and was legislating only for the interests of
that district.
There can be no correct system of protec-
ton in this country unless it contemplates
protection to all industries. The argument
of the gentlemen upon the Democratic side
of the House that an industry giving employ
ment to 5000 or l0, 900 or 20 600 people is
not to be protected because the product of
that industry is consumed by millions, and
by such a tariff the few will be protectedat.
the expense of the many, is in itself SOUND
and if protection stopped with
the advancement of a single industry, that
rrssrsion s 30 be VIII. s hs
81 single industry. We are endeavoring,
to protect all industries, to protect the coI<j
sumner everywhere as we'll rs the producer,
to protect the product of tie man who raises
fax, hemp and wool, as well as the finished
product of the manufactures. BY protection
upon such products the producer of them is
enabled to buy shoes manufactured in the
district of the gentleman from Massachusetts.
By the protection which We give TO man
growing some product which comes in COM
petition with a foreign product, we enable
him to pay the enhanced cost Gf protection
enhances the cost) of any article which be
may have to purchase, and which in like
manner comes into competition with foreign
product, and needs and receives protection.
In this way we make our protection general.
We do not protect special interest merely /;
we protect all interests. When we adopt
such system, the argument that protection
avors only special interests, that it is class
legislation calc ulated to enrich the manufac-
turers only, and TO take money out of the
pockets of the laboring classes, falls entirely
to the ground. | can see no reason and no
justice in voting for protection for particular
it whenever any other interest is proved to
need protection.
Here the hammer fell
During the same debate, Mr.. DAWES made
the following remarks:
have been trying for the last few days to
discover to what principle my colleague Mr..
BUTLER adheres in dealing with this tariff.
A day or two ago be proposed to discriminate
against a manufactured article for the sake
of benefting the Lynn shoemaker. He
endeavored to destroy manufacture of this
country, which would have the effect of
compelling the Lynn shoemakers to rely upon
foreign market exclusively. To-day he
proposes to concentrate all manufactures in
particular locality, and the agricultural
employments of the country in another, and
the raising of particular products in another.
He is for making war upon any who would
diversity the industry and employments OF
the country.
If, Mr.. Chairman, / believed that the
effect of a protective tariff was to be what
my colleague has assured US tonight would
be its effect, | would be the last man to stand
up and defend II. 1t is because believe
that it will have just the opposite effect. tina,
il will build up manufacturers in the West
and make a market for them at their doors,
that think it will have a beneficial effect
on this country, and if it does not do that
| it will not have that effect. l believe that
just so far as you spread these manufactures
all over the country you will benefit it, and
just so far as you concentrate them in any
particular locality, in New England or any
other, you damage the country to that ex-
tent, and any policy of legislation that re
suits in that is the worst possible policy fol
the present prosperity of this country. II
the West has no hope of better market
nearer home than she now has, the time will
never come when she can fully develope the
utmost productive capacity of her soil.
The East, if they are to rely solely upon
such legislation as will give them protection
in their particular locality, can never have
any certainty of policy or any certainty Of
industry in this country. Their only hope
is that these pursuits are spreading all over
the country and bringing stability of policy
and permanence of legislation. Within the
last five years more wooden manufactures
have sprung up in the West than existed in
all the East or do exist there at this day,
and the only hope of eastern manufacturers
is in the fact that in the West wooden man
ufacturiDg is springing up, and that in the
South they are to carry the machine close to
the COTTON fields and manufacture the cotton