Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1888-09-27
The Fathers on Protection.


1t is an interesting and signlgcant fact that
as long ago as l77l Benjamin Franklin point
ed out the advantage of home market over
foreign one in practically the same way
that the friends of protection present the
matter. In a letter written that year from
London 10 Humphrey Marshall, of Bradford.
Pa, he urged the importance of Industry
and frugaIity' as sources OF American wei
fare and development, and declared that IL
the people would properly consider that all
they could save by refusing to purchase
European goods, and b. making their own
apparel would be lust SO much added TO the
wealth OF their country aud the profits of
their labor. The colonies engaged IN pro.
ducng provisions were growing very fast, he
went on TO say, and soon the surplus would
be too large for the foreign demand at fair
prices; therefore it was to their interest to
en- arge the home demand, and cease 10 de-
pend upon the export policy. Furthermore,
he wrote:
Every manufacturer encouraged In our
country makes part OF market for prOyis.
ions within ourselves, and saves so much
money to the country as must otherwise e
exported TO pay for the manufactures he sup
plies. Here In England it is well known and
understood, that wherever manufacture is
hands, 1t raises the value OF lands in the
neighbOrng country all around it; partly b.
the greater demand Eear at hand for the pro.
duce of The land; and partly from the plenty
drawn by the manufacturers to that par t
of the country. 1t seems therefore the in
terest of ali our farmers and owners of landi,
to encourage our young manufactures in
preference to foreign ones imported among
US from distant countries"
This was sound and practical protection
doctrine then as it is now; and only a few
years later the first United States congress
passed and President Washington signed an
act imposing duties on imported products,
"fOr the payment Of the public indie bledness,
| and the encouragement and protection of
manufactures" subsequently,, NashingtO ton
declared in a message to congress that the
safety and interest Of the people required such
promotion of domestic manufactures as
should render the United States indcpend =
| Cut Of other nations for essential supplies;h
and a sound and more protective tariff
| measure was enacted. For twenty wears
| aflerward, additional tariff laws were passe d
| By each succeeding congress, all designated
| to shut out foreign competition and to give
! an advantage to home labor and capital. The
| fathers realized the benefit of making the
| country materially as well as politically indie
| pendent They did not delude themselves
| with the fancy that they could afford TO
| surrender the domestic market to rival
| power The falnCy Of free trade did not con-
fuse them for Il moment. They saw plainly
that self-prOtection was the true law and
| plan of prosperity, and governed themselves
accordingly. The same considerations are
present to-day 1t is just as important now
as 1t was then to guard our industrial and
| commercial interests against foreign com
petition and enCr0achment. A protective
tariff was right and profitable at the begin
ming Of the government; and 1t is right and
prOftablc still, in spite of all talk to the
contrary. st Louis G'Obe- Democrat.