The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-18
SEATTLE, SATURDAY. JULY rs.
THE OHIO TARIFF PLANK.
The Ohio tariff plank includes general


dcnunciation OF the principle protection
and specific assault upon the existing
Mckinley act. This is an exact accept
ance of Roger Q. Mills doctrine of free
trade and an income tax which he
preached In October, 1890, at Minneapolis.
We quote:
ave must exchange the things we do not
want for those things we must have. To do this
ve must hare absolute free trade. You want re-
ciprocity, but want Ii In the right way. In or
der to have II you must trade with the whole
world. II you want a market, take down the
tariff on wooden goods and iron. Then lay a tar
sm fneome and the tcedthv Of The country, and
you'll see prosperity. Tbsliere IN free trade, Tree
labor, free speech and free press.
Daniel Webster, who sometimes voted
for high tariff and sometimes for low
tariff, was correct when he said that the
question Of protection was question OF
practical expediency and emergency rather
than Of ironclad economic theory. Eng
land was protection until she ceased to
be able to raise her own food, and became
purely manufacturing people. Then she
became a free trader because the Irish
famine forced her hand and compelled her
In 1916 to repeal the corn laws, but just as
long rs England approached the condition
of America that Is, both b manufacturing
and an agricultural people, raising more
food than she consumes-England stuck
to protection. If we grant that free trade
Is good for England land poor, densely
populated, devoted to manufactures, and
obliged to buy food to feed her
millions, how can free trade be logically
good for America that is land rich,
sparsely populated, and is not only a
manufacturing people, but an agricultural
people raising its own food and large
surplus to sell Europe. The economic
conditions and industrial situation are
reversed exactly, and therefore free trade
cannot logically be good for both England
and the United States. We have Is per-
sons to the square mile while England has
900 to the square mile. England, If block
AIDED tomorrow, would starve in month,
for she buys her food of India, the United
States and Russia, while the United States
feeds her g, 900 900 and this year is likely
to feed not only England, but to sell food
to other countries of Europe whose har-
vests are exceptionally slim.
From the day that We became nation
our policy has been to develop home man.
ufactures and consume our farm produce
At home. The farmer must have a home
market: manufactures would make a
market for agriculture and agriculture for
manufactures-one hand washing the
other to the advantage of both. On this
point Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Mon
roe. Adams-every president, from WASH
ington down to Jackson-were unanimous.
ms Daniel Webster showed in his Albany
speech of 1874. The statesmen of the
South. including Calhoun, all supported
protection save John Randolph, until the
growth of slavery and jealousy of the
manufacturing North converted Calhoun
to free trade. The protective tariff has re-
duced the farmers competition and added
to the value of the products of the farm
by increasing the market. With the
exception of those articles that
We cannot for physical reasons
produce in this country there is not a
single article which the farmer consumes
which is not cheaper than it was under
the revenue tariff, and cheaper because of
the development of home industries
through protection. His food, clothing.
household goods and furniture, houses.
barns. implements, tools and fences are
all cheaper, his produce sells for more, and
his land has increased in value because
protection, by increasing his home mar.
ket, has made better prices for what he
sells.
Under protection we have cut down the
price of steel rails enormously, reduced
Tho price of steel of all sorts, as well a.
iron in all its forms, diminished the cost
of cars, locomotives, railway supplies,
wire fencing, etc. The American plough
entsells the English plough in Ireland
and our agricultural implements are pre-.
fcrred: the Collins axe has conquered the
English market and driven the English axe
out of Scotland. England and Ireland.
and the Swiss axe out Of Switzerland.
Germany. France, Italy, Russia. all of the
eelf-governing colonies of Great Britain.
except New South Wales and Cane Colony.
have gone over TO protection. Under pro-
tection the United States have distanced
England in the manufacture of iron and
steel, and are the first producers of iron in
the world today. English capital is about
nuilding extensive cotton mills in Penn
syiyania, driven 70 take advantage of the
American wall of protection, as English
and Scotchmen have of the Pittsburg iron
trade. We shall ultimately pass England
IN the cotton trade, as we have in the iron
and steel trade.
In general terms this is what the pro-
teetiye policy has done for the United
states. Passing to the present tariff as
sailed by the Ohio Democracy we have ST.
~..sv shown in q former article that il is
,mphatically tariff drawn in the interest
of the farmer; that under his farm pro-
a,,cts an the Northern fros er and the At
,.nt,e sesboard are surs TO better prices
through increased proteetioa When the
law went mo &c 4 in October
linseei oil was selling for G. nts gallon
IN New York city. The daty 5 increased
from % TO 81 cents gaiIoi. duty did