The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-11-24
BEAUTIFUL AND BLESSED PROTECTION


Elsewhere in this mornings issue we pub
lish for an esteemed correspondent and Al
enterprising citizen, q communication re-
ceivei yesterday, over the signature OF w
o. and entitled "Pro,ection versus Free
Trade" Almost every argument that j
therein urged, we have 10 previous article
met and.repelled either in the generic modu
or by detail, so that we scarcely know WIN"
now to say unless BY repetition. IL W. T.
will refer 10 the caller works on pollllca
) .ncouomy and to the encyclopedias he vii
discover that views simi ar with those HI
now presents are more than century old
the identical ones in spirit that were urged by
the Protectionists when Sir Robert Peer
bill, nearly forty years ago, was up before ts'
British parliament, and the supporters
which protection theories lived as a class tt
see their every argument falsihed in toto
But brushing ,aside the glittering generalltIe
ofthe commune ton, VIC perceive that TIKI
aoeciAl points wherein w. c. S. selects tC
sdwell are:
l. That free trade will not do for new oil
yong countries.
Q. That free trade would turn the balance
oft,.de against US, and that if England be
kept from its operation with .u', then hel
capital and labor might be transferred hlther
8. That If congress should deprive us Of
s,e high protective tariff, then a proposed
cotton factory would not be built In Dallas,
as in such event it would not pay. Here is
the stereotyped argument of W. .. s.
Give the native manufacturer fair start
by artifcially fcsering his infant lsboTs and
when he is older he will be able TO stand
alone" A prejudice is difficult Of uprooling
and all superstitions die hard, and evidently
this alchemist, this fetish belief IT the ON
impotence of government to create some
thing forms no exception. Ressoners Of the
school of w. Q. S. appear to forget
or ignore the universal law that per
vades all nature, the correlation OF forces
and the other one like unto il that as COM
petely regulates the commercial world, The
great law of supply and demand which fixes
the rate of interest andthe price of labor.
The business mind of to-day ought to be
able to recognize as automatic the enuneia-
iions that trade flows into and through chan
nels like water in search of equilibrium; that
capital and labor will spontaneously discern
better than any government can do for them
the things on which. they may best and most
pof,aby expend themselves; Shat TO effect a
neglected thing by artifcislly enforcing cih'
zens to do it, Is 10 leave undone some more
important thing which they would have
been doing-is TO sacrifice the greater
requsi,ion to the smaller. If any trade or
other thing be needed by the social
organism, if it shall subserve some
want it will take root and
grow, if not it, will die. of inariton.
This is the positive, the absolute law of true
commercial development rs we'll ne OF hui
man evolution, and which can 40 more be
altered than that of gravtation. Ii is n law
that unfolds in the order of importance and
asserts itself in the procession of the needful,
These premises, aud there is no gainsaying
them, established and we have conclusion
which is indeed sustained by fact that u
manufactory, for instance, will yield under r
healthy condition of government of uni
form rule, will,yield only the average ratio OF
interest ard the average price Of wages. Ii
it yielded more the competition that would
spring up would equslize the figures, and
vice VI rsa, If yielded less, it would DO absn'
doned. We are not now speaking Of anoma-
llus cases, but we aresrguing on principle
Now here is a young community that in
the very midst of some particular kini OF
natnre's wealth, tenders high remuneration
for labor that can cheaply produce certain
Articles which, foreign countries not so cir.
cumstanced can take in payment OF other
things which this community could not pro-
duce except At infinitely greater cost. Surely
here is a case for exchange, barter, of the
most profitable sort Here is an opportunity
for these young citizens to realize handsome
profits, TO economize they see proper, and
50 eventually surround themselves with all
tle comforts of life Now W. c. S. pro
poses to change this happy state of affairs by
mskiog laws to abrdge their liberty,
to modify the manner and direct
the mode of investments of their own labor
and capital. a superauity whereof does not
characterize new communities. The law Of
free disposal of ones own time
aud properly is thus infringed.
The natural progress of industry under the
Creators natural laws must henceforth be
hterGered with and supplaa.ea by the Selfish
Sy.tem. What the social instincts correctly
decree for capital and labor must now be
Withdrawn, at the fiat Of that necessary evil,
the legislator, and these diverted from their
admirable results, and forced 10 produce at
higher cost to the consumers,
perhaps inferior commodities, the very
ones which had before been so conveniently
bought of cheaper workman. Unqucs
tionably here is wrong, moral, political md
financial, to producer and consumer This
maximum of force of the former has been re-