The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-08-19

dtEionS gave u the North the EcePtIc OF
industrial dominion, but skilled labor,
which moves reluctantly, and capital,
which is proverbially timld, will not 90,
unless specially directed, into a district
where sympathy does not exist. lit
was fatal TO refuse to "kcep step to the
music Of the Union" it has been, disas'
trous TO refuse to touch ellss.ltlp ties
march OF National developnfslts n n
We are learning in fearful losses that
we must consult the manufacturers OF
Pennsylvania and the great North; that
We must act in concert with them. We
cannot reject their advice or refuse their
alliance. We are not strong enough to
stand or far enough advanced to attempt
a new secession. The tariff that made
their prosperity the marvel Of the world
must be our defense. The conservatism
which made their foundations must be
our policy. TbeiSountl cslrtenCXithat
bases their confidence 1sand financial
credit must he our reliance. II the
Judgment OF the manufacturers OF the
North, after years Of experience, has
been formulated in the Mckinley bill,
that Is of itself a safe rule for our guild
ance. If it be true that the common
people Of Virginia have invested
In tho last twenty-iour months
in new. towns and enterprises
$l0,O0O,000, and half OF this vast sum is
lost or locked up; if it be true that our
first adventure has caused greater loss
in faith than even in noney,.it only
makes more emphatic the lesson that
VIC connot teach before We have learned;
that we must sit In the school that
teaches the fostering duty Of the nation,
and lays down the rules, if We would
prosper. Gen. Hancock was not go far
wrong when he spoke Of the tariff as q
local issue, as the Republicans made 1t
appear. We must recognize our selfish
ness and the narrowness OF our horizon.
While tho general prosperity ought to
overshadow all lesser and local advant-
ages, we may find no better why to dis
cover the common good than by each
battling for his personal interest.
a New York importer, who sees that
ifevery furnace and factory west OF the
Hudson was destroyed its shipping
would increase 900 per cent, may well
become u free trader, while tho farmers
OF Dakota may well become tired OF
sending II ton OF corn 10 London to buy
cont, or a bushel of wheat to Sheffield
to buy knife, and the farm and mine
owner OF Virginia may protest that for
him and children the highest national
good lies in establishing that proximity
OF iarm and factory which is the ideal
industrial community.
1t is as well, perhaps, that We proceed
upon our separate assertions and trust
that the average judgment will be best
attained, but II SO each section must do
its own thinking and find its own lead
ers. The thirty Congressional districts
OF the border States, II there was Sc
cret ballot, would to-day vote over
whclmingly with Pennsylvania, but
party discipline, and the tradition that
made the observation-disclosures vassal,
have forced them to turn the back again
to the lash of the leadership of the cot
ton States, to receive yet another lesson
from that school which appoints such
teachers as Morrison, with his horizon
tai reduction; Mills, with his razee re-
form; Gordon, with his boycott OF Bos-
ton, and bland, with his clipped dollars,
all looking to England and dwelling
downward, but out OF school our people
are receiving another object lesson.
They are learning that capitalists will
not buy where the community antago-
nizes wealth; that manufacturers will
not build where the campaign orator
makes them the target for abuse, and
that banks will not lend where bankers
are denounced,
Our new factories stand idle and
speculation stops where rates OF inter
est range from ton to twenty-five per
cent; and unless the Democratic party
changes Its leadership it may find that
the mineral region Of the South, edu.
Gated by adversely, may rise to a bold
assertion and seek a new alignment. 1t
Is an anomalous fact in American
politics that thirty Congressional dis
tricts vote for tariff reform because they
are told Il cannot prevail. have
written imporsonally and tried to ex-
plain condition rather than theory.
For myself l cannot believe in Protec-
ton alone, any more than damming a
river ar dyking a sea without opening
race-way or a hood-gate. We are to-day
III uuuHGl VI ONGL-plOhuStlOus CuA
home markets in the South are limited.
We cannot permanently invade the mar
kets OF the North. Our manufactures
have increased in twenty years 900 per
cent. If reciprocity can become the
handmade OF Protection; il that new,
underlined, but Potential cry can be in
terpreted against Europe and for Amer
ica; IL we cNn hold our own markets and
at the same time stop the adverse bal
ancc Of South American trade Mt its
present figure Of one thousand millions;
II we may dam against the sea and yet
drain the overflow; II We can strengthen
the levee and open the bayou We will
have solved the great economic problem,
and in continental trade the South will
find through her minergl store and geo
graphical position her enduring Gdvan-
tage. II. O.. PARSONS.
Natural Bridge. Va, Aug. Q, 1901.