The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-11-24

Die document. From ti;lt portion winch treats
of economic questions we quote as follows -
1.-THE question of protection on this principle has
been settled since the existence of the national
debt. Whether thus to protect American manu-
features or not, Is but another form of the ques
ton whether the wages Of American industry
shall be reduced to the rates prevailing in E,- |
onymous terms The American laborer is an in
dependent citizen--not dependent subject. He
has family to maintain in deceney and COM
fort, and children to educate and rear in virtue
and responsibility. Any system of wages which
approximates to the rates obtaining in Europe
reduces him from the standing of citizen, and
from the responsibilities Of father and husband,
to the condition of an abject pauper. Protection
is the magic leverage by which his condition is
elevated or depressed"
For sheer nonsense commend us to the above.
Such an address, If published by an iron-inanu-
faeturers' lobby anxious to influence n constit-
uency of working-men in favor of high tariff
candidate for Congress, would not have surprised
us; butfrom State committee to the people Of Vir-
gtnfd, aoho haze no industries iohich the tariff only
touched to irJure and Cypress, IL is indeed dstound
ing. Ifany section of the country should favor
Free Trade from purely selfish considerations, if
from no higher and worthier motives, it is the
South. We have no desire to say any thing
which WI could be misunderstood as having politi.
cal bias for, as our readers know, we do not
NEEDLE with such matters at any time; but we
are convinced that whichever party bases it's
claims to the suffrages of the Southern people
upon its advocacy of tariff policy prejudical in
all respects to the material interests of the South
makes grave mistake and one which, If persisted
| sired The people of the South understand their
own interests too well to be deceived by any shall
low nonsense about foreign " pauper labor and
Protection to American working men, and
those who try to catch the Southern vote with
any such bait can not credit any success they
may make to good management.
We find the above quoted article in the
Free Trader, the organ of the American
Free Trade League, at New York, and al
though it is impossible 10 discuss even the
general issues within the brief limits of
newspaper article, we notice the ad captain
dun, argument Of the Free Trader graft
fled to find that. the clear, unequivocal
enunciation of Republican policy, by our
State Central Committee, on the question
of protecting home industry, has been SO
well understood, that the organ of European
manufacturers finds it necessary to combat
the argument.
That such protectionist principles should
be avowed 'sby an iron manufacturers
lobby anxious to influence constituency
of workingmen"--the critic admits, 'would
not have surprised u.s." Thus he comedies
the wisdom of the stand taken by the Re-
publican party in Virginia, and shows his
lack of acquaintance with the geological
history of Virginia and the growth of the
iron-producing interest within, and adjacent
to her borders.
Virginia in the past, it may be true, had
no industries which where touched by the
tariff to injure or protect; but it is now
far otherwise and before 1880, unless the
budding promise is blighted by some un-
foreseen disaster, Virginia will have an
IRON industry of sufficient magnitude to
bring to her portion of the wealth so long
monopolized by Pennsylvania on the At
lantic coast, and Missouri in the West.
Virginia has for many years been prac-
ticing the favorite injunction of Free
Traders-"Buy in the cheapest market,
and sell in the dearest'-she has shipped
her tobacco to New York, or Europe, as
the highest price ruled, and brought back
in exchange Ter provisions and clothing,
bought in the cheapest markets of Europe
or the North; and what is the result
an impoverished soil, an impoverished
people, and a tax-burdened community,
with liabilities bearing higher proper.
Tomato per centage to value of property,
real and personal, than any State in the
Union.
The census returns speak most emphati-
cally on this subject, and give ''confirma-
ton strong" to the wisdom of the policy
of protecting manufactures, which is a
plank of our party platform in Virginia.
In every recognized manufacturing State,
the increase of valuation of real and per-
sonal property during the last decade, far
exceeds the increase in recognized agricul-
tural States; and we do not think we shall
be called idle dreamers, if we predict that
the census OF 1880 will show that industries
have arisen in Virginia, which add to her
material wealth in as large proportion over
1870, as the returns of 1870 show Mis-
souri,, Pennsylvania, &C., have prospered
since 1850.
The Free Trader makes an equally un-
fortunate statement in support of its theo-
ry, and denunciation of the address of the
Virginia State Committee
The total amount of the manufactures of Great
| Britain taken by the United States during 1870
was f2s 35J394, say $l4 1890, being the largest
sum ever reached in any year, with the excep-
ton of the year 1865, when the values were f2S,-
499,574 say Sl42 1877 $40, and exceeding the value
of the exports of 1860, the year before the Amer-
can war, by nearly 81 per cent. Attention is re-
spectfuly called to this increase of our imports
under tariff which was to "emancipate" us
from our thralldom TO British capital"
Now, with all Difference to the opinion of
the Free Trader, which assumes to speak
as ec cathedra, we submit that if the
United States is drained of this enormous
annual contribution to European manufac-
turers under our present tariff, what would
be its probable magnitude if no tariff OBJ
structions existed as to importations ?
Itnow draws yearly upon the gold pro-
duct Of California, to square accounts with
our free trade friends; but if they could
send us goods without check, the whole
gold product of the United States would
not be sufficient to pay our debts, after ex-
hausting our entire export Of raw material
in part payment.