Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1888-02-16
How And Whom Protection Protects.

The scale Of protective duties should be
50 adapted a. to secure the right of every
owner If land to provide for his present
want, and the future OF his family, and 70
add to the wealth and power Of his
country by developing and bringing into
profitable Use all the resources of his
estate. whether they be the products of
the farm or those of the forest, the mine,
or the quarry. The landowners OF a ma
ton however. are not that portion of its
citizens who are most dependent upon the
maintenance Of a system of duties which
should. under all the vicissitudes of trade
and changes in the course of International
commerce, defend their rights for though
commercial depression may prevent them
from making profits to be boarded or cx
pended in the Improvement Of their
estates they may procure sustenance from
them But il i not so with the landless
millions Their estates consist Of their
thews and sinews; Of the training of their
eyes and hands to quick cooperative ac-
ton: Of their taste for and aptne>s in the
production of the attractive in form, tex
ture and color of inventive genius. which
enables them, by new combinations of
mechanical principles, or the applications
OF science to the arts, to increase the pro-
ductive power of nations. These and the
like aptitudes constitute the estate of mil
lions Of people who are known a. artists,
artisans, laborers, or by other terms OF
designation and who have the right TO
demand that their estates also shall be
defended by the nation. though their de-
Tense shall require other agencies than the
power of a navy and army. The daily
wages of these toiling millions are the I'M
its of measurement by which their estates
are told and their means of comfort and
health asccrtained. And, repeat it is the
duty of government so to adjust the regu-
lation of its trade and commerce as TO Sc
cure its own people whatever benefits are TO
be derived from the development of the
material resources of the country and the
conversion of its native raw material into
useful commodities.
A tariff adjusted to these aims would
protect every branch of industry, yet
would not call into existence a single mo-
nopoly. IL would like beneticent pro-
violence, shed its blessings over all, and
prevent the recurrence of such seasons of
suffering, depression and want as occur
red between the close of the war and the
going into effect of the tariff of 1924; be-
tween the. overthrow of protection BY the
compromise act of 1888 and the adoption
of the tariff of 1912; or, again, such as
followed the free-trade tariff of 1916, in
spite of the fact that our gold fields had in
a single decade yielied one thousand one
hundred millions of dollars. Here was a
direct and unexpected gift from Provi-
denee, bestowed for the purpose of prov
ing, even to the willfully blind, the truth
that protective tariff is the only defen-
siye instrumentality kaown to modern in
dustrial warfare; and that. by securing the
prosperity of all classes of the people, and |
thus averting long seasons of idleness and |
distress. it is, while apparently law for |
the benefit of producers only, in fact a |
boon to those who neither SOW nor reap, |
but are consumers oniy.-Hoa. William ID. !
Kelley, In February Forum.