Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1885-01-03
No Free Trade for the South.
Philadelphia Times.

! 1t. was generally proclaimed
and probably widely believed by
the Republicans of the North that,
while the Democrats of the South
were protesting conservative views
on the tariff during the campaign, =,
they would bloom out as full-fiedg-
ed free traders as soon as Cleveland
was elected. Not only did the Re
publicans declare and believe it,
but the little nest Of free-traders to
be found here ard there in the
North evidently assumed that they
had the solid South in sympathy
with them in their insane crusade
against the business interests Of the
country.
1t is now more than month
since the election of a Democratic
President, and leading States and
influential journals of the South
have been heard from on the sub
ject. Two Democratic United States
| Senators have been elected in the
South since the success of Cleveland.
Georgia returned her most pro-
nounced prOtectionist, Senator
Brown, to the Senate with but two
| dissenting votes, and Alabama re.
elected Senator Pugh practically
without contest, after his manly
declaration in favor of judicious
protection before the caucus that
nominated him. There was not a
single voice heard in either of the
States in favor of the Morrison
Watterson theory of free-trade, nor
has there been single expression
from any representative Democratic
body in conflict with the distinct
attitude assumed by Georgia and
Alabama.
But while only two States have
taken positive action ON the tariff
issue since the November election,
the leading journals of the South
have spoken with a boldness and
cleaTness never before exhibited by
the public Journals of that section.
With the single exception of Mr..
Watterson's Louisville Courier
Journal, there has not been single
prominent expression given in the
South in favor of the theory of free
trade. The Charleston News and
Courier was the one other journal OF
the South that has taken extreme
views i'm support of the Morrison
WatterSon theory, but it has spoken
with wise caution since the elevtion
of Cleveland, and, and Mr.. Wat
terson is practically alone in pOten-
tial Southern journalism, in press
ing the free trade theory of our rev.
enue laws. On the other hand, all
the widely read and influential
Democratic journals Cf the South,
save the exception noted, have
spoken out with even greater dis
tinctness and emphasis in favor
of judicious protection, since the
election than ever before; and it is
now no longer a matter of doubt
that the South will furnish more
united press and craftsmanship in
favor OF protection in future battles
than will the North.
The South wants business pros
perity, not political agitation. Her
people want factories and furnaces
and railways and schools; they
want a literally diversified and
prosperous industry they want to
undersell our iron in our own mar
kets; they want to spin their own
cotton; they want to keep at home
for their own profit, the hundreds
of millions they pay annually to
Northern spindIes and Northern
furnaces, and they are just apprecia-
ting the fact that they have vast
advantages over the North in econo.
my of production. Their climate
alone would make Yankee ingenu-
ity and energy outstrip the North
in every industry logically compe-
ting with US, and they are wisely
getting just enough of the Yankee
into them to call hall in their own
servitude to Northern industry.
These are the chief reasons why the
South turns deaf ear to the syren
song of free trade dreamers, and
why the South will soon come up
almost in solid column for tariff
based upon the actual necessities OF
the Government economically ad-
ministered, with wise discrimina-
tions in favor Of whole general in
dustrles Of the country.