The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-03-18
PROTECTION.
Some of the Results Of a
Protection Tariff.
How the People are Taxed to Support
the Manufactures.

The tone of the protection organs is that
of insulted majesty. They assume with |
unparalleled impudence that il is little short
of treason to intimate that an end must be |
put to fat profits. The proteetionists |
have grown fat and impudent by their |
successive victories in legislation. They
actually clamor for more protection. and
talk as though they hold fee simple on
| legislation which none can dispute.
This il the natural result OF class legis
lation. special privileges. the creation OF
rings. These thisgs have injured the
American people. All Americans desire
to see our manufacturing interests prosper.
but no true American desires to see q
wrong committed-a wrong covered By
| fraudulent pleading Ii is not in accord
ance gth democratic republicanism
ism that the people should be enormously
taxed to preserve certain sect of the
business which other business men have
to face and provide against. 1t is not in
accordance with the business ideas OF
| America that the foreign trade. so desir-
able for a great producing country like
ours. should be obstructed by legislation
designed to keep competition away from
American manufacturers when the whole
globe presepts a field for merchanti'e
enterprise. Yet the protective tariff does
all this. aod just SO long as it's provisions
Island up;n the statute books just
SO long will Americans cIamor for their
lust proportion of the trade of the world,
TO which they are entitled.
There is little hope that the present
lcongress will take any step to relieve the
country of this obstruction is perfectly
Iapparent. The protectionists have con.
ltrolled national legislatlons SIS to the tarif1
flor twenty years. They tell US that they
in ho mt M 4
lremains to the people OF the United
States whether they shall make good their
threats. 4-
| There is q wide spread autagonism in
this country just Row, TO the abuse oil
corporate power The antagonism Is
mainly occupied with the subject OF
railroad monopolies and pooling ar
arrangements ard indefensible discrimina''
| lions in the matter of freight rates. 1t
lis believed that the corporate power OF
railroads should be restricted by congress
sional legislation. There are two bills
before congress aimed at the abuse OF
railroad corporate power. The one Is
general in its terms; provides for a gov
eminent supervision of the inter state
railroads, forbids discrimination, but pro
: vides for no practical and tangible restric~
ton. The other is more specific, and. with
prohibition of all we'll known abuses care~
: fully detailed. prescribes several penalties
r for any infraction OF the law, but creates
no bodyof men empowered to enforce the
observance of the requirements.
Neither of these measures, if passed
would effect the end desired by the peo-
ple The second bill mentioned goes
. farther than the first. These Efforts to
curb a corporate power which, 1t can
not be denied, in legitimate exercise,is OF
IL sn al large
: indicate the tendency OF the public mind
| to liberation from whatever bsrasses com
I meree, Mr.. Leland Stanford in his recent
Is plea in behalf of the railroads. untortun-
ately takes just the ground that the PRO
4 tectionist have always taken. claiming hat
q anv attempt to Icelslate railroad mpan:es
Into the observance of the equities is Q
. d,rect assault 90 the personal liberty oil
l. the members of The railroad companies,
who, he SAYS, may do IS they please as &c
freight tariffs Mr. Stanford in undoubtedly
a. wrong. He icstifes, for instance freight
y tariff which charges $500 carload from
re ICh!csgo to San Fraacisoo ard $500 car'
load from Chicago to POINTS four or i've
hundred miles east of San Francisco. The
railroad companies. while deserving al
consideration and kindness OF feeling tol
=. the good they have accom- pIished and wi
u | accomplish, can not expect to be sustained
u by the people in the assertion that thel
are intangible, and that they can do q
they please
IF. therefore, the people are justified il
III putting forth reasonable efforts to place
proper and lawful restraint on corporatt
powers residing in railroad companies
they are certainly justified in demandin
that the unjust restriction on the trade c
$ the country and the unjust and indeft q
sible taxation following the optr
atoms Of the protective tart
20 shall be removed as speedily as possible
on The tariff monopoly is greater evil the
i are the excuses committed by certai
II railroads monopoles. standing on til
Leland Stanford basis. The tariff hs
lcreated sect who worship protection as
divine institution. The Republic shoul
~ know no such sect. The proteetionists haS
lhave themselves destroyed their own ple
II for special privileges by declaring over ar
over again. that American manufacture
can undersell the world" Let the pc
ple of the United States take them
heir word, and. while antagonizing Il
abuse of corporate power, remember th
they are injured in their business and
their personal rights most terribly by t
~ manfest alton of such Hpower among Ell
y bepefciaries ofsthe protective tariff.
~~--
Printing ano bIndIng executed ne
IN nu;ek and che~n at THE ARGHst fFvT7T