Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-24
THE POLICY OF TEARING DOWN.

As the Presidential campaign, by mutual
consent of the party leaders on both sides,
is to turn once again, only more decidedly
than ever, upon the vital issue of Protec-
tion VS.. Free Trade, it becomes well for
people to look at the practical and demon
strated results of the one policy and the
probable results of the other.
Protection, which the Chicago Conven-
ton denounced, has been the policy under
which the great industries of Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio and West Virginia, notably,
and of the New England States have been
built up. 1t is the policy under which
manufactures have sprung into being in
the South, bringing to extensive sections
a degree of industrial and mercantile ac-
tivity which was not dreamed of in the
period when agricultural resources alone
were depended on. Had our markets
been opened to foreign products produced
by the cheaper labor of Europe, these
great American industries, which give
employment directly and indirectly to
millions of people, could not have been
established and maintained. A tariff for
revenue only-one which considered
run the government, and which raised
that money without any attempt to pro-
tect American industries from foreign
competition-would have left the Euro
pean manufacturer with his cheaper labor
in possession of our markets. Such a tar
iff now, embodying no idea Of Protection
on the contrary expressly renouncing it,
fha Iotf n
vite to our markets those who produce at
the lowest cost and who could sell at the
lowest price That is the philosophy of the
Free Trade. The Democratic leaders can
fashion fine-sounding phrases upon it, but
these phrases are useless SO long as they
think it wholly unnecessary to consider
the immense industries of the country
which have grown up under a protec i've
policy. They ask workingmen to voGe for
competition with the cheap labor of Eu-
rope That is the sum and substance of
their position on the great question of the
day.
1t is not necessary to think twice as to
what the answer will be. The more the
people inquire into the A B G of the ques-
tion the surer will their verdict be for the
system under which the great industries
have been built up and high wages made
possible. They will not rush into wild
experiments with vast line of industries
which, if crippled or upset, would cause
universal distress and immense permanent
loss, if not ruin.
In the manufacturing States especially
there can be but one serious voice on the
subject.
Once there was a element high in the
councils Of Democracy which stood merely
for the revision of what it considered tariff
abuses-the modification of tariff schedules
to suit the state of the market, but still to
give substantial protection. That was
represented by Mr. Randall in his time,
and is to-day spoken for by the New York
Sun. But the free-traders have taken the
bit in their teeth, and henceforward the
cry is to be no protection at all, but mere
tariff to meet the government expenses,
and after that an invitation to foreign
manufacturers to send over their goods as
cheaply as they can produce them and
take possession of the American markets,
unless Americans can produce as cheaply.
No sophistry or specious phrases can
hide the meaning of this policy. 1t will
lead the Democratic ticket to defeat as
often as it is brought up.