The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-12
SEATTLE. WEDNESDAY. AUG. IL.
PROTECTION AND pArERNALIsM.


The editor OF the Shelton Sentinel thinks
that protection that attempts to substi-
tute paternalism--i. e., that the govern
ment, by levying a high tariff upon for
eign goods, win guarantee high prices for
home goods--for individual freedom of
thought, effort and action are sure to Gre
ate, in proportion to the amount Of pro-
lection, stagnate, selfish and non-pro-
gressive Cherokee civilization"
The government does not levy high
tariff upon foreign goods to guarantee
high prices for home goods; the govern
ment places tariff upon those foreign
goods whose manufacturers undertake by
cheap labor to steal the American
market from the American manufacturer,
who, having the raw materials, can
through the exclusion of the foreign man.
ufacturer in time establish his in
dustry, and then the multiplication
of inter Tor competition forces down the
price and makes the American manufact-
urer competitor in foreign markets for
our share of the trade of the world. We
do not levy high tariff on sugar, because
it is not a product that we can ever hope
to make national industry, but we did
levy tariff on steel rails in 1860, when we
did not produce single rail. Protection,
through the multiplication of interior
competition, has cut down the price of
steel rails enormously. reduced the price
of steel and iron in all its forms, and we
are the first producers of iron and steel in
the world today. The American pillow
and ak has conquered the En-
glish and continental market. With
the exception of those articles which
we cannot for physical reasons pro-
duce in this country, there is not single
article which the farmer consumes which
is not cheaper than it was under the reve-
nue. tariff, and cheaper because of the de-
velopment of home industries through
protection. The increased duty imposed
on linseed oil and cotton ties did not in
crease their price, but full protection at
tracted so much capital to these industries
that by increased interior competition,
prices were reduced to the consumer. If
this be the kind of 'paternalism" that our
friend thinks is sure Ito create stagnant,
selfish and non-progressive civilization
In line with that of the Chero-
kee Nation" we do not agree with
him. Paternalism is very wide
term, and SO is protection. There is
paternalism pushed to the verge of bed
lam; and protection Of course has been
and may be again misdirected and misap-
piled, as 1t certainly was by the Mills bill,
which gave US taxed sugar and free wool.
To tax sugar was the instruction and
misapplication of protection, because ex-
pertinent has proved that we can
never hope to compete with the
sugar-making countries Of the world,
for while iron ore, coal and lime
stone are widely distributed raw materials
which justified the application of protec-
ton to build up great national industry,
sugar can be made only in Louisiana, a
little corner of the country, and its pro-
ductive capacity is limited and cannot
be increased. SO protection to sugar was
an error and has been wisely abandoned.
The people, instead of paying $50, 600 600 a
year for taxed sugar, pay bounty to
American sugar makers that will not ex-
coed SIC, 900 900 year. This bounty was
compromise with the opposition to free
sugar, and we save in any event $50 O0O, 900.
If protection to American industries to
the advantage of both the American
farmer and manufacturer in the creation
and preservation of his home market ia
paternalism in line with Cherokee civiliza-
ton, then Thomas Jefferson, whose dislike
for gross paternalism was expressed in his
famous saying, "That government governs
best which governs least" was false to
his own philosophy when he defended
the protective policy. Thomas Jefter-
son, father Of the Democracy. and
certainly the determined foe of gross
paternalism in government if there ever
was one. did not consider that protection
TO national manufactures was proper
subject for denunciation, for in his mes
sage of 1902 he included among the prim-
airy objects of government protection of
the manufactures adapted to our circum-
stances" and in 1906 Jefferson urged upon
congress the necessity of maintaining pro-
lection as a national policy. Referring to
the surplus in the treasury, Jefferson
recommended that it be devoted to "the
great purposes of public education, roads,
rivers and canals, and such other objects
of public Improvements as it NAV be
thought proper 10 add TO the constitu-
tional enumeration Of Federal powers"
So far from proposing to deal with the
subject by proposing to put the products
of foreign industry on the free list, Jeffer-
son declined TO do this, saying: "Shall we
give that advantage to foreign over do
nestle manufactured" In 1912 jefferson,
in public letter, replying TO the criticism
OF the policy of protection to American
industries as "Chinese policy. called it an
"absurd hue and cry" and further ex-
pressed his views as follows. Their doc
frine goes to the extent Of sacrificing agri-
culture and manufactures TO commerce, to
the calling of all our people from the in
terror TO the seashore to turn merchants.
and to convert this great agricultural
country into a city of Amsterdam. But I
trust the good sense of our country win
see that its greatest prosperity depends on
. due balance between agriculture, manu-
features and commerce"
General Jackson, another idol of the
Democratic party that denounces protec-
tion as paternalism in line with and Gre
alive Of a Cherokee civilization, was pro-
tectionist in 1924. and in ISIS Jackson ex.