Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-07-22
Protection is Sophistry.

Protection to home industries, says the
Indianapolis Sentinel, means that only those
natural resources required for home use shall
be utilized. But is this the best disposition
we can make of them? We have an un-
bounded store of natural wealth.. also store
of labor far more than we can utilize. The
enormous increase of wealth and the COM
parative industrial prosperity of America
have been due solely to the energy that labor
and these raw and prolific resources have
been combined. But the protectionist says
we shall not utilize these two sources of
wealth, but leave them on the plane of neces-
sity required for mere existence. This posi-
tion is not one of necessity that might inhere,
were there no people who wouldatilize them
if they were afforded opportunity; the fact is
notoriously otherwise. Yet because these
people can not pay cash for our surplus, but
demand an exchange of commodities in trade
for them, our protectonists refuse to permit
an American from exchanging his surplus
-four, shoes or prints for tea, coffee, or works
of art, or for certain articles of clothing or
furniture that the American might fancy,
even when the American would exchange
what to him is a surplus, useless, valueless
product. If we did not notoriously possess
great quantities of their surplus, useless
stock, but rather had difficulty to produce
what was actually wasted there might be the
excuse of expediency in refusing to permit
an American to part with them, but even
then it would be wise expediency only in
cases of national danger or distress as a
principle, it would be better to allow him to
buy elsewhere to supply his deficiency if he
could or choose. Divested of side issues the
tariff and protection ideas are reduceable to
Just this.
This country never can utilize either her
labor or raw materials anywhere to their
capacity by restricting their use to the mere
requirements of our population. Our popula-
tion, aided as no other people are with rail-
roads and machinery of every description,
with our rich soil, prolific mines and forests,
are enabled to meet the requirements of the
earth's highest, most diffused civilization, in
two-thirds of the time that any other nation
requires to fill the requirements of lower
civilization. Yet the protectionist tells us
we can not compete with these lower civiliza-
tions, in spite of the fact that were we to dis
pose of our surplus at any price, we would be
by that much ahead of what we are when we
refuse to sell them at all, and yet can not
use. 1t is the silliest of twaddle to say that
we can not compete with the prices of Europe
or elsewhere, when the surplus we have to
sell is alone worthless and represents no
price at all. 1t stands as ridiculous upon its
face that our economies, because by their
very prolixity, they represent higher degree
of comfort to labor, and hence higher wages
that these comforts, and wages, would de-
crease by more extensive use of the prolific
natural wealth of this plethoric country, and
by an exchange of our worthless product for
some luxuries we do not, or can not produce.
The comforts of labor would equal the mass
Of the product, whether part of it came
from Asia or South America, or were pre-
duced at home, and would increase directly
as we could exchange products we do not
want for luxuries we do.