The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-03-29
BENEFITS OF PROTECTION.
A Tariff Properly Adjusted Sheds II.
BLESSINGS Over All.

The scale of protective duties should
be SO adapted as to secure the right OF
every owner of land to provide for his
present wants and the future of his
family and to add to the wealth and
power of his country by developing
and bringing into profitable use all the
resources of his estate, whether they
be the products of the farm or those
! of the forest. the mine or the quarry.
The landowners of a nation, however,
are not that portion of its citizens
who are most dependent upon the
maintenance of a system OF duties which
should, under all the vicissitudes of
trade and changes, in the course OF
interna tional commerce. defend their
| rights; for though commercial depres-
sion may prevent them from making
profits to be boarded or expended in the
improvement of their estates, they may
procure sustenance from them. But it is
not so with the landless millions. Their
| estates consist of their thews and
sinews; of the training of their eyes
and hands to quick cooperative action;
of their taste for and aptness in the
production of the attractive i'll form,
texture and color; of inventive genius,
which enables them, by new combi-
nations of mechanical principles or the
applications of scienc ce to the arts. to
increase the productive power of na-
FI'hacn hn do
| constitute the estate of millions Of
people who are known as artists.
artisans, labOrers, or by other terms of
designation; and who have the right
to demand that their estate also shall
be defended by the nation, though
their defense shall require other
agencies than the power of navy and
army. The daily wages of these toll
ing millions are the units of measure
ment by which their estates are told,
and their means of comfort and health
ascertained. And, l repeat it is the
duty of government so to adjust the
regulation of its trade and COM
merce as to secure its own people
whatever benefits are to be derived
from the development of the material
resourc es of the country and the con-
version of its native raw material into
useful commodities.
A tariff adjusted to these aims
would protect every branch of indus
try, yet would not call into existence
single monopoly. 1t would, like a
beneficient Providence, shed it's bless
ings over all, and prevent the recur-
renee of such seasons of suffering, de-
preston and want as occurred be-
tween the close of the war and the
going into effect of the tariff of 1924;
by the Compromise at of 1888 and
the adoption of the tariff Of 1912; or
again, such as followed the free-trade
tariff of 1916, in spite of the fact that
our gold fields had. in a single decade,
yielded 81, 100, 000 coo. Here was Il
direct and unexpected gift from Provi-
dence. bestowed for the purpose Of
proving, even to the willfully blind,
the truth that protective tariff is the
only defensive instrumentality known
to modern industrial warfare; and
that, by securing the prosperity of all
classes of the people. and thus avert
ing long seasons of idleness and dis
tress, it is, while apparently law for
the benefit of producers only, in fact
boon to those who neither SOW nor
reap, but are consumers Only.-Ht!l-
lam D. helLeY, IN Forum.