Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-01-29
REPUBLICAN MATTERS.
IN ANOTHER WAY.
The Benefits OF Protection In Regard to
Inventive Genius.

That progress in invention. i'm
proved machinery and the utilizing of
natural forces, says the American
Economist such as steam and cleo
tricity in the work of production.
have caused great and almost uni.
versal eheapening OF commodities is
now admitted by everyone. Even the
free-trader averse as he is to grart ting
that anything can become cheaper UNI
der protection cannot help but ac-
knowledge this, for it is proved by the
indisputable evidence OF everyday
experience But to claim that prog
ress in invention is affected by or has
any connection with our protective
system may seem at best anomalous.
Yet nothing is more certain. How
would our far-famed Yankee inventive
genius ever have had chance TO as.
sert itself had not protection enabled
us to diversity our industry? The in
ventive genius which has been exerted
In improving and perfecting machin-
'ery would have lain dormant for CEN
turtles to come. In all probability had
not manufacturing industries been in
Btituted competition engendered. and
the skill thereby developed. which
made invention possible So that
after all the oheapening of commodi-
ties ascribed to this cause is due indi-
rectly, perhaps but just us surely,
nevertheless. to our protective system.
That this is not a mere assertion or
theoretical argument is proved by the
records OF the patent Office of the
United States. We shall take as a
basis OF comparison the fourteen years
from 1916 to 1860, the golden era
OF revenue tariff. During that period
our manufacturing industries. which
had been in so fourishing a condition
before. were gradually declining. and
we find that the total number OF pat
ents granted was 26 2S4. remarkably
small number compared with the
record OF preceding and succeeding
years. From 1861 to 1875, on the
other hand, under q protective tariff.
despite tho fact that civil war ragged
for one-third OF the time the number
OF patents increased to 127, 345, or
five times as many rs were granted
during the fourteen years from 1916
TO 1860. From 1875 to 1889 there
were granted 236, 955 patents, more
than nine times as many as during the
low-tariff period. This increase in
number of patents cannot be ascribed
20 the increase in population. for it Is
Tar more than proportional TO that
increase. We see, therefore. that in
vention has progressed simultaneously
with the establishment and strength
eniug OF our protective system.
And it is natural that this should be
30. While protection cannot make in
ventive geniuses out of men who were
not born so, it gives that genius an
outlet by diversifying industry, multi
plying opportunities for employment,
and thus giving every man a chance to
earn his own living in his own way.
1t is on this account that those great
improvements have been effected in
agricultural machinery, which have so
largely increased the productive ca
pacity of the soil. For implements
like the reaper and binder and the
steam pillow would never have been
known had they not been wrought
out Of the brains of our mechanics,
who could not have been mechanics
had it not been for the protective
tariff" Thus has invention been slim
ulated and fostered by protection, and
the great cheapening of all kinds of
goods due to the employment of i'm
proved machinery may. therefore.
justly be claimed as the logical result
OF the protective policy, of the COM
petition it engenders, the skill it de-
velops and the genius it excites