The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-09-18

Yreo E8D4e 80 olDvorys
cit u On anomalous hcs IN Americas
politics that thirty congressional dis
tricts vote for tariff reform because
they are told it cannot prevail" 81
writes Colonel q. C. Parsons. of Natura
Bridge, Virginia. the distinguished
southern proteceionist, in an incisive
tariff article in the New York World
DEM It il an anomalous attitude the
south occupies upon the tariff question.
Privately, these southern merchants
manufacturers and active professional
men will all acknowledge that they
believe in protection. but every election
finds the most of them working and
voting for free trade, in the confident
belief that free trade Is an impossibility.
The south was the original birth place
OF the free trade idea in America, and il
was the Shareholders who saddled it
upon the democratic party. Thomas
Jefferson was protectionist, probably
the most extravaganza protectionlst, de
c!ares General Francis A. Walker.
whom this country has ever known.
Andrew jackson was a prOtectionist
also, and crushed an incipient free trade
rebellion with an iron hand. But with
the rise OF the slaveholding influence
he grip of the free trade theory upon
the democratic party steadily strength
aaad. Secession and free trade throye
.ogether, and when The new slavehoId-
ing Confederacy was finally es-
t9blished, free trade was made its cor
ncr sto1e. But the war of the rebellion
out the planters theory to crucial
test. and convinced the most intelligent
sDutherners that the idea was wildly
fallaciOus. Il is common belief in the
south to-day that If Calhoun had not
taught free trade bsfore he taught Sc
eassion the south would have prevailed.
For myself" says Col. Parsons, 81 be-
iieye il the south had contained four
sucn cities as Worcester was then. or
IL Richmond. Atlanta or Birmingham
are to-day, she would have established
the confederacy.n
It is rather suggestive circumstance
that the economic theory which our
democratic press aud politicians are
vehemeutly commencing to the favor
of the young men OF this state was orig
inally forced upon the democratic par
ty by shareholders who hated the very
name of Massachusetts,. In fact, the
tariff reform" movement among the
planters OF the south before the war
was one of the chief causes which con-
tributed to the rebellion. These gen
try sold their cotton and tobacco very
largely in Europe. They did not want
20 encourage manufacturing in Ameri-
ca. Their representatives argued that
America never coul1 be a manufactur-
ing country; that the climate and char
acter of our population absolutely pre-
vented it. They wanted free access to
the European workshops, and parsicu-
larly to the factories OF England. In
their crude way of thinking they wan
ted to swap" their cotton and tobacco
for articles of English manufacture, and
they bitterly resented being compelled
to pay tribute" even under low scale
Of duties TO the greasy mechanics" OF
the north. But, as We have said, the
civil war opened the eyes of all but the
most hopeless Bourbons among the
to the utter folly OF the
free trade position, which by an extra
ordinary political transformation now
has its chief supporters among the
democrats of the northern states. -Bos-
ton Journal.