New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1871-12-28

We have before stated that the Australian
colonies have firmly adopted and adhered to
the policy of protection to their manufactures
The Treasury of the colony of Victoria states
the object to be ito establish industries and
make work plentiful throughout the country,
desiring to see an Australian policy has been
realized here; as the American policy has been
realised in America" This is the way which
most foreign nations regard the results of pro-
lection in the United States. They see the
splendid fabric of prosperity we have built ~
through the agency Of our industries, and they
know hat in their own cases such result is
impossible without the protection which has
made us what we are. Yet there are writer's in
the United States who rack their brains over
such topics as does protection protectY'' and
who are always engaged in efforts to persuade
the leading manufacturers that T. cir true In
terest is to favor free trade, in order to crush
young and rising industrial firms.
When American Institutions were under trial
in the civil war, the North was found to be
strong, and able to make good its claims and
principles against all hazards, because it had
cultivated mining and manufactures. 1t had
industrial concerns capable of making every
thing it needed, and consequently it was indie
pendent and selfsustaining. Cut off from its
supplies of cotton, it substituted wool. which it
could produce within its own area. Its resour-
ces seemed to be fairly inexhaustibe, and its
success was a matter Of course. 1t had uni
formly sustained the protective policy, and
acted theoretically under it. On the other
hand, the South, which, after building up its
cotton crop by means of protection, had uni
formly opposed protection and favored free
trade, found itself in the supreme moment with.
out the resources of internal industry requisite
to carry on a war. The blockade cut off the
foreign market for its bottom, and the domestic
market was cut off from supplies of foreign
goods. Exhaustion was therefore, only mat.
ter of time. The South was caught in a trap OF
its own construction.
In the light of that experience the South has,
since the war, gone vigorously into industrial
pursuits. That section now wants more rail-
roads, more iron foundries, more machine
shops, more cotton factories, more of every
thing in the shape of productive industry, and
1t leaves the free trade agitation to its appro-
pirate supporters, the importing interests of
the North. The real force of free trade is no
longer at the South, on account of its agri-
cultural interests, but in the commercial cities
of the North. For the American market for
foreign goods has now become of transcendant
importance, and foreign manufacturers and
merchants are pouring goods in upon us in
quantities that amaze everybody. Our in
dustrlal production increase enormously but
our importation also augments prodgiously.
Protection has made the home market good for
our own productions, and at the same time
also created an additional demand for foreign
goods. The industrial classes are better able
to buy goods than they used to be- They have
steady employment and good pay, whereas
without protection they would be poor and
idle.
The aim and the effect of protection, then are,
10 the words of the Australian official quoted
above, to establish industries and make work
plentiful throughout the country" and there
could be no higher or better than that.
wherever iron, coal, copper, marble, zinc, tin,
gold, silver, nickel. or any other valuable
mineral production can be found in this Repub-
lie, protection seeks to utilize it by mining aud
manufacturers, so as 10 employ both capital and
labor proftably. Thus we put money TO its
proper uses, and reduce the number of the un
employed and the discontented. Wherever
sugar, cotton, wool, hemp, iron, copper, or any
other raw material can be made available for
industry, protection seeks to utilize it by estab-
fishing workshops for the same objects as
above.
Protection does much more than merely to
furnish investments for capital and employ
ments for labor. 1t invokes the high, scientific
talent to superiDtend its constructions and pro-
cesses. 1t stimulates and rewards the inventor
gives unfailing employment to the geologist and
cnemist, demands constantly more and higher
engineering talent, and necessitates constantly
increasing culture in the arts. The experience
OF France and England has proven conclusively
that assiduOus cultivation of the fine arts is
indispensable to supremacy in manufactures.
Hence protection has far grander sweep in
its operations than merely to sustain the inter.
ests of few great capitalists. 1t develops the
resources Ola country, agricultural, mineral,
industrial, and commercial. 1t stimulates sci
entihc pursuits, and fosters art culture. 1t
gives reliable market TO the farmer, steady
work to the laborer, both skilled and unskilled,
and remunerative employment to the scientist,
the inventor, and the professional man. 1t did
80 IN England, in France, in Germany, in Rus
STA, and 1t has done so in the United States. 1t
is the only safe and sound policy for great
nation like ours to pursue, and so far from be
Ing inimical to commerce, it is sure to build il
up on the most enduring Of all possible founda
tons, the permanent necessities of people
North american.