The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-08-14
The Lesson of a Vote.

Horace Greedy, in 1872, contended that
the tariff question ought to be fought
out in the Congressional districts, SO
that each district would have what 1T
believed to be it's interests represented
in Congress; and Gen. Hancock in 1850,
concentrated this idea in the remark
that the tariff was II ''local question,
and ought not to be introduced in ma
tional election. In the debate few
days ago, in the Senate, on the metal
schedule, Senator German, a Democrat,
spoke in favor of RENTING the tariff on
foreign ores, and especially Cuban ores,
SO as to benefit the steel plant at Balti-
more at the expense of the furnaces in
the interior of the country. And strange
to say, Senator Dawes, a Republican, of
Massachusetts,, who had opposed the
idea of Greedy and Hancock, and advo-
Gated protective tariff, at that time,
voted with Senator German in favor of
free ores.
The lesson drawn from the vote OF
Senator Dawes. is significant 1t is a
concession, in the first place, to the idea
of Greedy, and it is an admission, in the
next place, that the conditions in New
England have materially changed. AS
long as protection fostered and sustained
the factories and furnaces of Massachu-
sets, Mr.. Dawes favored a tariff on raw
materials, and especially on foreign ores.
| Now that the raw materials thave been
exhausted and the South is coming to
| the front with her immense, incompu-
table wealth of undeveloped min
erals, and challenging the world in the
manufacture of cheap iron, the protec-
tom principle is surrendered by Mr..
Dawes, and he makes common cause with
a Democratic Senator in demanding free
raw materials.
The fact is, New England has reached
the extreme of her development. She
can go no further and must retrograde,
if the supply which has failed at home
| is not drawn from foreign countries free
of duty While this is the case there,
the South is just entering upon the
stage of material development. Her in
exhaustible mines of iron and coal; hel
vast water power; her cotton and tim
Der, are just beginning to be apprecia
ton. and the means applied to utilize
them The capital accumulated in the
North by the operation of the protective
policy. finding 1t cannot be made remuner
alive longer, where it was made, Is looking
to more inviting fields, and the trend now
is Southwark. Already millions OF
money have been diverted from indus
trial pursuits in the North and located
in the South; and unless the tariff is
removed from raw materials which enter
into industries, the South must reap the
benefits of protection. 1t is not states
manship either in Mr.. German OF
Mr.. Dawes to seek to cripple the
whole country, arrest material de
velopment; abandon our mines; dis
charge our labor; and appropriate oul
capital and energy to the development
of the mines of foreign countries, in or
der that a few plants on the sea coast
may prosper, and all other sections and
localities remote from deep water, suffer
The vote of Mr.. Dawes, protective
tariff Republican, one who has always
been identified with the Republican
party, which maintains the protective
policy, emphasizes the idea OF botl
Greedy and Hancock, and illustrates
how even statesmen may falter In the
maintenance of principle, when it is
local policy to abandon it.
staunchest supporter of protection
while the East will abandon it, because
it will not be able to compete with the
South in manufacturing iron, steel and
wooden and cotton fabrics, unless it is
from raw materials imported duty free,