Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-05-05
PROTECTION A BENEFIT.

PROTECTION A BENEFIT.
Has this country been benefited
by protective tariff Yes. With
out it we could not have manufact
ured profitably anything with it we
have grown faster, become more ln-
dependent of other nations than any
nation in the world. We have a
home market of sixty millions, and
at the rate of increase in popula-
ton, which has been the rule for for
ty years past We will have in 1900,
SS millions; in 1910, 115 millions; in
1920, $50 millions; in 1880, 200 mil
lions. Seventy per cent. is from
births, thirty per cent. is from emf.
grafton. The emigration has been
attracted by the liberal wages given
to all Kinds of skilled and unskilled
labor, and by the cheap lands.
Those who have labored in the fac
tories and mines, together with all
those who have been engaged in
other employments, have furnished
the farmer with home market for
his products, which home market
has consumed ninety per cent. of all
he had to sell. On the other hand
the manufacturers have had home
market for all their production
When we look ahead twenty, thirty
or forty years, and realize what the
population Of our country will be,
and consequently what a home
market We will have, can any
thoughtful and patriotic citizen do
anything to destroy the hopeful flu.
ture, by Gripping the interests of
manufacturers, miners and agrlcul.
turalists, by reducing the tariff upon
any articles either manufactured or
grown in this country, below the
point of protecting the same against
foreign competition!
1t has been asserted by free ira.
ders, and by those who favor tariff
for revenue only, that we could live
cheaper under such tariff, because
we could import every thing cheap
er than we can produce it here. 1t
can be proven that In many cases
by protecting our home factories
that home competition has reduced
the cost to the consumer of many
articles to a lower price than they
were imported at or before we made
them, and this in a few years COM
paratively; and this will, more or
less. be the result IN everything
when protection has lasted long
enough to produce the same home
competition. In the manufacture of
cotton goods, the home mills now
consume 1890, 900 bales of cotton per
year. AT the rate of increase in
population aid consumption during
the past, we will consume, in So
years hence, seven million bales per
year, or the whole crop of 1887.
And if the world will need our raw
cotton in the future as in the past,
there will be demand for twelve mil.
lion bales per year, which the cot
ton States OF the Union can easily
grow and supply.
If, by the mutual benefits TO the
consumer and producer Of both
manufactured goods and the prod
ucts Of the farm, they are better
able to buy home products Of the
loom, mine or soil than they would
be were free trade or low tariff the
practice of our government, then it
is wiser and more patriotic to pro-
tect all the interests of our people,
whether manufacturers, mining or
farming.
If it be necessary to reduce the
revenue of the government so as to
have no surplus, it would be better
to take off all the internal revenue
taxes, or pay off the debt of the
country, than to disturb the tariff
when ii is needed for protection.
If tariff for revenue only should
be adopted, those manufacturing in
terests not protected would be
abandoned and the money invested
in them would be lost; the labor
employed 10 such factories would
have to seek other employment, or
migrate to other countries; we
would have to import these articles,
and the revenue would be increased
above the requirements of the gov
eminent, and another reduction
would be necessary, the abandoning
of other manufactures, and so it
would go until we got to free trade
and no home manufacturing.-Er.
-
Worth Knowing.