Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-03-24
Thoughts for Young Men.
NO. 4.
THE TARIFF OUGHT TO BE INTELLI
GENTLY COMPREHENDED BY
EVERY CITIZEN.

low stuuJ buo ducStAOhs anu lcoS uuuot-
stand it. If a protective tariff works
only for the benefit of favored manu-
facturers, fostering capital that it may
build up unjust mOnopolies. and thus
enriching the few and impoverishing
the many-then it should not be toler-
ated for a day. If or the contrary,
it stimulates legitimate business; builds
up and makes permanent diversified
industries; increases our mills and
shops and projects and cheapens their
products by healthy competition; gives
larger and better markets TO our farm
ers; in all ways aids in the development
of our vast natural resources; making
the nation prosperous and independent;
enlargiug and enriching the daily thought
and life of the people, then should it be
adopted and sustained. 1t hardly needs
any argument to prove to the intelligent
laborer, artisan or operative who works
for wages, that protective tariff in
c1eases the rate of his wages. The
strongest opponents of protection admit
that it builds up new industries and
stimulates and enlarges old ones, but
claim that its benefits accrue to one
class at the expense of another None
of them are reckless enough to claim
! that the increase and diversi6cation of
industry, brought about by protection,
does not bring increased pay to much
of the labor of the country. To deny
this would be to attempt too bald
deception The most unthinking work
| ingman knows that with an increased
demand for labor comes decreased pay
for i. This being true, how imperative
the duty that the vast army of wage
workers in this country insist that such
protection be accorded to our industries
as shall make them prosperous, stable,
and most widely diverse No other
country can profit as we can by extended
and diversified industry, for no other
has such fertile breadth, with such a
wealth of natural resources. In all the
elements of material greatness we stand
unrivalled. and with such freedom and
fullness of political rights as give
inspiration and promise to the toll
and genius of the worker 1t is to the
interest of the workingman to resist by
voice and by vote, any man or any
party, that seeks to limit. cripple or
destroy our growing industries by with
drawing from them the needed safe
guards of reasonably protective tariff.
In no country in the world haye
workingmen been so well conditioned
as they have been in the United States
for the past thirty years under the
protective tariff. The average has been
one of good wages and exceptional
prosperity. There Is but one side to
this phase of the tariff question. The
facts that protection multiplies and
extends our industries-th increased
industry makes added demand for labor
that the greater the demand for labor
the higher are the prices paid for it, are
incontrovertible. The interests of the
workingmen then are clear. To insist
upon continued protection being eX-
tended to American industry. Heshould
vote to secure the supremacy of that
party that guarantees to protect his
interests by developing and sustaining
home industries, thus creating demand
for his labor and ensuring him living
wages for it.
Is the farmer benefited by the pro-
lection that creates and sustains manu-
features? Has he any interest in the
digging of the mine and the building of
the mill? Does he share in the general
prosperity? Does his toll receive richer
reward when other industries are re-
munerative? Are the products of the |
soil from which he gains his support
enhanced in price, and the articles of
consumption which he is compelled to
purchase cheapened by the policy of
protection to home industry? These
are the questions that interest the
farmer.
When trade is duh and manufacture
ing light, labor is idle, or poorly paid,
and the farmer suffers with others in
the universal stagnation. An impetus
given to general business, brings an
increased demand and .betteriprices for
the products of the farm. We propose
TO show that this protective tariff law,
which it is claimed has been robbing
the people, and especially the farmers,
has in fact brought to all classes. farm
ers in particular, an era of unprecedented
growth and prosperity.
! The increase in farms and farm