New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-29
HELIC AND WOOL.

For the thirty-twO years of its life the in
variable habit of THE TRIBUNE has been to
accord fair hearing to either side OF any i'm
portant question in dispute. On no one sub
iect have THE TRIBUNE's own views been
more distinct and uncompromising than on that
of the Tariff, and particularly of the Tariff on
Wool and WOOlens. But we have unhesi-
tatinely allowed Messrs. Atkinson, Edward
Harris, John Stuart Mill, and others to present
in these pages the strongest arguments they
could advance against Protection and to-day,
consistently adbering to our traditional policy,
we give ample space to the ablest of
our American Free Trade apostles. A few
weeks ago, the Hon. j. Wiley Edmands made
to one of our reporters some express
sions of his belief as to the workings
of the Tariff on the development
of our Wool and Wooden industries. These
informal and hasty conversational expressions
Mr.. David A. Wells seizes upon as text for
a most elaborate and carefully considered
argument To some features of it we shall
this morning, pay very brief attention.
One of our most courteous and able CO.
temporaries, The World, lately expressed some
surprise at the appearance of MIR. Edmandss
views in THE TRIBUNE, and treated it
as the only intimation since the Cincinnati
Convention that THE TRIBUNE adhered to the
faith of its Founder, in Protection to Ameri-
can Industry, The World should not have
misunderstood its own defeat at Cincin-
natl. The one thing which Mr.. Greeley
then demanded the thing for which
he specially sent a personal represents
alive to the Convention, and on which
he steadfastly insisted, down till the
hour ,when his triumph, alike in the Com
mittee and the Convention, was assured-was
that nothing should be done to compromise the
most devoted Protectionists, in their cooperation
in the work of Reform with the Free Traders
whom Mr.. Wells of the East and Col. Gros-
yenor and Mr.. Horace White of the West so
well represented in the Cincinnati move
ment. No man knows better than Mr.
David A. Wells that, on the question
of Protection, Mr.. Greeley was memorable -
that the Free Traders fought him at Cincin-
natl at every point, and at every point were
foiled and that finally they accepted, and,
through the mouth of Mr.. Edward Atkinson,
enthusiastically praised the very proposition
which Mr.. Greeley had from the outset de-
mdnUeu. Juty lHOSG BIObSiJ
him who intimate that for one moment
he ever wavered in his devotion TO
those doctrines of Political Economy of which
he was the most distinguished expOunder /;
and which to-day, largely through his infu-
ence, stand, as they are long likely to stand,
the faith and practice of the American
people. They equally SANDER the journal he
created who intimate that it has wavered, or
is likely to waver, in its devotion to the same
distinctively American principles. We
have not, indeed, thought it necessary
to be perpetually discussing them out of sea-
son. They have triumphed for many year
to come they are settled. 1t is quite
beyond the power of Mr.. Wells and
his little knot Of accomplished agita-
tors to unsettle them. When they be-
come practical questions again, The TRIBUNE
will have its say till then it contents itself
with according to so capable an advocate as