The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-11-13

There is agriculture Ol COURSE, Tic very
best forms of it, the same as there is in
England and the Netherlands but, as
in these two foreign countries, only a
part of the people are tillers of the soil.
There is such a variety of profitable oc-
cupation that every man with any capa-
city at all can find work to suit him.
But how have people of one occupation
thrived in America? The answer is easy.
Mexico and South America have remain
ed almost stagnant with agriculture,
though loaded down with natural re-
sources the southern half of,the United
States, also boundlessly rich by nature
but for long time choked in progress
by slavery. has just begun actual, per-
manent development since the introduce
ton of manufacturing in the last few
years; and the prairie states west of the
Mississippi, though developing in the
right way. have as yet nothing to COM
pare with the solid business system that
has been established through manufac-
turing in the states just east OF them.
No, one industry is not enough. Agri-
culture must have local market. Sim
ply making living, however abundant
it may be, does not develop people nor
a country. Where most of a country's
Inhabitants are engaged in raising from
the soil produce that must be carried far
away to some other land to be exchanged
for manufactured goods, very few of
these goods are used. Those inhabitants
are and continue to be a people of few
wants and of less progress.
Now for the conclusion of the preced-
ing discussion. With due mental recog-
milton of all that can be said against it,
there is no presumption in calling it a
necessary, an unavoidable conclusion.
Here it is:
| AS the convenient market derived
alone from diversity of industry is the
paramount factor in the development
and continuous prosperity of large
isolated country like the United States,
the people of this nation can afford and
ought willingly to contribute, for the
maintenance and further attainment of
this invaluable diversity and of it's &C
companying home market, the trivial
sum now temporarily added by protec-
tive tariff to the cost of living.
The discussion here is intended to be
fair in every respect. We hope that for
all our convictions we have better
grounds than the fact that we were
reared in such and such belief. We no
more indorse protection fallacies land
there are plenty of them) than we in
dorse free trade fallacies. We seek, in
short. to find out the best course for the
nation to pursue. We realize that tariff
laws, like many other laws, are and will
continue to be imperfect, being simply
compromises between men with conflict
ing interests We admit and regret that
interested men exercise undue influence
in securing the passage of tariff laws as
well as other laws, and that they thus
obtain unfair advantage over large
classes of their fellow citizens; we regret
/ also that inadequately restricted immi-
| grafton leaves the American labOrer with
much less protection than what is accord
ed to his employer. 1t is to be hoped
that these defects can be remedied.
But nevertheless, we can see no reason
for risking the industrial diversity that
has made this country, by giving up a
somewhat imperfect protection for no
protection at all.
That protection does protect needs
little consideration here. 1t does not
keep American goods out of any foreign
market in reach Mr.. Blaine, the leader
of protection, is the author of the late
and popular reciprocity plan for obtain
ing the South American trade. But it
does keep American industry from be ing
crowded out of it's home field. The manu-
faetprers of England, who by increasing
their machinery could in many lines Of
goods supply the whole world at prices
below the reach of American competi-
ton, do not exhaust all their resources
| in trying to enter America for the sake
of small share of the trade, just enough
to supplement American manufacturers.
/ They could and therefore would take the
AN American factory and throw many
| thousands of American people out of
employment. The foregoing assertion
| is often made, and it is true. American
factories are now idle sometimes. At
! best. with all the protection, three fourths
of American manufacturers fail. Pro
lection does not secure to them a long
enjoyment of the excessive profits SO
often talked Of. Other men engage
promptly In the business affording high
est profits, and thus by home competi-
ton, under the tariff, prices of nearly all
important commodities are soon brought
as low as they would be without tariff.
The additional cost of living is only
temporary. For the staple goods whose
prices are now raised for a special purpose
the great mass of people spend individu-
ally very little money. What portion of
farmers annual expenses are for tin
ware? Are not necessary kinds of cloth
ing cheap enough to the economical
buyer? Do not manufactured articles,
almost without exception, decrease in
price from year to year? The total sum
now added by the tariff, as alleged by
the free traders, to the average
Virginia farmers living is 80 small that
he would not speak of it if the exact
amount of it were known. 1t isnow less
than the snm added by the tariff, through
building up of industries. to the amount
received by the farmer for his crops,
while the certain increase of competition
in home industries reduces this added
cost and augments crop receipts. The
free traders liberty to buy where he
pleases il more desirable in contelnpla-
ton than in pessession-like the savage's
immunity from tasss; The benefits of
government are worth tbs tagss paid for
them, and the benefits of diversity OK IN
dustry are likewise worth the additional
cost temporarily added by the tariff to
some commodities
There is practical application for the
Virginia farmer, and for all his fellow
citizens, in this consideration of the
tariff Loyalty to traditional doctrines
may seem noble, but it is nothing to
compare with each mans personal duty