The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-07-23
PROJECTION AND THE SOUTH

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PROTECTION AND THE SOUTH
There are great many men VINO W
not seem to understand why 1t Is Vnat
the protective tariff sentiment is not
mn the increase in the South, inaslnuch
as the industrial interests OF the 0ou'h
orc advancing 80 rapidly. There are
reasons, and good ones, why southern
democrats have never and will never
become inoculated with the views OF
protection. They are level headed
business men and can see as far INTO a
milestone, as it were, as any New
England manufacturer who ever ilVed
They have reasoned from premises
to a conclusion, and that conclusion is
that a radical reduction in the tarlfi
will build more factories and develop
more natural resources in the South
than all other agencies combined.
They know that Pennsylvania Is
now buying southern iron and paying
frieobt ON it and manufacturing it
into steel simply,because OF the tariff
If it were not for the profit the tarii1
gives them, they could not exist mo-
ment. They would be compelled to
either 90 out of the business perma-
nently.or move their plants to the raw
material in the South, They could
NOT continue to pay freights and make
a profit.
New England is today manufactur-
ing cotton goods and paying freight
and pocketing the loss in weights,
etc, simply because of the tariff on
cotton manufactures. They can con-
tinue to do so and make money so
long as the tariff on these finished
goods remains. Under those circum-
stances they are in no hurry to re-
move their plants to the cotton fields
or build new ones.
In fact, there is not single commo
div now manufactured in the North
and Northwest with the exception OF
pins, needles, ETC., and boots and shoes
and wooden goods, that cannot be
manufactured cheaper and therefore
with profit in the South, with the
tariff removed. There is no tariff on
hides and the boot and shoe manufac-
turer can purchase foreign hides as
cheaply as he can domestic and can
therefore manufacture such goods in
New England as cheaply as in Texas.
Free wool would give the Northern
wooden manufacturer access to
South American and Austral-
ian wool and he. would not
therefore be compelled to remove his
factory for the manufacture of certain
grades of goods. But in the manu-
facture of some grades of both boots
and shoes and wooden goods, Texas
can successfully compete with the
world. The careful student OF political
economy knows also that free wool
would not lower the price of one single
pound of wool grown on a sleeps
back in this country. We do not pro-
duce enough wool in this country to
sunply the demand by about 100000
mounds, and as it is a different grade
of wool from foreign grown woods, and
is nsed to mix with foreign woods by
Eastern and Northern manufacturers,
the repeal of the tariff on wool would
not curtail the demand for home
grown woods, and the price, therefore,
would be controlled then, as it is now,
by the law of supply and demand.
There is one of two things absolute
" certain. Either the Northeastern
manufacturers are a set of as SPLEEN
didly equipped liarsIas the world ever
saw, and have been crying for the
tariff in order to blk the balance of
the country on advanced prices, or
else they are honest and cannot exist in
that country without the tariff. Let
the protectionist take either horn of
the dilemma he desires. In a reduc-
ton of the tariff he must either be
proven a liar and we will get goods
cheaper, or he must pull up stakes and
come South, where the raw material
is at his door, where living is cheaper
for his hands and where money can
be made in the manufacture of the
staple products for our country
needs.
LINCOLN AND JOHNSON.
The death of Hannibal Hamlin has