Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-05-28
Tariff Issue Boiled Down For Busy
Men.

the progress of the country in the presen
era of Protection has been marvellous ant
stands unparalleled in the worlds his
| tory
If the policy of Protection rules at the
present time in all the nations of The
earth with two or three exceptions, anC
| is everywhere gaining in favor rather
than losing, even in England
If the products of our manufacture
have grown so tremendously in this era
of Protection that we are now the fore
most manufacturing nation on earth
If strikes and trade combines eventual
| ly arise as products of severe competition
and overproduction in any country, and
England had both before we had either
| if any number
| If the multiplication of industries dur
| ing the era of Protection has brought
about such domestic competition as to
materially reduce the cost of every article
of living save rents
If wages are higher now than they were
at the close of the last free-trade era
If the American citizen is better paid,
better clad, better educated, and (unless
he is a free-trader) more contented than
any other on the face of the globe
If the tide of emigration on part of
those who are seeking to better their con-
dition in life is away from free-trade
countries to Protection America
If the American workman not only
earns more and spends more, but also
puts more money in savings institutions,
than any other class of working people
If business is fairly good and we are
holding our own in every branch of trade
and industry except our unprotected
ocean-carrying trade
If the future outlook is for continued
growth and development as in the past,
Why, in the name of common-sense
and ordinary prudence, should we aim
deadly blow at this same protective sys-
TEN which has served us SO well,
When it is purely IA matter of choice
and not of necessity in doing so
When the surplus revenue can be more
easily and quickly reduced by the aboli-
ton of the internal revenue war taxes,
wholly or in part
When further reduction of the revenue,
if needed, can be had by abolishing or re-
ducing the only remaining duty on great
necessary of life, sugar
When further reductions of the revenue
can be had by paying the national debt
through bond purchases, by appropriate
;,,r old fO aClnplfinn
by needed appropriations for coast and
harbor defenses, by wise appropriations
for national benefit
When further reductions of the reve-
nue. can be had by increasing inadequate
duties to the point of protection, and by
granting bounties for the revival of our
merchant marine
Unless one is working under the cloak
of tariff reform to further private inter-
ests, as principal or agent, by causing
large increase in imports and is, there
fore, to the extent he claims to be seeking
the public good, knavish. or
Unless one believes that protection has
been so harmful to this country in the
past and bodies such evil for the fu-
ture that it needs an DISCRIMINATING
blow before anything else is done, in
which case he is fairly entitled to consid-
Grafton as superlatively foolish.
Summed up in one sentence, our indict-
ment against the Mills Bill, the Presi-
dents Message, and all movements in
sympathy Herewith, is this If our coun-
try has done exceedingly well in the past,
is doing well in the present, and has
fairly good outlook, why strike at the ifs
cal system under which so much pros
perty has been attained, when it is not
only necessary to go out of the way to do
so, but also to retard other and desirable
legislation, unless one has private aims
to further by so doing, or is lacking good
Judgment and prudence?
All of which goes to show that the ire
mendous burden of proof resting upon
the free-trade assailants of the status quo
to show that we have prospered in spite
of protection and that we would be all
better of without it, will make them very
weary before the campaign of 1888 is
half over.-C Commercial Bulletin.