The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-08-29
The True Test.

any system OF pOllllcal economy Manl-
festly the results of fair trial, under
normal conditions, through term of
years. Our free-trade contemporary,
the Retormer, who we freely concede
discusses the issue of the canvass with
far greater force than any of its allies
in this state, is always pleased, when it
finds the facts of the living present"
too strong for it to combat, to take
refuge in the dim shadowy precincts of
an alleged Arcadia that existed some
where between 1850 and 1860, when
free-trade prevailed, the country was
prosperous and everybody was very
happy Respecting that era, it must be
remembered that just before its dawn
the gold mines of California were
discovered and during its continuance
were producing annually from $780,
600 900 to $50 100000. This fact alone
may account for much of the prosperity
of the period in question. Before the
California discovery the annual produc-
ton of gold was quite insignificant,
averaging less than million year.
In 1854 came the Crimean war, in
volving England, France, Turkey and
Russia in a long and destructive war,
keeping all Europe under arms, re-
ducing the foreign production of food
and creating market for American
products. In this period was also the
beginning of railway construction, Gre
ating large home demand for home
products. Whatever prosperity the
country had during that decade is rather
more reasonably assignable to some one
or all of these causes combined than to
the then existing economic system--if
that can be called system at all that
was subjected to constant change, strik
ing all the notes in the economic scale
between free-trade and high tariff.
Now against all the fickleness that
was the real status of the governments
practice in respect of the tariff up to
1864, a period in which statistics are
comparatively meager and in which
the economic conditions were in a con-
dition so unnatural that terrible finan-
cial and commercial collapse came in
1857, we place the twenty years which
succeeded the close of the civil war
since 1867, and which have followed
the formal adoption of a tariff designed
and instituted for the protection of
American industry. To the policy thus
adopted the government has steadfastly
adhered. Its departures therefrom have
been too few to expose it to the charge
of wavering, but those departures,
notably in the case of tin-plates and
wool, have served to illustrate in a sig
nal manner the wisdom and effective
ness of the policy of protection, as the
ways of the evil-doer seem to show that
the path of virtue leads to enduring
prosperity.
AS the policy of protection has been,
in the main firmly and consistently adj =
hered to for twenty years, so the period
has been one in which normal economic
conditions-or as nearly normal as they
will ever be likely to be found-have
prevailed. The peace of nations has
not been long or frequently broken.
Industrial and commercial enterprise
has pursued the even tenor of its peace
full way. What is the result? The
story of the development of this
country in all departments of industry,
its growth in material wealth, reads
more like a tale of the Arabian Nights
than of tangible, substantial fact. Every
intelligent American voter knows the
story by heart. 1t is the wonder and
envy of the foreigner and every can.
did observer sees in the protective
policy, persisted in for twenty years
and the marvellous industrial growth
and development of the United States
the prime moving cause and the legiti
mate effect. There is no installing it
Democratic sophistry, audacious as i
always is, is not equal to the task o.
persuading Americans to abandon al
economic system that, as surely as the
years come and go, is preserving
America for Americans and making il
the most prosperous, the most enlight
ened and the strongest nation on thi
terrestrial ball. Let every Vermonte
that is able to go to the polls mex
Tuesday declare his Endorsement o
this policy by his vote for Dillingham;
and Woodbury..
Cost of Labor In WOOlens.