The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1888-08-16
WHERE FREE TRADE MUST
LEAD TO,

Editor Herald: There is an aspect of
the present demand for free-trade which
seems to have been too generally over
looked by those voters inclined to lend
their voices and ballots to it's promotion.
This is the studied, persistent effort to
prejudice the public mind againt the very
idea of protection. Not only is the policy
as commonly understood subjected to
Misrepresentation, but the word itself is
held up to derision. Protection is fire.
quently used as synonymous with extor-
ton, and in many instances protective
legislation is denounced asrobbery. The
result of this must be that when, if ever,
protection to manufactures is broken
down, its assailants, if consistent, will
next attack some of the other forms of
protection.
The exclusive right extended by patent
laws to the inventor who has devised the
machinery for manufacturing is more
radical protection than is accorded by
any schedule of existing tariff laws. The
inventor is absolutely shielded from COM
petition during the life of his patent, and
even beyond that period provision is
made for its protection. This protection
is not even confined to American citizens,
but is extended to aliens as well. The
writer of book, the composer of a song,
the proprietor Of trade mark, the de-
signer of a picture, are accorded mo-
nopoly of use and sale in which they are
protected by all the power of law en-
forced by the machinery of the federal
courts. Not only is protection thus ex-
tended to the inventor, designer and au-
thor, but to whomsoever he may choose
to invest with his prerogative; the pro-
lection is transferable, and can be made
a matter of merchandise. These are
forms of protection that no advocate of
"unfettered trade" can consistently sup
port.
There is another aspect of protection
which appeals directly to large and in
fuential class of our citizens. Scarcely a
village in the country permits a peddler
or other itinerant trader to prosecute
business within it's limits without
first paying for such privilege. Any
other policy would be injustice to resi-
dent tradesmen whose property is
taxed for the support of municipal gov
eminent. The free trader, who demands
that foreigners shall be permitted to
bring their wares into the markets of the
United States without tariff, will be
forced to claim for his fellow countrymen
the privilege to sell without tax where
ever he can find customers.
The theorists, who now so loudly in
Weigh against what they term the priv
ileged classes" and so roundly denounce
the policy OF protection, will be forced by
the inevitable logic of consistency to at
tack the existing protection to inventors,
authors, designers, and eventually all
municipal regulations imposing taxes for
privileges of trade. With them consis-
tency now waits on expediency, in the
hope of finding present allies among the
future victims of their unpatriotic policy.
No sooner will they have secured the sur
render of one tenent of the protective
policy under which our country has made
its phenomenal progress, than their at
tacks may be looked for at some other
point. To stop short of this will be to
incur the ignominy of demanding in the