Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-05-21
A. Southern Tariff Review.

A Southern Tariff Revlew.
THE SOUTH is INTERESTED IN PROTEC-
TON.
Ex-Representative Buckner of Missouri,
for several Congresses Chairman of the
Committee of Banking and Cure cy, has
been in the city several days. and speak
ing Of the tariff question in the South,
said
The attitude of the south towards the
tariff has been greatly misjudged on ae-
count OF the course of some of our public
men, who look at the question from the
standpoint of the interests Of the South
thirty and forty years ago and not as those
interests present themselves to-day. If
you look at the history of the question you
will find that the early advocacy of pro-
tective legislation as a means Of encour-
aging manufactures. agriculture and COM
mercG was strong in the south ana weak
in New England. The statesmen of Vir-
ginia tried every means of getting rid of
slavery, without success. With the State
rights doctrines Of those days no one ever
thought of appealing to the national gov
eminent as way out of the dilemma"
"That would have been peaceful solu-
TOM
Eyes, if it had come early enough; but
after various plans had been proposed the
Sonthpro Qtafc cpoan fnnp6 fkot o1uunru
was fixed fact and therefore had to make
the best of it,"
The fact was mentioned in support of
this that Mr.. Parker, Representative
from Virginia, in the discussion of the
very first tariff act, 1889. moved to insert
clause in the bill imposing duty on the
importation of slaves of $40 for each per-
son, in order to prevent sin some degree
this inhuman traffic"
when it was realized" continued
Judge Buckner. chat slavery was fixed
institution in the South, Southern states
men were compelled to accept the situa-
ton. Calhoun. of South Carolina, was an
ardent protectionist in 1916, when Web
ster, of Massachusetts, was a violent free
trader. soon saw that slavery and manu-.
features were Incompatible, and as a mat
ter of self-defense the South was compell-
ed to protect agriculture because of slave
labor, and manufactured articles In those
days of slow transportation could be had
cheaper from abroad. The notification
proceedings of 1888 were the outgrowth
of the conflict between slave labor and
agriculture, and free labor and manufac-
lures. The sectional differences Of 1S60-'61
can be traced back to the same originating
couses."
Nov you think the South is interested
in protection ?''
II do, most emphatically. am in favor
of protec ton of American labor, and to
do that you must protect every branch of
American industry. l think our farmers
home markets are better than foreign
markets. especially when brought into
competition with the cheap wheat of Egypt
and India. I think our farmers are be-
ginning to understand this. The increase
of the home demand for home manufac-
lures by restric ting tbs supply from for
eign sources enlarges the employment of
labor in mechanical industries and CORES
pondingly increases the demand for food.
l think our Western farmers are beginning
to see this.
when slavery was abolished the eco
nomic interests of the South took
change. The South now has free labor.
therefore the interests of the people in
American in dustry are correspondingly
changed. Missouri. Tennessee, Kentucky,
Alabama. Louisiana, Georgia, South Car
DINA, North Carolina, West Virginia,
Virginia and Maryland. in fact about
every Southern State, is more or less in
terested in protection and will become
more so every year. l think that it is
time for the Southern people and their
representatives to look into this matter.
1t is not a question of politics, but Of
common sense.''
Judge Buckner referring to the strikes
in Missouri, said that they were over and
that the effect would not be permanent. as
the crops promised we'll. and that the peo-
pie of the West would have abundance,
which would make food cheap and enable
the workmen who have suffered by the in
turruption of their labor, to bridge over a
period of privation on account of loss Of
employment and wag es.-Philadelphia
Times.