The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-01-02
wHIgLING, ". va, JANUARY ., 1853.



TariTIn the Seventeenth District.
The National Democracy having placed
in its platform 'tariG.ior.revenue-only,"
II has an odd sound to hear Democrats as
sailing q Republican candidate for Con
gress because, inierentially, he is moi
strong enough proteciionist. The steu'
benyille Gazette Is 80 respectable Demo
cratic newspaper that we are surprised to
find in its editorial columns the following
remarkable language:
Colonel Taylor has given the ques'
ton no study. His interests have
been building-interest that are opposed 70
protective tariff, because aprotectiye taritt
makes the raw material used In building
i. more expensive, He Is also o banker. His
home IN Cambridge IL not manufacturing
town. There is nothing there that needs
protective tariff, and consequently he does
moi know of what importance the tariff is 10
the Ohio Valley. To elect him 10 Congress
would be the greatest mistake ever made BY
our people A protectionist from this dis
trict in congress Is needed now more than
ever
The first statement we believe to be a
very serious misapprehension OF the fact.
Colonel Taylor. is thought, by his neigh
bors and others who have conYersed with
him and heard his public addresses, to be
singularly well informed on the tariff ques-
ton. Until now the thoroughness OF bis
conviction on this ail.important subject has
not been questioned.
Is it true that Colonel Taylor's interests
"are opposed to protective tarih'2 Let 1t
be granted that he has been engaged in
building and banking-would those enter.
prizes be more favored under policy Of
free trade than under policy Of protec'
ton? Men OF long memories and men who
have read the history OF their country
know that our greatest prosperity-the
greatest general prosperity, for farmer,
builder, skilled and unskilled labor and
capital-has been under tariff for protec'
ton; our greatest depression under policy
the very opposite.
II it be true that protective tariff is
hostile TO building and banking interests
then the labors Of protectionists have been
in vain, their theories are an ignoble sham
intended, as free traders claim, to benefit
the few at the expense OF the many; and
Congress, instead Of revising the tariff on
basis OF protection to home industries,
ought to abolish It down 10 the point Of
"ior-revenue-only." Unless there is re.
sulting benefit to the consumer as well as
to the manufacturer, protection is as
barbarous, illogical and unjust as free
traders declare 1t to be.
Alexander Hamilton held that home
competition under home protection would
by degrees reduce the price. OF the article
to the minimum Of reasonable profit on
the capital employed; he made this asser-
ton because 1t "accords with the reason Of
the thing and with experience" Henry
Clay saw the justification Of the promise
in the tariff OF 1924; and under the benef.
cent operations OF that tariff George N.
Dallas was able to point to q long list Of
implements used in building and hus.
bandry which had decreased from so to
more than 10 per cent in price. The
present tariff shows results not less sub.
stantial and which would be marvellous II
they had not been largely iorseen as the
product OF certain laws.
We do not need to remind our steuben.
vile contemporary that system Of tariff
which would build up the iron mills Of
Steubenville at the expense OF the builders
and bankers Of that thriving city, and Of
the farmers Of Jefferson county, would be
au injustice not to be tolerated in this land
where every man is entitled to an even
chance to win his bread, educate his
family, and lay up store for the day OF his
impaired activities. II protective tariff
does what the Gazette says 1t does it ought
to be denounced to-day by every voter
in the Seventeenth district; and it follows
that "a protectionist from this district in
Congress is [notl needed now" or at any
time; and that Colonel Taylor ought not to
get vote.
We beg further 10 submit to our es-
teemed contemporary two thoughts: ~ that
IL is unwise to attempt, as Mr.. Alexander
did in the Bellaire Convention, to array
the manufacturing and farming interests
OF the district against each other; and ~
that the inference to be drawn from
the statement above quoted, together
with the statement itself, II not utterly
iallacious gives away the whole protection
list case, Elections come and go, but the
battle between protection to home indus
tries and protection to foreign industries is
another "irrepressfble conflict" We dc
not suppose that the Steubenville Gazette
agrees with the tariff policy Of its party; we
prefer to attribute its indiscretion to an ex'
caaa NJ veal for Mr.. Alexander.