New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-05-24
FREETGADE FOOLIsRNESS.

Protectionists can laugh at the sort OF oppoSi-
ton they most frequently meet. Shallow cHt'
icism only damages the critic. Because TUE
TRIBUNE proves trusts hostile TO protective
principles, one Free Trader cries out that this
journal has abandoned protection; another
thinks protection a failure il manufacturers
located in the least suitable places do not sue
coed; another thinks 1t proof that protection IS
a fraud #, after the election, one industry out
Of hundreds is depressed Every time wages
are reduced in any shop all workingmen are
told they must see" that protection does not
raise wages. Men who have sense enough to
appreciate the protective policy at all perceive
that Free Traders have no case IL they can
offer nothing better than these frivolitieS.
Protection is not intended TO retard the prog
ress of industry. Therefore it does not hinder
development Of cheaper instead OF more costly
domestic sources Of supply That it has had
this effect has been false accusation OF its
opponents. When the country required five
million tons Of pig iron, and could produce only
four and a half million tons, the duty on for
eign iron kept alive mines and furnaces pro-
ducing iron that cost more than So per ton.
Now that the country requires six and half
| million tons, and can produce seven and half
million tons yearly, those mines and furnaces
| which have the least advantages are distanced
| by home competition, and that very triumph OF
tho protective policy, which shows the faiSity OF
the old charges against it, FREQ Traders now
| make the basis Of new but even more shallow
criticism.
| Neither is protection intended TO make wages
advance all the time. In the ebb and flow
Of commercial activity, times OF depression
are as inevitable as times of advance-ScaSons
Of readjustment are indispensable as we'll as
seasons Of rapid progress. When such sea
sons come, and prices settle to the lower level
it is a public necessity that wages should also
recede more or less as the purchasing power OF
each dollar increases. Protection does not pre-
vent decline, but checks it from going &c
excess. Under protection wages tend to &c
higher at every period Of prosperity and adj
vance, but at each period Of depression do not
fall as low as they did before, and the result
is that sure and steady gain OF 40 per cent OIL
more which has been realized since Free Trad
ers went out Of power in 1860.
Still less is protection intended to advance
wages at all times in every branch Of industry
or in every shop in any branch. II it did, i
would strangle industrial progress. For whcI
wages get relatively too high in any branch o
industry there must be halt or reaction unit
, the Just balance can be restored When wage
, have gone too high in particular district, o
a particular city, or particular establishment
the welfare OF the industry as a whole and ever
Of the particular locality and Of the workmen il
, The particular establishment, requires halt o
1 reaction. II is the browning merit Of tn
protective policy that, unlike trades unions
) ii does not fight against natural laws when
. halt or decline Is essential. The operation 0