The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-09-05
THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
Why the Ex-senator is Opposed to 1t.
Principles.

why the Ex-senator is Opposed to Its
Principles.
/ am opposed to the so-called protective
system upon the grounds:
l. That it is a violation of the spirit
and meaning of the constitution comforting
the taxing power, and introduces class
legislation in its worst form.
2. 1t places labor under the absolute
control of capital, and while the laborer
is compelled to engage his service at the
market price fixed on the basis of free
trade, he purchases his supplies at the
market price fixed under the operations
of the protective tariff, so that the tend
ency is to reduce the rate OF wages and
decrease the purchasing power of the
money he receives.
3. Because, in shutting out foreign
competition, 1t enables the domestic cap
italist, through trust organizations and
combines, to regulate and control the pro-
auctions OF the country and the prices to
be paid, in this manner fostering and
protecting those outrageous monopo-
lies that make money by simply
ascertaining the necessities OF the
people and limiting the supply to the
amount that will produce the greatest
prices and highest profits. 1t is folly to
denounce monopoly and uphold the sys-
TEN of legislation that not only makes it
possible but encourages its formation, yet
that is precisely what the republican party
did in its Chicago platform. Its great po-
litical chieftain, however, Mr.. Blaine,
does not seem willing to put himself in so
absurd position, consequently, in his
Augusta speech, he endeavors to show
that monopolies, in the form of trusts, are
quite harmless in their character and at
all events consist in simply personal and
private business arrangements with which
President Cleveland and the public have
nothing to do" There was an honesty
about this declaration that, perhaps, did
not appear on the surface, for IT is no
doubt true that Mr.. Blaine, in the varied
interests that he holds in the corporations
of the country, is party to more than
one of just such trusts as he thus indirect
ly defended.
: 4. The system of manufacturing that
naturally grows up under the doctrine of
protection necessarily excludes us from
the foreign markets by enhancing the
cost of manufacturing TO that extent that
the only market in which the products can
be taken up and absorbed is the home
market from which foreign competition is
excluded.
Each and every one of these objections
presents itselfwith equal force to the people
of Indiana, irrespective OF party, as there
is not one OF our industrial interests that
is in the slightest degree aided by the pro-
lection theory on the contrary they are
all more or less injuriously affected by it,
while every purchaser and consumer in
the state is interested on the side of tariff
reform. The republican proposition, as
have already stated, is the reduction of
the revenue by increasing the burthens
of taxation, or suffering them to remain
upon the necessaries OF life and taking
them off those articles that are not neces-
saries and the consumption of which
ought not to be encouraged, as whisky,
malt liquor and tobacco; the democratic
proposition is reduction of the revenue
by the reduction of the burthens of taxa
ton, and it is for the people OF Indiana to
choose between these two opposing propo-
sitions.
In contemplating our chances for in
creasing our foreign trade we have natu-
rally looked very much to the Central and