The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-08-30
the situation when he said

country makes part OF q market Tor pro-
visions within ourselves, and saves 80
much money to the country as must other
wise be exported to pay for the manufac-
lures he supplies. Here in England it Is
well known and understood that wherever
manufacture is established which EN-
ploys number Of hands, it raises the value
of Land in the neighboring country all
arodnd it; partly by the greater demand
near at hand for the produce of the land
and partly from the plenty Of money drawn
by the manufacturers to that part of the
country. 1t seems, therefore, the interest
of all our farmers and owners Of lands to
encourage our young manufactures in
preference to foreign ones imported among
us from distant countries"
The fathers of the republic appreciated
the necessity for home market. They
were all farmers and planters. They
could not sell to each other, for each sup
| piled his own wants. This was their stu
alton. They recognized the Importance OF
diversitying the occupations of the people.
They must promote other pursuits than
the cultivation of the SOIL They must
have, If they would prosper, consumers
who would absorb the
SURPLUS PRODUCTS OF THE FARM.
The result was a protective tariff, and
under 1t the wisdom and foresight of the
founders of the republic have been more
| than vindicated. Andrew Jackson putin
case as well as has ever been done when he
declared in 1924 where has the Ameri-
can farmer market for his surplus pro-
duct? Except for cotton, he has neither
foreign or home market. Does not this
clearly prove, when there Is no market
either at home or abroad, that there Is too
much labor employed in agriculture and
that the channels for labor should be null
| tiplied? Common sense points out the
| remedy. Draw from agriculture the super
abundant labor, employ it on mechanism
and manufacture, thereby creating home
market for your breadstuffs and distribut-
ing labor to the most profitable account
and benefits to the country" One-third
of the cotton crop of the South is consumed
at home. Who would not wish that all of
it might find a market in the United
| States? We would be better off; you would
be better off. The country at large would
be the gamer If the whole cotton crop was
| fabricated in our own mills by our own
people. Transportation would to a great
extent be saved. We would make and
buy more cotton cloths at home, and send
abroad far less; idle labor would be EN-.
ployed; idle capital find investment; the
South would increase its spindles and its
looms, and general and permanent pros
perity would follow.
The tariff reformer seeks to tlatter the
| New England manufacturer with the sug-
gestion that he no longer needs protection,
and should turn his influence in favor of
the other system. He assures him that he
has reached snch perfection in manufaC-
ture, such completeness Of organization,
such advancement in mechanical skill,
that he has nothing to fear from competl-
ton abroad, and that he has but to reach
out for our own and the worlds market
and they are mis-, He assures him that he
has nothing longer to fear from foreign
competition, but that his serious danger Is
| from home competition; that, while he Is
indebted for his splendid progress in in
dustrial development to protective sys
tenn, he has outgrown it, and If it is to be
continued the people of the South ana
West will become his dangerous rivals,
and that to avoid this new competition ne
invites him to assist in withholding from
the states which have been slower IN IN
dustrial development that measure OF
legislative aid which has been so prohtaOly
invoked by the New England states, and
to which they are indebted Tor their won
derful advance in mechanical and indus,
trial pursuits What do Sthe south and
West say to this narrow and provincial
view? It may be true that the New Eng
land manufacturer has reached that rank
and that degree of perfection when pro
lection to him is rot so essential as II once
in exactly the same condition that
New England was twenty years ago,
and l am sure will insist that the
same fostering legislation shall be &C
corded for their development that has been
so long enjoyed by their more progressive
fellow citizens on the eastern coast. The
truth is,
PROTECTION MUST BE UNIVERSAL
in its application equally within the
reach Of all sections and all industries, or
it should be abandoned altogether. 1t
cannot be enjoyed by one interest to the
exclusion of another. The New England
wooden mills cannot demand protection
upon their cloth and deny IL TO wool, and
they do not. The rice planter cannot hope
to enjoy full protection against foreign
competition and deny equal protection to
the producer Of salt. The sugar planter OF
Louisiana cannot invoke the power OF
Congress for protective duties, and yet
deny like protection to Industries in other
parts of the country. The system must
stand as a whole or fall: AS
Burke said of liberty, sit is the
clear right of all or of none. 1t Is
only perfect when universal" IL
must be protective tariff for all inter
ests requiring the encouragement OF the
government, or it must be free trade or
revenue tariff, and rest alike upon all
classes and all portions OF the country.
We are different from any other nation
and it is that difference which makes us
the best. Our political system rests upon
principle different from that Of any
other. 1t is founded upon the consent. OF
the people. II we had wanted 1t otherwise
we would not have left home, but would
have remained the obedient child Of an i'm
perious parent. We would not have turned
away from the mother country. We
would have remained one Of her depend
encies. We would not have fought our
way through blood and sacrifice to indie
pendence. We separated to set up for
ourselves free and independent political
society, and that policy Is the best for us
which best subserves the purposes Of our
organization, our citizenship and civiliza-
ton, IL Is ours to work out our own des-