Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-06
ALL IN THE SAME BOAT.

l ALL In SAME 6OAIs
Those who have daily sight of the thriv'
ing towns built up through Pennsylvania
and adjacent States under the protective
system need no further argument in sup.
port of its benefits. Had foreign manu-.
facturers been allowed to ship their steel,
their iron, their glass and other wares to
the American markets free of duty, these
hives of industry with which Pennsylva-
MIA, Ohio and West Virginia are dotted
could not have come into existence. The
farmer would still be plowing the fields
where now stand Braddock, Jeanette,
Ford City, Charleroi and fifty other thriv-
ing towns which have sprung up around
us within the past twenty years. If the
foreign manufacturer is to be allowed now
to invade the American market with the
products of the cheaper labor Of Europe,
the effect upon the interests of the three
States named-upon the invested capital
of the manufacturer, the wages of the
| workingman, the business of the mer-
| chant, the rental of the real estate owner
can be so well understood beforehand
that no one can profess indifference to it
The principle of keeping our industries
| alive in place of buying from foreigners is
SO essentially the life-principle of business
in this part of the world that there can
be no pretense of split about it, even
among partisans. So long as the immedi-
ate interests of the Democratic manufact-
urer, or Democratic workingman, or
Democratic merchant of Pennsylvania are
threatened, equally with those of the Re-
publican manufacturer, Republican work
ingman or Republican merchant, he has
as much at stake as his neighbor, and can
afford to regard with no greater compla
cency the adoption of the free trade folly
by his party.
Of course the argument will be heard in
some quarters that the Democratic party
leaders, if they get into power, will go
slow and not abandon the protective
system anyhow. This is a pleasant sort of
optimism, but we see no foundation for it.
When year after year, in the face of sue
cessive defeats, such men as Carlisle,
Watterson, Morrison and Cleveland not
only stick to their free trade hobby, but
become bolder than ever in declaring it,
why should they be expected to abandon
it if they win next November? Will a
popular Endorsement render them less
strong or less disposed to carry out their
ideas? With direct, square issue such as
is now made between the protective
system and free trade, what would a
Democratic victory for President and Con-
gress in November mean, if not the intro
duction and passage of free trade meas
ureS?
1t is not, however, merely Pennsylvania,
Ohio, the New England and some of the
Southern manufacturing States which
would suffer from a withdrawal of this
protective policy, but the whole country.
Everyone can remember how the collapse
of the manufacturing industries in '73 was
followed by years of universal depression,
during which tramps and paupers multi
piled in every direction, and every trade
and calling suffered There were farms to
be had then as now and upon cheaper terms
than now, but they did not draw the thou
sands of unemployed from the cities in
which they continued at times in bitter
distress and misery. The convulsion was
disastrous to all classes. And, as it was
the collapse of the great manufacturing
1OT WduG VI uculduu LUZ GH6lT
products, which initiated the long period
of distress from '73, so on the other hand
it was the revival of the iron and steel
industry in '79 which ushered in the era
of prosperity and enormous growth which |
the country, with but slight Interruptions,
has enjoyed since.
These are simple facts, recent enough |
to be remembered, yet they are worth
carrying in mind when the idea of knock |
ing out the protective system and opening
American markets to foreign wares is so
glibly and cheerfully put forward by pol
iticians who give no evidence of any
deeper consideration or knowledge of the
practical bearings of the change than
springs from fancied compulsion upon
them to oppose protection because an
tagonistic politicians favor it. The pro-
posal to hand over the vast industries of
the country to experiments, whose doom
is forshadowed by all previous expert
ence, is midsummer madness which will
not be entertained when people come to
think seriously over it between now and
November.