The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-06-17
SHORT IARIEE SERMONS.
Free Trade Periods.

Free trade has had five periods OF
relative prevalence in the history of the
United States-i e., there have been five
distinctly marked periods when foreign
competing imports have been freer than
at any others to enter our ports, to the
subversion and overthrow of domestic
competing industries. These were:
1. The colonial period, ending with
throwing over of the tea in Boston har-
Dor and the battle of Lexington in 17I5.
The British parliament forbade us by
law to manufacture in order that they
might monopolize our market. This
chiefly impelled us toward the war for
independence.
2. The peace under confederation
period from 1888 to 1889, when no
national duties on imports existed.
This chiefly impelled US to adopt the
Federal constitution.
3. The period of the so-called recip-
rocity treaty with England in 1916 to
1924, eliminating in the final crisis OF
1S17-19.
4. The compromise tariff period of
1888 to 1912, including the unparalleled
crisis of 1S36-39.
5. The Walker tariff period of 1916
to 81, intensified by the further reduc-
ton in 81 and thus prolonged to March
8. 1861. This period was marked by
general poverty or "hard times" crisis,
setting in in the summer of 1854, con-
tinuing into bankruptcy and non-pay-
ment crisis in 1855, which caused mer-
camille bankruptcy crisis in England in
1856. and this reacting produced the
bank crisis in America in 1851. after
which the country struggled on in a
pauperized condition until 1861.
Without a single exception, our every
approach to free trade brought disaster,
particularly to farmers and working
people.
Do we want any more of it?-Ameri-
can Economist.
Protection Benefits Whom?
Every man. woman and child in the
country.
There are no unprotected trades.
Those so-called. the building trades
for example, have absolutely prohibi-
tive protection.
You cannot import cellars or houses
to drive the mason or carpenter out of
employment.
Tariff protection is intended merely
to DO for glass blowers and wool growers
what nature has done for the mason
and the carpenter.
But even in tariff protection all the
other classes are interested.
For whom does it protect?
The farmer, the manufacturer and the
mill hand may be more directly bene-
flied, but the good results of our pro-
tective tariff reach all
Where would the lawyer and doctor
get their generous fees if clients aud
patients were out of work or received
free trade wages?
Where would the merchant, the
clerk. the bool<keeper, the stenographer,
the typewriter and even the office boy
make a living if there were no GUS
| toners with well-filled purses?
And if the professional man or mer-
chant could not build or rent the roomy
home or store or Office. where would the
mason. the carpenter and the painter
get his 81 and s. per day?
How would the engineer, the fireman,
the conductor and the brakeman fare if
no money could be afforded for passen-
ger and freight transportation?
How would free trade journals thrive
without prosperous advertisers and nu-
merous buyers?
And yet they tell us that only about 3
per cent of our labor and industry is
protected. The % per cent, they say, is
taxed to protect the per cent. But they
are just 81 per cent. ont of the way.
Protection protects and it protects us
I all.-American Economist.