Morris tribune., 1892-02-24
America for Americans.

America for Americans.
The Sheffield, Eng, Telegram utters
the following reproachfrl complaint
about our protective system;
The promoters of the Mckinley
tariff meant to push forward the policy
of America for Americans. One
method of realizing it was to keep all
work within their own domlnlons.
The country was to be made self-sup-
plvine; what could be produced at
home was not to be bought abroad.
That was the key note of the Nc
Kinley scheme, and it is working out
the idea of its designers with the
precision and effectiveness OF a
machine.
No American could have stated the
purposes of the American industrial
system with more exactness.
The protective system was magur-
ated to advance the prosperity and
happiness of the American citizen,
who dweIls risht here within the limit
of IT, latso3 states. 1t was not
erec s6s 81 aa INTO the mouths
of =g.rsin4 olsaEH.res of English
MAJ BGa nam or Leeds.
We ~ Ny n1s15 18th the foreign
moo .ynns aa- :arye in Africa,
Ash .s .s., Europe. We
ma ..~ .,r a. benefit Of our
OWL >,< have cast their
lots for good or evil in these United
States.
What are We here for, any way?
Why did our ancestors leave England
and plant their feeble colonies upon
the bleak crags that fringe the waters
Of the Atlantic coast? They left their
native land because they were down
trodden by greedy and aristocratic
land holding plutocracy that ground
out life, hope and nil vitality. They
Left because they could not worship
God without training with the Church
of England and paying tithes.
Why did our German citizens leave
the Fatherland with its centuried ira
ditions of,,ntellectual power and glory!
They left because they were taxed
out of existence and herded into
standing armies to fight meaningless
battles with French and Austrian
peasants, against whom they had no
prejudice.
Why did the Dane leave Denmark |
and the Scandinavian abandon his |
grand peninsula? Why did the Morse
man desert his beautiful land Of
mountain streams and floods? Why |
did he commence life anew upon
Western prairie lands where man sees
only a monotonous and stagnant nat
ure that varies not from the commence
ment OF one year to another. He left |
his Northland because it was worn to
the bone, and to remaian meant physi-
cal starvation and intellectual famine.
What, then, do we owe this old, this
effete, this despotic, tyrannic world
that oppressed our fathers and at the
best would only bid them remain and |
starve? Nothing, most emphatically |
Misunderstanding the charity that
every man owes his fellow, in that he
is cast in similar human mould.
We whose ancestors were driven |
forth from England, from Germany,
from France, from all the four corn
ers of the globe-we are today Amer
leans. We owe neither economical,
industrial nor political allegiance to
the nations that made life miserable
for our ancestry. Now that we are
here, we are here to stay and to make
the most of the land we have re-
deemed from barbarism.
Today we have the grandest, rich
est, most fertile land the sun has
shown upon since the old world came
careening out of chaos. The resource
es Of our grand estate, its riches, its
fertility, its gifts of the forest and
the field are the rightful patrimony of
none but Americans. To their better
ment and theirs alone should the
abundance of American nature be de-
voted.
This plaintive scribe of Sheffield |
grasps cardinal principle Of latter
day Americanism when he claims that |
the promoters Of the American tariff |
propose to push forward the policy |
of America for Americans. This is
exactly what they propose to do.
They intend to make this country
self-supporting, and what can be pro-
duced here they do not propose to
buy abroad. This is what Hamilton |
intended when he erected his tariff |
system in 1871. That it is what our
statesmen propose to do today.
Call this system one Of selfshness,
selfshness of broad and enlightened |
patriotism; it is the American system.
If it be selfish, let England, and Ger
many, and France, and Austria make
the most of it.-W. D. Washburn, Jr., |
in Kate Fields Washington.
Our neighbor, the village of Morris,