Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-14
THE COMING FATE OF PROTEC-
TEON.

The COMING EAEE DE FhOEEC-
The tax on good health-the tax of sixty
cents on every ounce of quinine which the VIC
tim of chills and fever and malaria in the west
and south has to pay to obtain the medicine
essential to his restoration to health, and the
ability to maintain himself and those de-
pendent upon him, is arousing a strong feel
ing of Indignation against the whole system
of monopoly and injustice of which that tax
is part, which system is called protection"
Protectl what is proteetedP III health is pro-
tected; two drug-men in Philadelphia who
moropolize the American manufacture of
quinine are protected; the policy that has
nearly banished American merchant shipping
from the ocean and that has driven Ameri-
can sailors to foreign ports for work, is pro-
tected, and the people are becoming wearied
and sick of the fraud and oppression imposed
upon them under the specious name
of protection. But" says those who are
amassiug their millions by this system
while thousands languish in suffering and
debility because tax OF sixty cents an ounce
on quinine makes the medicine that would
heal them too dear to be obtained-"but,"
they say, Germany is introducing protec-
ton; Canada has elected protection parlia-
ment, and even the English are calling for
protection" This is specious, but it will not
bear examination, and what truth there is In
the matter will soon, and is already begin
ming. to turn against the deceptive blight of
protection" The introduction of protec-
ton laws IN Germany is due to the policy Of
the ambitious Bismarck, who desires to
throw a tub to the whale By pandering to
q cry the monopolists have set on
foot during the suffering among the
people caused by the bad trade we,
and they, and other nations have at pres
ent to endure. Such suffering causes the
broad principles of national policy to be
temporarily disregarded, and some fancied
evil is blamed as the cause, or some fancied
remedy sought as the deliverer from the I'M
mediate and pressing distress. On this fact 10
founded the assertion of the alleged desire
of the nations we have named for protection.
When the Germans discover how ''protec-
ton" builds up monopolies and puts COM
forts and necsssaries out of the reach of the
poor-as In the case of quinine with its sixty
cents an ounce tax with us-when they see
that Bismarck, while amusing the people
with his protection policy, Is doing so to call
off attention to his attempt TO lengthen the
duration of the German parliament, and to
carry out other measures to abridge the lib
critics of the people, then the Germans will
quickly show the world what they think of
the protection that shackles trade and robs
the poor by taxation in support of monopoly.
As for Canada, the reaction against protsc-
ton is already showing itself. The Canadian
ministers assured the country that protection
would bring immediate prosperity, yet it has
brought to the farmer only lower prices for
his products, while he has to pay higher
prices for imported necessaries; and the farm
ers are now voting against the protectionist
ministry and their illusory legislation
accordingly. Last week there was a general
election in Canada, and while twenty-six
constituents returned members in favor of
protection, ffty-oue sent representatives in
faUOr Of free trade and a majority of twenty
in favor Of free trade with all the world is
counted upon. At time of dependency
from bad trade Canada bent its neck to the
yoke of protection, but reflection, and some
bitter experience, has won back the people to
common sense and sound trade principles.
Crashing banks, frequent bankruptcies, and
the bad trade that follows every commercial
crisis and the contingencies of war, nave
caused some of the less reflective of the Eng
lish to imagine that no change Of policy that
could be made would be for the worse, and
might be for the better, and so to propose
protection" as q desperate remedy In bad
case, as ignorance runs to the quack when it
finds the regular doctor cannot perform i'm
possibilities. A letter written to the editor of
the North american ReDieto, by that veteran
of free trade, John Bright, sets at rest all
fears that England will so far forget what
free trade has done for her pros
perity as to rush into the fata
whirlpool of protection. Mr.. Bright does
not think there is ''any chance" that Eng
land will return to protection, only CONNER
clal depression has driven the ignorant to
see in unlikely and impossible schemes the
means of relief; he says: "We adopted free
trade IN the year 1916. But our landowners
and farmers, and multitudes of our people,
did not comprehend the principles we taught,
and now new generation is on the stage,
even with the facts OF forty
years ago. There has been no great distress
since our corn-law was abolished; and now,
when trouble has come for a time, some of
the sufferers, and some of the quack doctors
who are always ready to prescribe for the
public, cry out for protection, as if we had
never tried it before, and as if it had been
found a specific in other countries. There Is
no danger of our going back to protection"
In this country also the delusion of ''protec-
ton is tottering to its fall, and sixty cents
an ounce quinine, the poor mans medicine,
is falling like an avalanche upon the decay
ing structure that was raised to In ure the
people, and the time is at hand when we
shall be free ''to buy where we can buy
cheapest, and sell where we can sell dear est. -