New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-17
thrift REUTSION.

The Tariff Convention at Chicago, and the
| me to be held in this city little later, will
| arouse much discussion Of a subject upon which
there is an almost infinite variety of opinions.
| Nearly everybody agrees that some change of
the laws is now desirable The free traders,
from their point Of view, welcome every at
| tempt to reduce or remove duties that are pro-
tective in character. The protcctionists, with
comparatively few EXCEPTIONS assent to the
| position taken last year by the Iron and steel
Association, namely, that revision of the tariff
has become desirable in order to simplify the
| law in order to remove abuses which have
sprung up under it or defects in its working
which experience has disclosed in order to
make it at once more truly protective and less
burdensOme or incOnvcnicnt to the people and
in order to clear away few features which,
while not important to the system, afford points
Of cavil and criticism to its opponents. With
such general agreement as to the dcsirabity of
some change, however, there is the widest pos
sible diversity of opinion as to the kind OF
change desired.
Many years age, when this question was pop
ularly discussed in political campaigns almost
every year, and when members of Congress
were chosen and classified mainly with refer
ence to it, the line of dcmarcatiOn was cOmpar-
atively simple and clear Voters and public men
were in favor of Il protective tariff or opposed
to it. Sectional feeling and supposed sectional
interest consolidated most of the Southern
States III opposition to any form or degree of
protection, because it was regarded as a taxa
ton of the agricultural South for the benefit
of the manufacturing East. Forty years have
rnVnlutinu Tho Snutberu
States are beginning to manufacture for them
selves, to realize the benefits which divcrsifca-
ton of industry brings and TO believe that
those benefits are not, as the free trader holds,
Ovcrbaianccd by the burdens which protective
system imposes. Old divisions of opinion have
been Oblterated even more completely than
geographical lines of division. There are very
few free traders to-day who desire a complete
abandonment of all duties that are protective in
character. There are very few protcctonsts
who do not now admit that the imposition of
duties may be pushed 50 far, in almost any di-
rection, as to do more harm than good. Hence
the whole subject needs to be discussed and in
vestigatcd from Il new point of view, and III The
light Of great industrial and commercial revO-
lutions which the past quarter OF a century has
witnessed.
Apparently it is the aim of defenders of the
protective system, by means Of the strong con
ventions which they have planned, to prepare
public opinion to demand an intelligent revi-
sion of the tariff, if any revision whatever is to
be attempted. In this aim they deserve hearty
support from men of every shade of opinion.
For no man who has any comprehension of The
marvellous interdepcndence of modern indus
tries or any understanding of the influence OF
a system of taxation upon the prosperity o.
growth of industries, will deny that incalculabc