Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-04-07
Thoughts for Young Men.
NO. 8.

have power TO lay and collect duties,
imposts and excuses. and provide for
the general welfare" The Constitution
don't say ''may have but it expresses
command shall have power; thus inn
posing duty on Congress, to lay and
collect duties. The great men who
formed advocated. and secured the
adoption of the Federal Constitution.
commended the fostering of home man
ufactures by discriminating protective
duties ON their foreign rivals. The first
act prssed after Congress was organized
under the Constitution was protective
tariff act, July 4, 1889. Protection is
either right or wrong; it is benefit or
else an injury: and it should be examin-
ed and considered calmly and dispass-
ionaiely as to whether it promotes or
retards the prosperity and welfare OF
the country. The examination should
be a practical one, and not from a
theoretical standpoint. Many things
are very beautiful in theory, but when
applied practically under new or differ
ent conditions. are perfect failures.
Adam Smith in his Wealth of Ma
tions," first published in 1776, said:
ITO prohibit great people from
making all they can of their own
products, or from employing their stock
in industry in way that the judge
most advantageous to themselves, is
manifest violation of the most sacred
rights of mankind" he also says:
whatever tends to diminish in any
country the number of artiticers and
manufactures tends TO diminish the
home market, the most important of all
markets for the produce of the land,
and thereby still farther to discourage
agriculture.
The above quotations from high fee
trade authority, is direct contradiction
of the free trade theories of to-day,
which says: If any other nation can
manufacture cheaper than we can, buy
of them" Such policy would tend
Ito deminish the number of artificers
and manufactures, and thereby still
farther to discourage agriculture, &C
cordIng to free trade authority. Adam
Smith says: High prices and plenty
are prosperity; low prices and scarcity
are misery" Low wages decreases the
purchasing power and the consuming
power of the people. This is the
American doctrine of protection which
the free trader never quotes. The free
trader tells us we must legislate for the
consumer. But we must do nothing of
the kind. We must legisiate for the
producer Can there be consumption
without previous production? The
Bible says: IF a man work not. neither
let him eat" But free trade cheapens
TO him who does not work. Legislation
for such consumers as do not produce,
is class legislation of the worst sort. 1t
is the importer. the banker or man who
wants money scarce, the consumer who
does not produce that protest against
protection.
Protection is the only policy for
country in process of industrial devel-
opment. Free trade in this country
means cheap labor, diminished power
to consume. low prices fo1 farm pro-
ducts. aLL in the end ruin for the farm
ers. If the American laborer would
live as the English laborers do, he could
sage 81 per cent of his wages. They
save only per cent of their wages.
High wages have made happy homesaDd
good citizens. There never was on this
earth people so free. SO prosperous,
and with such possibilities, as the sixty
five millions that dwell in the Republic.
Shall the protective policy which has
accomplished this be overthrow? We
think we hear the young men say. No.
BY Protection in the past thirty years
we have become the richest nation in the
world, having been paying off our war
debt with rapidity uneQualed by any
other nation, as to staTtle the world,
and in more than one instance, to in
duce other countries to adopt protec-
tive tariff system, they openly declaring
it to be the chief cause of our wonderful
increase of wealth and marvellous pro-
gress. All who want to ascertain these
facts. those who want to find out what
is true, would, on the slightest exami-
nation, discover the fallacy of the free
: trade theory. Free traders are wholly
assumpionists. with theories always
impracticable; when tested by practi-
cable results, they explode ike pricked
, soap bubbles.
As f.r back as 1928 the practical
business men Q. tie country observed,
~that when additions1 duties are laid
upon an article, it thea becomes loves