Arizona republican., 1891-05-23
A FREE-TRADE POLICY.
DO WE WANT TO BRING ABOUT lN-
 DUSTRIAL DESTRUCTION

DUSTRlAL DESTRUCTION
 Free-Trade Would Not Allow Us to Do
 Our OwI work--Injurioust to Social as
 We'll as Industrial Life-Progress and
 Happiness Dependent on Protection.
 The question whether Free trade should receive the sanction of our people de- bends altogether upon the view we take of the wants of the nation. If all that is to be done is to satisfy the barest phys ical wants, if we care only to maintain our workmen on the lowest fare, dress them in the poorest clothes, house them in the meanest buildings and deprive them of the hope of all intellectual ad- vancement, then let us adopt an eco homie policy which will result in the destruction of our industries.
 If, on the other hand, we wish to un- fold and strengthen every energy of our people-cultivat our material resources, preserve our national strength and i'm pregnability; if we are to retain our place in the vanguard of the nations; if we are to seek the satisfaction oS intel lectual and spiritual needs; if we yearn after the higher life, after the broadest development; if we aspire to the noblest use of our best faculties, then we must look for these, not in Free -tr,.de, nor in any form of foreign trade, but in the de- velopment within our own country of the wide and varied catalogue of all the industries, all the sciences, al the arts that contribute to the happiness of man.
 In none of this work would Free trade aid or encourage us. On the contrary, its motto is to buy wherever iG may buy cheapest today without regard to the future or to the country in which it buys It is distinctly founded on indi- vidual selishness. It looks only to the temporary advantage of the individual, and takes no thought for the future or for the community. The Protective policy is founded on higher form of selfishness, the selfshness of the nation, which is but another name for patriot ism.
 ee-trade brings the watch, Protec- tion brings the matchmaker; Free-trade brings the machine, Protection the ma chinist; Free-trade brings the engine, Protection the engineer. Given the men, we cannot lack the machines. Having the art, we shall not want for the article. Possessing the producer, we shall not want for product. Between them, who shall hesitate as to which is the more valuable to the country? Men found communities, machines do not; men con- stitute society, machines do not.
 The policy of Free-trade involves a contradiction not readily reconcilable with the genesis of the republic. Among the causes that led to the Declaration of Independence was the fact that Great Britain would not permit us to do our own work. No source of difference be. tween the mother country and the col onies was more offensive and repugnant to the sense of reason than the denial of tSsSSght to the colonists to set up their own manufactures.
 All the force of law and official dis couragement was brought to bear to re- press the spirit of enterprise on the new continent, and to force its people to re- main forever in condition no less of in dustrial than of political dependence upon the mother country. It was our market" rather than our country, that Great Britain prized. Our voluntary adoption of an economic policy which would now give that market to Great Britain or any other country would de- feat one of the principal objects of the founders of the republic.
 But it is not alone in an economic as, pect that Free-trade would be an injury to this country. If we consider its eff fects upon our social life we shall find il no less injurious. Communities are com posed of men and women. Free-tradt separates by thousands of miles the sons of the farmer and the daughters of the matchmaker, of the machinist, of the bookkeeper. ltkeeps the farmers daugh. ters unacquainted with the sturdy and honorable young men who should be learning in American rather than Euro, pean workshops the various mechanical trades which would yield them an in come sufficient to enable them to enter with prudence into the marriage relation
 Not the least of the achievements of a continued Protective policy will be that by encouraging the widest development of the arts and manufactures, and the formation of communities in proximity to the farmers home, the law of natu ral selection in the most important in cident of human life may have oppor tunity to assert itself. It will render i, unnecessary for the farmer to send hi daughters from home to get the advan tages of society. It will bring society to them. The varying tastes, prefer ences and affinities which sanctify the marriage state will thus have opportu nity of finding expression. All temper aments, all dispositions, all shades oi character will be observable in sucf communities, and ample opportunity fol choice will be afforded to esch sex This will in very large degree promote the progress and happiness of society.