Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-06
mnND.Y, FEBRUARY 8, 1883
lndustry ChOked by a raise
Tariff.


An ardent admirer OF the protec'
tive tariff expresses in the
columns OF a contemporary the opin-
ion that those who are writing on the
tariff question from the Democratic
standpoint, do not know much OF the
subject. He thinks the whole mat
ter simple one, and proceeds to set
tie it at one blow by the following
questions: "How will it make our
laborers richer by letting wool i'll
duty free? How will it make more
work for our people by taking the
tariff off OF iron?" But that does not
settle anything. The leath-
er trade languished fol
years under a protective tariff.
We did not, and could not produce
raw material in large enough guam
tity to supply the demand. Foreign
manuf scturers who got their material
duty free, flooded the Union with
their wares. The duty on hides was
removed, and with free material
American enterprise soon saw its op-
portunity and improved it. The
leather business flourishes under a
liberal supply OF material. So with
wool. Manufactures are restricted in
obtaining good supply of material.
The English spinner gets his wool duty
free. He floods our country with
his goods in spite of the tariff on
them. Let our manufacturers have
their material duty Tree and they will
be able to compete with the world.
One man will take care of several
thousand sheep all the year round.
But it will take many men to weave
the wool from the flock. Stimulate
manufacturing by free W. ol, and
where one herder is cast out of EN-
ployment a hundred spinners and
weavers will be put to work. Besides it
is far from clear that free wool will ma
terially injure our sheep industry. The
country will take all the mutton we
can raise. Our woods are OF differ
ent grade from most of those imported.
Large operations in the manufactur-
ing line are likely to cause an in
creased demand for homegrown wool.
Iron rests on the same basis. One
miner will take out ore enough to
keep a thousand men at work in the
various branches Of the iron indus
tries. How long does it take to
mine ton OF ore? How many
men will it take to smelt
that ton, to convert it into
"pigs," then into ''bar" iron,
into pipe, into STEEL, into rails, into
pocket-knives, into watch springs? :?
Free material is protection to our
manufactures. Free material is a
stimulus to enterprise, and that is
what calls for labor. The trouble is,
the protected industries make COM
pact to keep things as they are. Mr..
Cleveland hit the bull's-eye in the
center when he called for revision
of the duties on raw material. Re-
publican politicians and the Republi-
can press try to pull the wool
over the eyes of their party
in this matter. They do it not
periodically, but in order to get votes.
It is not the country they care for but
their party. Their interest is not in
the people, butNin keeping themselves
in power. 1t is not the poor mans
Welt re they look 10, but their own
salary which they derive from office.
The people must stop and think
about these matters for themselves.
"A thorough discussion of the subject
will do more than anything which
has occurred in twenty years to break
up the Republican party. The sug-
gestions of the President are in the
line Of broad craftsmanship. The
principles he has given utterance are
sound. They are true. They are for
the destruction of monopolies. They
nre for the good of the people. They
will win.