Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-07-28
STAND TO YOUR GROUND.
PROTECTION OR FREE TRADE.
Christened So By A Century OF UI
and Dozen Experience.


We are in the tariff fight and we
mean to stay. There is no evading
it,-no getting around or hedging to
the right or to the eft;-the issue
confronts the American people on
every side; and all the powers OF
British commercial interests lead
the way by force of theory, or press
on in the rear by every influence
that English gold can command.
PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE
must be as terrible as an army in
battle array, and they are in antag.
onism in a war Of centuries.
In peace and in war the conflict
has been the same under one cover
or another, since the days of Boston
harbor; and it will be the same for a
century and more for the rise or fall
Of American labor.
If the Democrats succeed this fall
they are bound to come out squarely
for free trade, as the party is pledg-
ed to that and only evade the issue
under its real name as a matter OF
prudence for the time. If it is de.
feated, it will make the fight again
and again on the same principles
until it does succeed. If the Repub.
iicans are successful their policy will
be protection, with such reductions
as may be safely made without In.
jury to any American industry. If
they are defeated their policy of
protection will not be changed but
will be maintained through every
defeat until their efforts are crowned
with victory.
1t is a war OF issues in which
statesman and soldier have sprung
from obscurity among the people to
the highest distinction and greatest
power in the nation; and the turn
OF battle has hurled mighty leaders
to the level of their fallen hosts. 1t
makes men and breaks men, as it
makes nations and breaks them.
The lmpetuous rush to early DIES
truction; the cautious watch the
turn OF tae day, and make friends
with the enemy while yet they may.
Protection in this country is on
the defensive; free trade is the ag.
gressor. Every Protectionist is a
warrior and veteran, though he
never met a charge or broke ranks
before.
Free trade is alien-an army of
English recruits, -under English
training in English tactics out of
Golden manual. 1t picks its flint
in camp with the skill of the scared,
but faces the battle as stage struck
bard,-hittlng ever and anon at
random, and missing point blank at
long range.
Repulsed and routed in every en-
counter, the free trade troops furl
their banners, pitch their tents, and
declare they were never in battle
before and are not now. Such is
their effrontery that a free trade
general passes himself off as a pro-
tectonist staff officer as easily as a
hungry forager runs through cor
nered porker.
This in manner explains some
of the difficulties the advocates of
protection have to meet and con.
tend with,-like meeting a flea and
vanquishing him,-he's not there
that time but the next minute it's
the same old flea bite over, only at
another place.
The free traders arguments are
not many, but they are capable of
being shown in thousand different
ways under the fascinating powers
of their magic lantern of sophistry
and snbterfuge. Their circuit of
logic runs on lightning wheels, that
is as hard to catch and to hold as q
famished pig with a creased tail.
Their theories are ever ancient,
ever new,-never fully remem bered,
never entirely forgotten; but the
Euclid of free tradeism contains no
problem that cannot be solved with
the KEY OF EXPERIENCE lost
with every age and generation, the
same key unlocks the same mystery
but once, and that is why the fruit
of free trade is so sweet to the eve
(of imagination) and so BITTER to
the taste (0f experience).
Graoa EnfiaI1 Monte Iton1jo.