Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-04-11
sATURDAY.........APRIL IL, 1885.
Protecting Home Industries.

IfoteCunR home inuuStficS'
We recently in good-humored way
took our contemporary ofthe Rocking
ham Register to task for having advo'
Gated a measure which we chose to
speak of as one intended to protect home
industries, and therefore one which no
snti-protectionist could consistently
favor. The Town Council Of Harrison
burg had agreed to exempt from taxation
for FIVE years merchantmill valued at
$4,000. We argued that this was
protection with a vengeance, since 1t
was equivalent 10 making JONES pay
taxes which SMITH ought to pay, and
was really taking fifteen hundred dol
lars out Of the other taxpayers peck
cts and putting that sum into the pock-
cts Of the owner of the mill. The
Register copies our article in full, and
replies in the following pleasant para
graphs:
"The above is from the Richmond
Dispatch of April I'd, and evidently
our esteemed contemporary conceiyes it
has caught us in a glazing bit Of incon-
sistepcy. But we do not so deem it.
At all events we say most emphaticslly
that we endorse the action of our Town
Council most heartily, and that We
oppose with equal warmth the
protection which has been practiced
by the Republican party since the
war, and which the Dispatch has
been forced to acknowledge needs revi-
sion, but opposed steps looking to it.
We are not now, and never have been,
opposed TO the protection afforded by
repenue tariff, but we have always, and
ever will, oppose the protection afforded
by n protecfire tariff. In other words,
we favor q tariff for repeaae We oppose
tariff for protection. We believe the
first 10 be inside the Constitution, the
latter outside.
sour Town Council showed Mr..
Glenn no favor that they are not willing
10 show any other man in or outside
our town. BY this act they did not
raise the tax Of single property-owner
in our town one cent, but at the end Of
five years, in consideration Of this favsr
shown Mr.. Glen, that gentleman will
add very considerably 10 the revenues
of the town. The Council did not say
that no man shall ship barrel Of -four
into our town without first paying tax
OF say fifty cents per barrel on the
same, and thus make it possible for Mr..
Glen to charge our workingmen aud
consumers generally more for his -four
than they could purchase it for from
outsiders. The protection offered hr.
Glen is adequate for him and unfair to
no one. Ii increases no mans tax, but
it promises to lessen the cost Of flour to
our people and enhance the quality"
The Dispatch has never I" been forced
to acknowledge" any change Of opinion
concerning the tariff. From the begin
ming, we have characterized the existing
tariff as possibly the worst this country
ever suffered under. But that is not
the question under discussion now, and
so we viii say no more on that point.
First, let US quote the Registers first
emphatic approval Of the action of the
Harrisonburg Town Council. 1t said I:
"Thc Town Council Of Harrisonburg
has released this property from taxa
ton for period Of five years by way
of encouragement, and in so doing they
have displayed great wisdom, we think,
as its erection in our midst will benefit
not only the town but will afford .
market at home for large portion of
the wheat grown in Rockingham, IS il
will require nearly quarter Of mil
lion bushels to satisfy the demand for
IL alone"
That paragraph is as unsound as IL
it had come from Pennsylvania pro-
tectionist. Ii even advocates exemp-
tion-protection as q means Of building
up "homo market THE very doc
trine that Pig-lron KELLEY and his
followers are always preaching Such
teachings cannot be tolerated in the
good old Democratic anti-protection
county Of Rockingham. That is, il
RANDALL, VOORHEES,, CONVERSE,
Governor Brown, and all the rest
Of the Protectiopist Democrats are
TO be read out Of the Demo-
cratic party. For the Registers
plea that it favors protection by reve-
nue. tariff but not by protective tariff
Is exactly what is taught by Mr.. RAN
DALI, who has over and over again, in
the House Of Representatives and on
the hastings, stated that Congress has,
in his opinion, no constitutional power
to frame q tariff intended for protection
only.
The Register says that the Town
Council "did not raise the tax Of q
single property-owner one cent" This
Is what tho ProtectiOnSy jn Congress
might say II they were to pass a new
tariff bill in which they did not increase
the present high customs duties. The
Council did not raise the taxes. Ye.
thsy gave Mr.. GLEN fifteen hundred
dollars Out Of whose pockets will
como that money! If Mr.. GLEN
we're required TO pay that sum in taxes,
and the Town Council should need no
more money than the property now
taxed yields, surely the tsx-ordinance
might b 80 resdjustcd Is to take of
fiflsen hundred dollars from other per-
ssss than Mr.. GLEN. This is what we
nd q FIRST. And it Is too plain case
u need 70 be argued. Those fifteen
haedred dollars are 10 be paid for Mr..
C<3ka1 ~ somebody else.
How fsr would the Rsgister carry
n ~ doefriosS Would 4 exempt