The National tribune., 1881-01-01


lict in duty.
If, then as a father of family, prefer my own
to any other; if as citizen of town or city, aim
at its advancement SO, as on America, prefer
the advantage of the American people, the growth
of American industres-on precisely the same
principles. a
AS a new people we commenced our career
with sparse population, thinly scattered along the
undeveoped slopes of the Aleghanes Byrigid
rules, by hard laws, Great Britain had kept down
all manufactures in the colonies We had not the
population, we had not the division of labor we
had not the trained intelligence to handle even the
commonest manufactures for ourselves There was
iron and coal to move the world bnt we did not
know it. There was water-power unlimited, but it
was idle. We had been trained to look to Europe
for our manufactures and to pay her prices for
them. In very few places, weak attempts were
made to organize home industries but they were
not successful The embodied capital of England,
aided by the habit of believing in the superiority of
British skill and the honesty of British workmen,
oppressed and broke down the nascent enterprises
When the war of 1912 occurred, we found by bitter
experience the absolute dependence we were in for
the necessities, both of peace and of war on the
tiles During this war, by the force of absolute ne
cessity, driven into manufactures. AT its
close it became necessary to adapt our system of
things to the new conditions. The first steps to
the sound doctrine of protection to American indus
try the results of the bitter experience of the
war of 1912
Our statesmen of that day undertook to create on
this continent system of manufactures which
should supply the United States with the necessa
ries of life. This was done by discriminating duties
in the tarif-duties which gave advantage to the
home manufacturer against the foreigner Under
this stimulus and this protection, the inventive
spirit of our people obtained full scope, and from
small beginnings. by gradual development, grew up
the vast network of intelligent industry which has
covered the country with we-peoped villages,
with great cities with lines of railway. 1t is this
growth of the manufacturing population which has
relieved our agriculture; it is this which has
| brought continual home market to the very doors
of our farmers 1t is this which has raised the
price of agricultural lands and furnished
for its products Wherever hundreds of thousands
OF men are engaged in mining for coal and iron (;
wherever the forges and foundries glow with per-
petual fres-there in close vicinity, must grow up
homes Tor these workers and their families They
must be fed and clothed and they are fed and
clothed, by American products brought not seldom
from great distances by lines of internal COM
merce So in the East and in the West, the work
ers In wool produce in vast quantities those goods
most fitting for our people and our climate-the raw
material to large extent of own production,
and by the success of these factories means of
wealth, new fields of employment, new and near
markets produce being constantly developed.
Not less than ninetenths of the traffic over our
railways, rivers and lakes consists of the interchange
of commodities within our own borders and among
our own people But if there were diversified
industries in this nation, there would be no ex-
change, for exchange means that the things ex-
changed are different Not one twenty fifth of our
enormous production of breadstufs and provisions
passes out of the United States, but if there were