Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-02-01

Professor Thompson, of the University
of Pennsylvania, is learned and well
known writer on Political economy.
thorough master Of the subject. who
deduces his principles from comprehen-
sive collation. of facts and experience,
instead Of first framing his theories and
then trying to force the facts into the con-
tracted moulds of abstract formularies-
He has no special veneration for the
Golden Cub. nor for the agents and
subsidized writers Of the British manu-
features. His treaties on Social Science.
published some years since. received the
strong endorsement Of many OF the abiest
statesmen Of this country, and it should
BIZ in the library of every American who
believes in the American system Of foster
ing American industry. He has been
writing recently some valuable papers.
which are being published by the Irish
World. Of New York, "A newspaper Of
large circulation, which is doing an inn
portant work among the Irish American
citizens of the Empire State and other
sections Of the country. The following
il taken from the last communication of
Professor Thompson in that paper:
There Never Has Been an American Tar
IN which did not Lay Duties ON Raw
| Materials, nor 9 Protective Tariff WEIGH
did not Seek to Foster Their Production.
Some Free Traders recently have had the
audacity 10 say that the protection of raw
materials is Il novelty unknown to Henry
Clay and the old Protectionists. The very
| first Tariff, that of 1883. laid duty on raw
cotton for the benefit of the American plant
er, who was just beginning it on a great
scale. Henry Clay fought in 1924 1927, and
/ 1928 for high duties on wool as well as or
voolens. The notion that Protective Tar
| if was enacted exclusively for the benefit OF
manufacturers was never entertained by the
| friends of that policy. There never has
been an American Tariff which did not lay
| duties ON raw materials, nor a Protective
| Tariff which did not seek to foster their pro
duction.
The wool and wooens Tariff of 1928 wal
the final victory in the long struggle Of these
two great industries with the power of Brit
ish capital. In few years the number Of
American sheep rose from fourteen TO TWEEN
ty million, and the wool crop from thirty
five to fifty millions. Had it been main
tanned the state of growth soon would have
made America altogether independent o.
foreign supply. But the slave-masters o.
the South had already begun to fight the bat
ties of the loom-lords of Northern England
aud threats of opposition to the enforcement
of the law were made even before it wa.
passed. Slavery made the Tariff a sectiona
question by making honest toll a social dis
grace throughout the Southern States. As
consequence the intelligent and skilled labo
needed for manufactures could not be hai
there, and their best textile product was
coarse cotton cloth made by slave-labor t
clothe slaves. This was the barrier, main
tanned by the Southern people themselves
which prevented the South from benefitinl
) by the protective policy to which they CAV
their support in 1916. 1t was this whic
, cemented the alliance of Slavery with Ere
! Trade, which was not dissolved until the fol
mer had perished
Robert ELLIS THOMPSON.