Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-10-13
PATRICK EGAN.

To TIC Editor Of the Press: l am in receipt of
your esteemed favor requesting me to give nv
reasons for believing that protection is the best
policy for the United states ard asking my opin-
ion as to what would be the effect of free-trade
policy on our laborers and industries / shall
with pleasure comply with your request. ! be-
lieve that protection is the best policy for the
United States.
First-Because, setting all theories aside and
forming my judgment upon the sound basis
of experience, | am convinced that protection
is the source from which has sprung the splen-
did position-manufacturing commercial finan-
cial and in regard to general prosperity and
progress-which this country occupies TODAY
In sustainment of this belief | refer to the nm
precedented progress which the American ma
tion made in prosperity under the protective
tariffs of 1889, 1924, 1912 and since 1861: and to
the marvellous strides in manufacturing and
commercial prosperity achieved by my native
d-lreland-during the independence of the
Irish Parliament under the high protective
tariff bill passed in 1888 against all importations
including those from England; protection
higher than any adopted by America up to
1924. Ofthe progress made by Ireland during
this period, and which was solely due to the
rigid protection of her home industries, Lord
Clare said: There is not nation on the habit
able globe which has advanced in cultivation
and commerce. in agriculture and manufactur-
ing, with the same rapidity in the same time"
oecond-Because can see Just as plainly as
that two and two make four that protection can
alone preserve and increase the prosperity and
the wealth already created against the compe-
tition of the products of the cheap labor of
Europe. In proof of this ! refer to the poverty
general financial embarrassment and national
insolvency inflicted upon America during the
tariff for revenue only periods following the
adoption of the Clay compromise tariff in 1879
and the Walker tariff in 1886 Not only national
insolvency but national humiliation when in
lo42 and $50 the great American nation was
unable TO negotiate in he financial markets of
the world national loan of SIS, 100000 in the
first case and in the second S5000,000 | refer
also to the ruin wrought in Ireland by the in
PRODUCTION OF English free trade, a system which
by killing out the extensive manufacturing in
terests of Ireland, and driving her entire popu-
lation to seek subsistence out of the SOIL created
undue competition for land, and enabled the
landlords to take advantage of such competition
to double the rents; converted the most fruitful
and the most fertile island in the world into a
land of poverty, wretchedness and rags. and has
forced her sons to seek refuge in every CLINE
and under every flag all over the world
Third-Because l am an American citizen and
because l have watched and studied, and [
think, comprehend the "hell-bent'' Ilachiua-
tons by which England, through the agency of
the Golden Club propaganda, is tryine to blind
and befoo the American people int running
American interests, and building up the failing
fortunes OF England by throwing open the great
American market to English producers
Fourlh-Because | believe in the words of
Thomas Jefferson. that 'in spite of treaaes Eng
land is still our enemy" and that any and every
theory recommended to us by the mouthpiece
of the English manufacturers. the CoDden Club.
must be Tor the advantage of English interests
and detrimental to ours
In regard to the effect of free trade policy on
our laboters and industries every thinh NJ man
not blinded by party prejudice or bei led by
theories, should be able to comprehc ii tIat
free trads-or as it is known by its more plau,i-
Die name, tariff for revenue only"-would un-
doubtedly have the effect of flooding oar mar
kets with European, and spscially English.
fabrics, of reducing and ultimately running our
manufacturing interests, of shutting down num-
bers of our factories and works, OF casting large
numbers of American artisans and laborers out
of employment, of reducing to starvation range
the wages of the rest, of reducing the cost of
living. which means depreciating the value of
agricultural produce and impoyerishing the
farmer, OF increasing the purchasing power of
the dollar, which means making the man with
&C 3unulated wealth so much richer than the
poor man, with his labor to SELL so much
poorer; of again-as free trade has invariably
done in the past in this seountry-forcing losing
business, destroying commercial confidence
laying the foundation for financial panics, re-
ducug the toiling masses to beggary and the
nSti9u to bankruptcy. Yours truly,
PATRICK EGAN.
WILLIAM o'MEAGHER.
To the Editor of the Press In reply to your
note would briefly state that l am Protec-
zionist, because believe protection means pa
triotlsm, good wages home comforts education
and social refinement benefittng the American
standard of human life and liberty 1t follows
that free trade means the opposite of all these
pauperlsm, slavery, Ignorance and general de-
moralization for the masses; honor, wealth and
social distinction for very small minority
who have no feeling of humanity or of falloyr