Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-06-16
FAV0RS PROTECTION.
Lord Salisbury Comes Out With
O Virtual Endorsement of
Our Tariff System
The Error That Free Trade Had
Conquered the World is
Thrown Up.
Great Britain, It is Asserted, Must
Sooner or Later Adopt the
Inivitable.

involved / allude to the question Of
our external trade.
after all, this little island lives as a
trading isla d. We could not produce
in foodstuffs enough to sustain the
population til t lives on this island, and
it is only by the great industries, which
exists Eere, and which find markets in
foreign countries, that we are able to
maintain the vast population which this
island is inhabited
But danger is growing up. Forty
Or fifty years ago everybody believed
that free trade had conquered the world
and they prorhesied that every nation
would follow the example of England
and give itself mp to absolute free trade
The results are not exactly what they
prophesied, but the more adverse the re
suits were the more the devoted proph
cts of free trade declared that all would
come right at last.
'Ihe worse the tariffs Of foreign coun-
tries tecame the more confident were
the prophecies Of an early victory, but
We see low, after many years expert
ence that explain it, how many foreign
nations are raising, one after another, a
wall--a brazen wall of protection
around their shore which excludes us
from their markets, and 50 far as they
are concerned, do their best to kill our
trade, and this state of things does not
get better. On the contrary, it con
stantly seems to get worse,
THE PENALTY or SPEAKING
Now, of course, if | utter a word
with reference to tree trade L shall be
accused OF BEING protectionist, of de-
sire to overthrow free trade and of all
the other crimes which an ingenious
Imagination can attach to a commercial
heterodoxy
But, nevertheless [ ask you to set
yourselves free from all that merely vi
Imperative doctrine and to consider
whether the true doctrine of free trad
carries you as far as some Of those gen
tiemen would wish YOU to go.
every true religion has its counter
part in inventions and legends and ira
ditions, which grow upon that religion
The Old Testament had its Canonical
books and had also it's Talmud and its
Mishnah, the inventions of rabinical
commentators.
There are a Mshnak and Tdlmud
constantly growing up One Of the
II q strange and unreasonable doctrine
which all these rabbis have imposed up
on us
II we look abroad into the world we
see it In the Office which | have the
honor to hold am obliged to see a great
deal of it.
I'VE live in an age of war of tariffs.
Every nation is trying how it can, by
agreement with it's neighbor, get the
greatest possible protection for it's own
Industries, and at the same time the
greatest possible access to the markets
of its neighbors.
This kind of negotiation is continu-
the last year and a half with great &C
tivity
Il want to point out to you that what
| observe is that while A is very anxious
to get favor of B and is anxious to
get favor of G, nobody cares two
straws about getting the commercial
favor of Great Britain. (Cheers)
THE REASON FOR IT.
what is the reason of that? 1t is
that in thissgreat battle Great Britain
has deliberately stripped herself of the
battle has to be fought.
you cannot do business ia this world
of evil and suffering on those terms, It
you go to market you must bring money
with you If you fight, you must fight
with the weapors with hich those you
have to contend against are lighting
1T is not easy for you to say: L am a
Quaker; do not fight at all; | have no
weapon, and to expect that people will
pay the same regard to you, and be as
anxious to obtain your good will and to
consult your interests as they will he of
the people who have retained their armor
and still hold their weapons ("HeaI
hearty
"The weapon with which they all fight
is admission to their own markets; that
is to say, A says to B, IF you will make
your duties such that | can sell in your
market, will make my duties such that
you can sell in my market
But we begin by saying that we will
levy no duties on anybody, and we de
clare that it would be contrary and dis
loyal to the glorious and sacred doctrine
of free trade to levy duty on anybody
for the sake OF what we can get by it.
Cheers.
1T may be noble, but it is not bust
ness. Loud cheers.)
''On those terms you will get nothing.
and ] an sorry TO have to tell you that
you ere practically getting nothing.
The opinion of this country. as stat
ed by its authorized opponents, has been
opposed to what is called a retaliatory
policy A voice: No, norl
'On, but it has We, as the govern
ment of this country, have laid it down
for ourselves as a strict rule from which
there is 30 departure. and We are bound
not to alter the Traditional policy of the
country unless we are convinced that {
large majority Of the country is with III
(cheers(. because III these foreign alta rs
consistency of policy is beyond all things
necessary
AS A COUNCILLOR TO THE PUBLIC.
But, though that is the case. still i
| may aspire to fill the office of coun-
cilor to the public mind, | should ash
you to form your opinions without refer
ence to traditions or denunciations, no
to care two straws whether you are or.
thodox or not, but to form your opir-
ions according to the dictates OF common
sense-I would impress upon YOU. tina
if you intend in this conflict of com
mercial treaties 10 hold your own. Vol
must be prepared il need be to infic
upon the nations which injure YOU tn,
penalty which is in your hands, that o
refusing them access to your markets
loud and prolonged cheers, and a voice
Common sen at last }
There it a reproach in that Interrupt
ton, but | never SAID anything else
(laughter)-but there is gre t difficulty
The power we have most reason t
complain Of is the United States, an
what we want the IIniLad Statec Z