Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1884-06-04
FACTS V. ASSUMPTIONS.

April 20, on the Morrison tarlff
bill. The protectiOnists will have
their hands full for some time
answering his arguments. He adj
dressed himself, as News does, to
the circumstances and facts OF the
day, fresh in the minds OF his
hearers, and did not bore them with
intermlnable tables of statistics,
arranged for a purpose. The pres
ent price of wheat, the present con-
ditiOn of the working people, the
present low average of wages, the
present stagnant state of com
merce and manufactures-these
formed picture known to all, and
presented af ter a trial of over 70
years, a striking contrast with the
promises of general prosperity
made on behalf of the policy OF
protection Detroit News.
1t is this kind of free trade
hapdoodle with which the columns
of the Evening News are filed, and
which it would like to palm off on
the country for argument. Perhaps
why our esteemed contemporary
has stunned the gigantic paper
monopoly the gigantic salt mo-
nopoly,' the gigantic match mo-
nopoly,' is because it does not wish
to bore its readers, just as Mr..
Hurd did not like to bore his
hearers with interminable tables of
statistics arranged for a purpose
1t is amusing to see the versa
tility of these free-trade advocates.
Before they were driven into a
corner and made to acknowledge
that the tendency Of protection and
home competition is to reduce the
price of manufactured articles, they
were bowling over the eXorbitant
prices which were being wrun g
from the people through 1egalized
robbery Now most of them are
drawing frightful pictures of the
stagnation and low prices which
protection has brought about.
Any man with average common
sense, who will study the history of
his own nation, can readily see that
the whole superstructure of the
free-trade system is founded upon
the greed of old England, and the
erroneous and dangerous theories
of dreamy political economists
The mother country is not an in
dustrial rival, but she is and has
ever been our industrial enemy, land
nothing would give her greater de-
light than to see the barriers of
protection, which keep our labOring
classes from being reduced to the
condition of her own paupers,
broken down. The warfare waged
by England changes with our Ma
tional circumstances, but it never
changes in spirit. James NJ.
Swank has truthfully summed up
her damnable course in the follow
ing words: while we were her
weak colonies it consisted in stamp
ing ont Or industries by act of
parliament; after we had secured
our independence it consisted in
prohibiting the expectation to our
shores of manufactured machinery
and the emigration of her skilled
workmen duoing our civil war it
consisted in the equipping of the
Alabama and other piratical cruis-I
ers to prey upon our commerce /;
to-day it consists in the efforts of
the Golden club to control our cleo
tions in the interest of British
manufacturers. No other nation
interferes with our industrial de-
velopment as Great Britain does.
Against this warfare and the low
British wages which make 1t posi-
BILE, protection will always be
necessary. The measure of pro-
lection which our industries will
continue to require against Great
Britain's eeaseless warfare must be
determined by a consideration of
many varied conditions which
characterize her industries and
those of our own country; but
there can be no effective protection
that is not fully responsive to the
most feryent impulses of American
patriotism
And now let us look at the fright
picture of prostration which the
News has presented as an out
growth Of protection. 1t must be
viewed in the light of the history
of our country to bring out the true
colors. Both free-trade and pro-
lection have been tried. The men
who framed and adopted the con-
stitution were protectionists. They
had enough of that kind of mercy
which the tiger gives to the lamb,
and the very first congress which
assembled laid duties 'for the en-.
couragement and protection of
manufactures The laws of 1889,
1916, 1924, and 1928 were all pro-
tective in their character. During
this period the rates were advanced
from six and eight to nearly 80 per
cent, ad valorem, aud each sue