Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-08-21

| purchasing OF Otner5 all SUCH Staples d5 IL
own soil or climate proves ungenial to
! We appreciate quite as well as our op
ponents the impolicy of attempting tC
grow coffee in Greenland or glaciers il
| Malabar, to extract blood from turniI
or sunbeams from cucumbers. A vast
deal OF wit has been expended on our
stupidity by our acuter adversaries, but il
has been quite thrown away, except as it
has excited the hollow laughter of the
ignorant as well as thoughtless. All this,
however sharply pushed, falls wide of our
true position. To all the fine words we
hear about "the impossibility of counter
acting the laws of nature, trade regu-
lating ITSELF etc, ETC., we bow with due
Difference, and wait for the sage to resume
his argument. What we do affirm is this,
that it is best for every nation to make at
home all those articles Of its own consump-
tion that can Just as well-that is, with
nearly or quite as little labor-be made
there as anywhere else. We say it is not
wise, it Is not well, to send to France for
boots, to Germany for hose, to England for
knives and forks, and so on; because the
real cost of them would be less, even
though the nominal price should be
slightly mere, if we made them in our
own country, while the facility of paying
for them would be much greater. We do
not object to the occasional importation
of choice articles to operate as specimens
and incentives to our own artisans to i'm
prove the quality and finish of their work
manship-where the home competitor does
not avail to bring the process to its perfec-
ton, as it often will In such cases, the
rich and luxurious will usually be the
buyers of those choice articles, and can
afford to pay good duty. There are
gentlemen of extra polish in our cities
and villages who think no coat good
enough for them which is not woven in an
English loom, no boot adequately trans
parent which has rot been fashioned by
Partisan master. | quarrel not with their
taste only say that, since the Govern
ment must have revenue and the American
artisan should have protection, | am glad
it is 50 fixed that these gentlemen shall
contribute handsomely to the former, and
crafty their aspirations with the least pos
sible detriment TO the latter. 1t does not
invalidate the fact nor the efficiency Of
protection that foreign competition with
American workmanship is not entirely
shut out. 1t is the general result which is
important, and not the exception. Now,
he who can seriously contend, as some
have seemed to do, that protective duties
do not aid and extend the domestic pro-
duction of the articles SO protected might
as well undertake to argue the sun out of
the heavens at midday. All experience,
all common sense, condemn him. Do we
not know that our manufactures first shot
= he nf hn
embargo and war? That they withered
and crumbled under the comparative free
trade of the few succeeding years? That
they were revived and extended by the
tariffs of 1924 and '2S? Do we not know
that Germany, crippled by British policy,
which inundated her with goods, yet ex-
Guided her grain and timber, was driven,
years since, TO the establishment of her
"Zoll-Vereinp or Tariff Union-a measure
of careful and stringent protection,
under which manufactures have grown up
and ffourished through all her many
States She has adhered steadily, firmly,
tc her protective policy, while we have
faltered and oscillated and what is the
result? She has created and established
her manufactures; and in doing so has
vastly increased her wealth and augmented
the reward of her industry. Her public
sentiment, as expressed through its thou
sand channels, Is almost unanimous in
favor of the protective policy; and now,
when England finding at length that her
cupidity has overreached itself-that she
cannot supply the Germans with clothes
refuse to buy their bread-talks of relax
ing her corn laws in order to coax back
her ancient and profitable customer, the
answer is, NO; it is now too late. We
have built up home manufactures in re-
polling your rapacity-we canno: destroy
them at your caprice. What guarantee
have we that, should we accede to your
terms you would not return again to your
policy of taking all and giving none 80
soon as our factories had crumbled into
ruin? Besides, we have found that we can
make cheaper-really cheaper-than we
were able to buy-can pay better wages to
our laborers, and secure q better and
steadier market for our. products. We are
content to abide in the position to which
you have driven us. Pass on
But this is not the sentiment of Germany
alone. All Europe acts on the principle
of self-protection because all Europe sees
its benefits. The British journals complain
that, though they have made show of re-
Taxation in their own tariff, and their Pre-
mier has made trade speech in Par
lament, the chaff has caught no birds; but
six hostile tariffs protective in their
character, and all aimed at the supremacy
of British manufactures-were enacted
within the year 1912. And thus. while
schoolmen plausibly talk of the adoption
and spread of free-trade principles, and
their rapid advances to speedy ascendency,
the practical man knows that the truth is
otherwise, and that many years mnst
elapse before the great Colossus of manu-
featuring monopoly will find another Por-
tugal to drain of her life-blood under the
delusive pretence of a commercial reci-
procity. And, while Britain continues to
pour forth her precious treatises on politi-
| cal economy, proving protection mistake
and an impossibility through her Parlia-
mentary reports and speeches in praise of
free trade, the shrewd statesmen of other
nations humor the joke with all possible
gravity, and pass i. on to the next neigh
Dor yet all the time take care of their own
interests, just az though Adam Smith had
never speculated nor Peel soberly expati-
ated on the blessings of free trade, look
ing round occasionally with curious in
terest to see whether anybody was really
| taken in by it.
have partly anticipated, yet I will
state distinctly my
PROPOSITION v.
Protection is necessary and proper to
sustain as well as to create beneficent adj
| justment of our national industry.
"Why can't our manufacturers go alone?'
petulantly asks free-trader; "they have
had protection long enough. They ought
not to need it any more" To this answer
that, If manufactures were protected as a
matter of special bounty or favor to the
manufacturers single day were too long.
/ would not consent that they should be
! sustained one day longer than the interests
Of the whole country required. ! think
you have already seen that, NOT for the
sake of manufacturers, but for the sake Of