New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-11
Free Trade InfatuatiOn.

undoubtedly influenced by personal considera-
tons, like the patriot HAwIEY, of Detroit,
who is making salt in Canada, a. T. STEW
ART, who, in consequence of the duty he Is
required to pay on imported silks, laces,
cloths, &C., only makes 81 800, 900 a year clear
profit, or Col. GROvEsNoR, who is the agent
of the British Free Trade League. But there
are undoubtedly class of people who have
been deceived by their falsehoods and So
phistres, that honestly believe in the doctrine.
1t is safe to assert, however, that there is not
an intelligent man in the Union that has cam
didly and carefully investigated the question,
who favors the policy of free trade. All the
American people need to make them as I" fe-
rocious" protectionists as HORACE GREELEY
was before his fall, is thoroughly to understand
its principles and operations.
But in spite of the lesson which experience
has been teaching the people for more than
fifty wears, that free trade is fatal to every
great industrial interest of the country, there
is now and then community in which they
still cling to that miscellaneous heresy, and
blindly support the party pledged to the over
tiiip" W tiit ppii'f vi PA"CSNS''i' "
industry. We have Just had brought to our no.
tice by the Detroit Michigan, papers, "a remark
able instance of this kind of infatuation in one
of the towns of the last State in the Union
which should have furnished such an illustra-
ton of this self-sacrifcing propensity.
Ten miles below Detroit, on the Detroit
river, is the manufacturing town of Wyandotte,
a city Of three thousand inhabitants. Only a
few years ago the site this fourishing city
occupies was a mere wilderness worth little
more than the value of the wood upon it.
But under the stimulating influence of pro-
lection tariff, FORCES, foundrys, rolling mills,
and other manufacturing establishments have
been established there and grown into gigantic
proportions. These works, owing their ex-
istence almost entirely to the enlightened
enterprise of one man--Capt. +. b. WARD
have literally created this thriving city of
three thousand people.
But for the encouragement given by pro-
lection to our own industry, there would not
now be in operation single manufacturer OF
iron at Wyandotte, nor, indeed, would there
be such a city. The three thousand people
who are supported by them, would have been
forced to seek precarious living elsewhere,
and in less remunerative pursuits. Hundreds
of thousands of dollars have been thus added
to the wealth of the country, contributing to
its general prosperity and to the welfare and
happiness OF the people.
If the present Congress should be seized
with the mad impulse which free traders are
laboring so zealOusly and unscrupulOusly to
excite, and strike down the protective policy
under which the nation is making such rapid
strides towards absolute independence, and
which, among thousands of similar achieve
ments, has created Wyandotte, how long do
the people of that city imagine the manuiac-
turing enterprises which protection almost
literally "spoke into existence" would con-
tinue in operation? As protection made
them, its repeal would of course destroy
them. With their suspension would end the
progress and prosperity of Wyandotte. 1t
would take the very breath of life from the
city. And yet the people, year after year.
vote for Democracy and free trade!
So far as their influence is eXerted it is in
favor of the party and the policy which will
put out the fires of their furnaces, stop their
rolling mills, and paralyze every branch of
manufacturing enterprise! And probably
nothing but the desolation which the expert
ment of free trade would bring upon their
city, will open their eyes to the ruinous folly
of their course. Yet if it were possible for
them to imagine contingency which would
compel Captain WARD and other manufac-
turers to abandon all their enterprises in
that city, and with all their capital, they
might begin to entertain some doubt whether,
after all, ii is not better to sustain american
than foreign labor and manufacturers
We have referred to this particular case,
not because it is solitary one of the facility
with which the people may sometimes be
blinded to their own interests, but because it
affords a very striking illustration of the
truth we want to enforce. There, if any
where, the people ought to have understood
the benefits Of protection, because there,
almost more than anywhere else, they were
the creation of protection. But the noisy
clamor about the wrongs" and degrade
tions," and expressions of labor, or the
incaracity to understand cause and effect,
has blinded them to their true interests. So
they shut their eyes and go it blindly for
Democracy and free trade!
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