St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-06-16
The Scales Fall From the
Eyes Of a Prominent st.
Paul Man.
He Discovers That the God
Protection Is No God I
at All.
Tariff Taxes Do Nothing But
Cypress the Agricultu-
raj Class.
Sound Advice to the Farmers
of the Red River
Valley.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
WHEATLAND, N. D.. June ia
grand tariff reform rally was held at
this place yesterday, the address OF
the occasion being made by Z. j. Hodg-
son, of st. Paul. The speech was en-
Enthusiastically received and new i'm
pulse given to the movement in this
county. Mr.. Hodgson said:
l was reared protectionist. The
New York Tribune was a strong second
to the Bible in my fathers house. I'm
my boyhood days / regarded Horace
Greeley as the great emperor of human
kind. He had no superior and he had
no equal. The doctrines and theories
of protectionsm were so self-evident
and superabundantly satisfactory to my
mind that I had no inclination to
waste time upon the theories and
arguments of the opposing school.
The fact that some fool insisted upon
spending his time trying to prove that
black is white, was no reason that
should spend my time listening to him
or reading him. So grew up and en-
tered far into manhood's years unhar-
dSSCu NY uOuUU dIll ullOlObuIOCo Ny GA
gument. The first rude shock to my
boyish faith came with the disasters of
1878 and following years. | had rested
in the confident belief that protec-
ton would protect; that 1t build up and
diversity our industries; give employ
ment to all at big wages; make US indie
pendent of foreign nations; prevent the
outflow of money, and Keep it all here;
and finally, it would make the foreign
ers, who would insist On selling us their
wares, pay our national taxes for the
great privilege of trading with us.
What then had we to fear?
But alas, alas, now after twelve years
of the highest protective tariffs that ever
had been known, comes the most uni
versal calamity and ruin upon us that
the modern world had ever witnessed.
And where was our god, Protection?
Was he like the god Of Baal, asleep or
deaf in this day Of diaSter; or, still more
like them, was he no god at all? l then
entered upon the severeSt investigation
and study of the facts and principles in
volved in this question that was capa-
BILE of giving them. Piece by piece
the scales dropped from my eyes. and, if
my conversion was not as sudden, 1t was
quite as thorough as that of Saul of
Tarsus. Men said to me then. as they
have said to me since, 1.-The tariffs did
not cause the panic OF 1873 and subSe-
quent years of disaster and suffering.
They were the result Of other and far
different causes. You are foolish to lay
this to our protective tariff sys-
tenn" This reply was not, and
never has been satisfactory to me.
We are paying enormous sums for this
thing called protection, and if it does
not protect we are in the condition of
people who are paying for insurance
and still are not insured. 1t seemed
strange to me if, after paying so dearly
be said was that it did not cause this
disaster and ruin. If you had an agent
to whom you had been paying an
enormous salary, would it not raise your
scalp it he demanded that you should
pay HIM the same salary next year as
you did last, simply because he had not
ruined your business or cut your throat
last year?
Suppose, when Chicago lay in the
blacknesS of cinderS and ashes, and
those who had lost demanded the insur
ance they had paid for, the insurance
companies had answered.: ''We did
not cause your great fire, what are you
bothering us for? When we burn down
your town we will pay for it," l had
fully believed that protection would
protect; that it built up factories, en-
plOyed our own people and prevented
the outflow of money. so that disastrous
financial panicS could not occur. l now
saw that there must be some mistake
about this thing, and proceeded to in
vestigate the subject for myself. My
prejudices and pre-conceived notions
soon vanished, and l guarantee that
whoever will honestly and faithfully
study this position, with no other
motive than to find the truth, will reach
the same conclusion that have reached.
The speaker proceeded to show that
the producers of our exports are the
men who pay the larger part of the i'm
port duties
If the wheat of this country could be
bartered for the products of foreign
countries, and those products were adj
mitted tree, the same quantity Of wheat
would purchase about one-third more
goods, and consequently would be worth
about one-third more than it is now.
Nor is the wheat raiser any better off
with the products he dispOSeS Of to the
home market. He trades his wheat to
the Eastern manufacturer at the market
price of the world. but the manufactur-
er pays him In goods at bonus of
about 80 per cent above the worlds
market price of the same goods. How
long can the farmer trade OH those
terms, and how precious to him is
home market that gives him that kind
of deal?