The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1892-10-21
THE ARGUMENT FOR PROTECTION
The esteemed Argus.L Leader says:

GlOn. LII mas 1allou 10 uO 80. lI mas
stated one or two objections to some
things the Argus-L Leader has said, but
it has made no attempt to lay down q
syllogism or construct an argumentsup-
porting the laying OF taxes on the con-
sumers in order to build up new manu-
featuring industries. Cannot Brother
Wheelock do this? If he delays much
longer his failure may be fairly charac-
terized as cowardice.
The REPUBLICAN agreed to present
the protection side of the argument,
but it did not agree to do SO according
to any plan mapped out for it by the
Argus-Le Leader. The REPUBLICAN has
endeavored to get right down to the root
of the matter in its own awkward fash,
ion, and proposes to continue in the
same line. If to answer q free trade
argument from protective standpoint
is not to advance protection argu-
ment, then the Argus-Leader's COM
plant is we'll taken. If showing the
actual benefcent results of a protective
policy is not sustaining that policy by.
effective argument, then our failure
must be attributed to ignorance rather
than cowardice.
But if our free-trade brother wants q
protection nut to crack let him ponder
over the following utterance from the
late Peter Cooper, which is put about
as concisely as we could put it:
We can buy nothing cheap of foreign
countries that must be bought at the
expense of leaving our own raw mater
ial unused and our own laborers unem-
ployed.
There is material enough there for a
double-barrelled syllogism.
w
Argus-Leader: South Dakota is
sending back to the eastern manufact-
urer Sc, 900, 600 in taxes every year and
each year is striving to borrow back
from him this same money at an extrav-
agant rate of interest.
Therefore South Dakota should favor
policy which would not only send that
S6,o0o,o00 clear back to foreign coun-
tries, where it would be expended for
the food products of the pauper labor of
Europe and Asia; but which would for
ever shut out the possibility of building
up factories in our own state, and thus
bringing the markets for our surplus
products even nearer than they are
now.
Argus-Leader: # South Dakota
could retain the Sc, ,000, 600 which she is
now annually paying to the tariff fed
trusts OF the east and should expend it
in bonuses to railroads this state would
soon be covered with a net work of lines
rivalling Ohio's and every line would
be bordered with thrifty farms.
But why not have free trade in rail-
road building? Why favor one set of
capitalists with bonus at the expense
of another set of capitalists who may be
so foolish as to think that a tin plant,
or woolen mill or fax fiber mill, or
packing house would do as much to
develop theresources Of the country as
railroad?
*x*
The Argus-Leader prints the follow
ing, purporting to be an interview with
one F. M. Hubbell OF Sioux Falls, and
gives it hearty endorsement:
Before leaving Des Moines failed to
supply myself with a gorgeous ward
robe and upon my arrival in London
purchased the suit of clothes 1 have on.
went into tailor shop, was measured, {,
and had them made to order. They
would cost me S45 in Des Moines.
paid $l4 for them. know agood thing
when see it, and at once ordered two
additional suits. They cost me $15
each. I cannot buy them for less than
$45 in Des Moines.
Granting for the sake of argument
that there is SO wide difference in the
price of the same quality of clothing,
will the Argus-Leader tellus what pro-
portion of that difference represents the
increased wages paid to American tai
lors had they made that S45 suit Of
clothes?
In that part of the increased cost lies
one of the true principles of protection.
~
ArguS.L06U0Es IL 40 AS IL ASAS s@o
home that we feel this fearful drain.
Every man, woman and child in the
state is paying day by day a part OF this
huge tribe to the tariff barons of the
east. The clothes they wear, the
houses they live in. the fuel which
keeps them warm in winter, the imple-
ments with which they sow and harvest
their grain, the iron with which they
build their railroads, the cars in which
they transport their products are all
raised above their normal price by from
so to 200 per cent. and this tremendous
profit is paid by the citizens OF South
Dakota into the plethoric pockets OF the
eastern manufacturer.
But James G. Blaine says:
limo event can the growth of large
fortunes be laid to the charge OF the
protective policy. Protection has prov
ed distributor of great sums OF money;
not an agency for amassing it in the
hands of the few. The records OF our
savings banks and building associations
can he appealed to in support OF this
statement. The benefit OF protection
goes first and last to the men who earn
e