The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1890-09-04
FALLACY OF PROTECrION.
THE TRUTH DAWNS AT LAST.
A Protective Tariff is Not What the
Farmers Want.

The Atchison Champion, the lead
ing Republican paper of Kansas, which
has for more than thirty years advo-
Gated a protective tariff, has at last
seen the error of its way and now
comes out boldly in favor of free trade
| for the Western farmers. Its plea is a
Strong one, and the arguments it uses
will apply with equal force to the
agricultural South. We are in the
same boat as the Western farmer, both
ground to the dust by the iron hand of
protection and the money barons of
the East, who have been made enor-
mously rich at our expense. We pub
lish the editorial from the Champion
in its entirety. 1t is a good campaign
document and can he used to advan-
tage by Democratic speakers in the
coming campaign. The people of the
South and West need more light upon
the tariff question, and a paper like
the Champion, that has always been
Republican and advocated protection,
is pretty good authority to quote from
when it denounces the practices of its
party: Read it carefully, Southern
farmers, and learn lesson therefrom !:
"When such recognized Republican
leaders as James G. Blaine and Preston
| B. Plumb essay to depart very widely
from their lifelong convictions on the
tariff question, it certainly will not be
seriously contended that other Repub-
! licans, who have never faltered in their
adherance to the protective tariff idea,
forfeit their party standing or furnish
grounds for impeaching their Repub-
licanism, if they too, upon mature de-
liberation, make bold to express views
on that subject at varience with the
accepted party dogmas.
"For over 20 years the Champion
has advocated and defended the pro-
tective tariff theory. 1t has argued
this question with all the logic at its
command. 1t has furnished columns
of facts and figures in support of pro-
lection versus free trade. Sincere in
its belief that the only true economic
policy for this country was protection
to American industries" it has neg
lected no opportunity to set forth its
advantages and to combat what it has
invariably designated the free trade
heresy.
Recently, however, the Champion
has discovered certain reasons for very
materially changing its mind on this
subject, and at this writing it has no
hesitancy in declaring that, all senti-
ment and bias aside, while a protective
tariff is a decided and almost tndis-
pensable benefit to the East, the great
manufacturing and financial strong hold
of our country, for the West, the great
agricultural area of our land, it is a
positive injury, a barrier to its progress,
an insurmountable hindrance to its de-
velopment, and an efectual estoppel
to its prosperity.
What has led the Champion to this
conclusion, this radical change in its
economic opinions? Briefly this: 1t
has found that under the dominance
OF the protective idea the East has
steadily grown in wealth at the ex-
, pense and to the detriment of the
West. In other words, that Eastern
manufacturers and capitalists have in
creased their accumulations enormously
while the farmers of the West have,
! during the same period, made no pro-
portionate gain, but on the contrary,
have been reduced to condition of
vassalage, of tribute-paying serfs.
To put it in still another form. The
capitalists and manufacturers in the
East, aided and abetted by protec-
tive tariff, have made money in fabu-
| lous sums, while the farmers of the
West have scarcely been able to maintain
themselves respectfully. Not only SO,
but Eastern manufacturers and capi-
talists have, by reason of this protec-
tive tariff, been placed in position
where their financial power gives them
practical control of our Government
: in all its departments, despite the votes
and wishes Of the people of the West
ern States-who, by reason of being
large creditors, of necessity borrowers
of and dependents upon the East, are
virtually politically disfranchised.
/ The Western farmer has no interest
whatever in a protective tariff. His
interest rather lies in the direction of
! free trade-of access to all markets.
wherever his products may be in de-
mand. 1t is for his interest to sell
what he raises wherever in all the wide
world he can find purchaser, and
thus provide himself with the means of
disposing of his surplus crops. Not
only is he vitality interested in securing
all possible markets, but equally so in
buying what he needs as cheaply as
possible. Sell where he may, and buy
at the lowest figures; this, selfish as it
may seem, is what most concerns the
Western farmer.
| Free trade will give the West the
markets of the world, and an opportu-
nifty to buy what it requires at less than
half it now pays for the same articles.
+: Lumber, hardware, furniture, cloth
ing. groceries and agricultural imple-
ments-these the West needs princi-
pally. Free trade will bring these
things to US at figures far below protec-
tive prices.
In all this the Champion speaks
solely from the standpoint of self-in-
terest. 1t is with States and sections
as with individual citizens-self pre-
servation is the first obligation. A due
regard to our sectional preservation,