The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-05-03
BUT we wish for a little more light.

BUT we wish for little more light.
We are not to be blinded by word. The
Journal knows that its logic is at fault when
it gives q weak government" as reason
why the Confederate States would have
needed tariff for protection. We have
often heard of protecting domestic industry,
but never of protecting or strengthening
weak government by the aid of a tariff.
We set this down as a slip of the pen, and
proceed to ask how and why it is that Nir-
ginia does not now need tariff, or a tax, or
a sample-mechanic law, or sample-mer-
chant law, to protect her industry against
competition from the North? Surely it
cannot be because either the State, or her
government, or her people, or her industry,
can boast of being too strong to need such
protection. Nor can it be because our
chief industry is taxed most outrageously.
Dispatch.
We neither intend to blind the Dispatch
by word, nor to be blinded by it by
many words. That journal knows the con-
nection in which we used the expression
weak government" 1t was simply to
say that government (and we used the
term generically as embracing the whole of
any government which is weak in its in
dustrial resources, stands in greater need of
protection than one that is strong and well
fortified against competition. This was the
whole Of our proposition in that direction,
and it hardly needs anything more than
clear and succinct statement to receive the
assent Of the most obtnse student in politi-
cal economy. If the Dispatch has never
heard of protecting domestic industry as
means Of Strengthening weak govern
ment,-that is, one weak in industrial
wealth and resources-ace have and this
difference in our information may make all
the difference in our views and opinions as
to protection. The first Napoleon, who
was as great in the field Of craftsmanship
rs in the more imposing one of arms, used
the following language in reference
to q people dependent on their own indus
trial resources: SIN feudal times there
was one kind of property--land ; but there
has grown up another-industry. They
are alike entitled to the protection and de-
fence of the governments" and his Minis
ter of the Interior, Chaptal, only repeated
the language of Napoleon when he said :
"It duties on imports) shields the rising
arts by prohibitions, thus preserving them
from the rivalship of foreigners until they
arrive at complete perfection. 1t tends to
establish the national independence, and
em5ches the country by useful labor.
Rising manufactures are unable to strug-
Gle against establishments cemented by
time and nourished by numerous capitals.
We have been forced to have re-
course to prohibition to ward off
tae competition of foreign productions.
It is necessary for the gro,cth Of the na-
tional prosperity TO protect the infant but ri
sing manufactures Of France" Thus, as
will be seen, Napoleon had no sooner
grasped with a firm hand the reins of gov
eminent, than he resolved to strengthen
the national wealth by protecting French
industry. True, the primary object of the
duty, after revenue, is to protect the in
dustry, but the strength it imparts to the
government Especially in its infancy is
hardly secondary to it as an object Of legis-
lation. Napoleon, when made a member
Of the Institute, and while acting as First
Consul, startled the politico-economists of
Europe by this noble sentiment: "The
true power of the French Republic should
consist, above all, in its not allowing
a single new idea to exist which it
does not make its own" The Bourbons
of his day were no doubt Mortified at this
utterance, as the same class may be by
similar utterances now. But if they saw
their own waning power in it, they had the
satisfaction also of witnessing the rising
glory Of their country under its practical
operation as an applied principle Of govern
ment.
Washington in his inaugural address in
1890, declared that "the safety and in
terest of the people required that they
should promote manufactures" Five
years later he said Congress have re-
peatedly directed their attention to the en-
enlargement OF manufactures. The object
is Of too much importance not to insure o
continuance of these efforts in every way
which shall appear eligible" Jefferson
held the same doctrine as especially appli
cable to our infant but rising power as 0
nation.
1t may seem absurd to the Dispatch that
laying what it calls a burden on one indus
try to strengthen another, should add any
thing to the general wealth of a country
In the direct and immediate application o.