Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-31
IN A BLIND ALLEY.

Free traders ought tG agree among
themselves before asking the country to
take their guidance in its economic policy.
We hear one set of them complaining be-
cause protection makes high prices. The
| continuous cry of these is that the con-
sumer has to pay higher prices for Amer
ican-made goods than he would have to
pay for foreign goods. Yet, here is
Colonel Oates, Chairman of the Homestead
Investigating Committee, who denounces
protection for just the opposite. Colonel
Oates says: "It (protection) has induced
investment of capital in the manufacture
| of iron and steel until, by this unnatural
stimulus, overproduction has resulted. 1t
disturbs the law of trade, supply and de-
mand-and by thus producing more than
there is demand for, prices are driven
down and necessity arises for cuttin g
down the expenses of the manufacturers,
| and wages are included"
Thus, while his brother Democrats and
free traders are endeavoring to make 1t
appear that protection continuously puts
up the prices of articles on American con-
sumers, Colonel Oates here insists that it
ultimately puts down the prices. The
great crime of 'fnduclng the investment
of capital in the manufacture of iron and
steel'' is also alleged by Colonel Oates.
Hitherto Americans have been taught to
believe that investments of capital in
manufacturing enterprises, which give
employment to large numbers of men at
much better wages than men could make
as farm hanGs-the only occupation which
free traders think fit for Uncle Sam-were
a good thing But Colonel Oates holds all
that mistake. As he is franker in his
statements than most of the orators and
organs of his party, they will doubtless be
candid enough to ultimately agree with
him, and we will find them centending
that American manufacturing enterprise
must undertake nothing that can be done
abroad.
The plea that prices of articles are in
the long run reduced by reason of pro-
lection is true. Colonel Oates is right on
that point The history of the steel,
plate glass, carpet and silk business shows
that. But consumers will take this to be
an advantage, not a disadvantage as
Colonel Oates regards it. Notwith-
standing the gradual reduction of prices
of the articles produced the wages in all
American manufacturing industries are
still higher by 81 to 200 per cent than in
the same industries in Europe.
What becomes of the free trade twaddle
against protection when here we find one
of the most intelligent members of the
Democratic party abusing the tariff be-
cause it makes prices low, while other
are bowling in the press and on
the street corners because the tariff
temporarily makes prices higher? When
Mr.. Cleveland, Mr. Oates, Mr. Waiter
son and others Of the Democracy, between
their cross-fires, shall have killed off the
tariff, and wiped out utterly the inquity
of American investment of capital in the
of iron and steel and other
things, so that there shall be no overpro-
duction here, nor little if any production
at all, how then will these sapient econo-
mists undertake to guard against cover
production" "monopolies" and "trusts"
and such things in England and in other
foreign lands?
An organized effort to discourage Gin |
vestments'' in American manufactures
and to get rid of wages and wage disputes |
by providing conditions in which there |
will be neither manufacturing industries
nor much occasion for wages at all is the |
blind alley into which the pla5itudes of |
free trade are at last leading its misguided |
yOtarieS |