Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1893-01-26
81 A YEAR In ADVANCE.
The Principle of Protection.

Governor Mckinley enunciated vi
tai Republican principle when in his
speech before the Ohio Wool Growers
Association he declared: 81 do not be-
lieve in having commodities free at
one end of the factory and tariffed at
the other end. =" This phrase described
exactly the demands of the advocates
of free raw materials While they
insist upon protection for their finished
product they urge that protection
should be removed from the materials
they use, which are the finished pro-
duct of others. The demand for legis.
latlon of this sort is selfish and foolish.
The radical free trader who denounces
all protection as robbery and advocates
the removal of duties alike from all
the products of labor makes at least
show of consistency. The men who
clamor for protection on what they
sell and demand free trade in what
they buy adopt course that is neither
honorable, consistent nor sensible.
They are unwilling to share the bene-
fits they receive with others whose
rights are equal to theirs and whose
necessities are often greater. For the
industrial independence and CONNER
cial development of the United States
such individuals care very little. For
the welfare of the vast army of Ameri-
can workingmen they care still less.
The protection which is fundamen-
tai part of the Republican creed is no
paltry expedient. Itisa principle whose
application TO the products of Ameri-
can labor is universal. The smallest
and humblest industries of the United
States is as fully entitled to protection
against pauper competition abroad as
any of the great industries. Wool
and cotton growers have the same right
to protection that wool and cotton man.
ufacturers possess. The worker in the
iron mines has as much reason to de-
mand protection as the owner of the
steel mills or iron works through which
the product of his labor passes. To the
miner iron ore is a finished product.
Wool is the finished product of the far
mer, whose interests are entitled to the
same consideration that is given to the
manufacturer. The wool the farmer
sells represents his labor and the re-
turn from his invested capital. What
shall honest men say of the short sight
ed greed which would make the flocks
of the farmer worthless and DESTROY
the vast wool growing industry of this
country in order to provide few hun
dred men with cheaper raw material?
Fortunately for the honor of Ameri-
can manhood the great majority of our
manufacturers are of different type.
The emphatic protest made last year
by nine tenths of the wooden manufac-
turers of New England against free
wool demonstrated this fact The
shriekers for free raw materials are
treading on dangerous ground. If they
were not blinded by what they suppose
to be their own interests they would
see the puerile folly of their attempt to
procure legislation which will protect
their goods while leaving the goods of
other men unprotected. The keystone
of the protective arch is the equal right
of all men to secure remunerative
market for their labor and its products.
When this right is deliberately and pur-
posely denied to one class of producers
in order to favor another class the
whole system of protection must inev-
itably fall. The Republican party is
the champion of the protection that
benefits every man that labors. 1t is
for the protection that develops every
form of national industry; the protec-
tion that gives the farmer ample re-
turns for his products; that secures
high wages and steady employment to
the wage earners in mines and factory;
that insures safe and profitable in
vestment for the capital that is the es-
sential foundation of all great business
enterprises. But it is infexibly op-
posed to the outrageous class discrimi-
nation demanded by the men who want
free trade in the products that enter
the factory and protection ON the pro-
ducts that leave it. -