The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-10-15
Unanswerable and Irrefutable

1.-THE CITIZEN asked the other week
VIII it not be wise for the south to
adopt the same incidental protection
| tactics that made the north rich when
her industries were young? Ours are
young now and the same tactics may
make the south riCh-dnd lUiLI.
The GAINESVILLE Democrat OBJ
iects to this unanswerable, irrefu-
table, self-evident proposition thus
himsily:
That the north grew rich at the ex-
pense of the south is almost true, but
that the south can now, by protec-
ton, grow rich at the expense of the
north, is a transparent fallaey,
The CITIZENS statement does not
array the sections thus. The north
grew rich under protection and
the south made no effort to
keep pace with her, preferring to
raise cotton for the north to manu-
facture. Since the revolution in
labor the south turns her attention
to manufacturing and she finds that
with the material right at the facto-
ry door she can make goods cheaper
than anybody else In the world.
That is indisputable. Now she
asks, not that she may be allowed
to grow rich at the expense of the
north, but that she may have her
equal chance and be granted the
same privileges and the same protec-
ton. The north drew hsrsprize in
the lottery of protection, and the
south now asks her turn. To take
away the protecting arm of the tariff
from her infant industries just
struggling into being would be man
ifestly unjust and murderous. The
north, reveling in riches, would
deny the south this opportunity,
and strange to say, the Democrat
would help the north commit this
murderous assault upon the south's
prosperity.
Free trade! Soft-sounding, win
some, honeyed expression Its
Turing loveliness is a Judas-kiss.
The Golfer barons of the north, the
coupon-kings of protection, wallow-
ing in wealth, would deny the south
the same privileges by which they
acquired their princely gains, and
they whisper this honeyed phrase,
in sophistry, meaningless
and deeeitful, into our ears, and
they lure us with this livid lie to
abandon our own interests and keep
our knees Bonded in humble subor
dination and dependence upon the
north.
We repeat! The north grew rich
by this Incidental protection policy,
and it is Just and fair to give the
south the same privilege. If the
tariff affected alone the monster,
full-grown industries of the north,
then it ought to be abolished in its
protective feature, for they no long
er need it. But the south is exact
ly where the north began in manu-
featuring enterprise and she asks
the same protection. Who would
deny it9 We are not surprised that
the north is turning to free trade
to keep the south in subjectIon, but
we are mortified to know that south
ern men of sense and honest patri-
otism are blind to these bottom
facts and are helping to strangle
the south.
If these are not rock-ribbed facts
and deductions, then we confess to
lack of ordinary sense. The people
ought to have these truths laid be-
fore them day after day by southern
papers that we may all be em@acl-
pated from this terrible hallucina-
ton that is selling upon the minds
of the people. The bare possibility
of free trade implied by the mis-
construction of the democratic
platform has scorched trade like a
prairie fire.
Let the southern papers wake the