Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-10-19
THE PROJECTIONS SYSTEM.

THE PROJECTION SYSTEM.
Spoliatlon Policy of thu BtSh Tariff Re
pubiicans.
Ever since the republican party de-
termined to outlive the reason for its
existence, or, say for the last quarter
of a century. it has persistently claimed
the credit for all the prosperity which
the country has enjoyed, for every for
tunate event that has occurred. for
every success that anybody has
achieved It has even assumed to he
the duly accredited almoner of Heav-
ems bounty, and has complacently
pointed to every good crop as a tri-
umph of republican craftsmanship. In
recent years it has persistently claimed
that all the marvellous results of the
inventive genius of the age, achieved
both before and since the republican
party came into being, are not due to
ingenuity or enterprise, but can only
be accounted for by the republican pol
icy of taxing one man for the benefit of
another. By this policy of spoliation,
they say all the vast increase in pro-
duction and consequent cheapness OF
the necessaries of life are to be ex.
planned If any notice is taken of inn
proved machinery at all, it is insisted
that the machinery itself was due tc
the system of spoliation.
The protective system is method OF
keeping up prices by restricting supply
and thus reducing competition. The
field of it's operation in this country is
limited by a constitutional provision
that insures fre e trade among the states,
SO only foreign competition can be shut
out. but with this limitation it pushes
the restrictive policy to the utmost,
and reenforces it by the formation of
powerful trusts that seek to crush COM
petition at home. So far as it seeks to
reduce the supply of the necessaries
of life it is IN exact harmony with the
war which was made many years ago
upon improved machinery. though its
methods are different. When machin-
cry began to enable one man to do the
work of two or more, there were work
ingmen who thought it meant starva-
ton to at least half of them. and they
organized mobs to destroy the machines
which were, as they believed, about to
take the bread out of their mouths In
this way they imagined that they
might restrict production and improve
the condition of laboring men by in
creasing the demand for their labor.
They were unable to grasp the idea
that the enormous increase in produc-
ton meant more of the necessaries of
life for rybody, employers and en-
ployes alike. and an enormous improve
ment in the condition of the laboring
classes. The fund to be divided being
greater, every one had larger share;
but it has turned out that the increase
in the 1aborer's share was relatively
larger than that of the employer.
The pretense that this has been the
result of the protective policy is one
of the most gigantic frauds ever at
tempted. 1t has been the result of in
creased supply, while the object of pro-
lection has been to limit supply. 1t
has resulted from the failure of protec-
ton to accomplish its purposes in some
instances. in spite of it in others. The
same result has been reached under all
sorts of tariffs, for the effect of i'm
proved processes has been SO great that
no sys tenn of tariff spoliation has been
able wholly to nullify it.
England repealed the corn laws in
1916. that act being the first movement
in the direction of free trade. All YES
tiges of the protective policy, however,
were not swept away until 1861. Ac-
cording to protection logic wages
should have declined. What is the
fact? We quote from the Edinburgh
Review:
During the last thirty years the incomes OF
the richest class in England have decreased
thirty three per cent, while the incomes OF the
middle classes have been increased thirty-seven
per cent In the same period the wages Of labor
have increased fifty nine per cent The rapid
additions which have thus been made to the
rate Of wages have probably been chiefly attrib-
utable to the introduction of machin.
cry into every industry. Nothing that
had ever previously happened in the
history OF the world had done so
much to improve the condition Of the laboring
poor. Wherever the employer, either by i'm
proving his machinery or in any other way, is
able to increase the efficiency OF the employed,
he is concurrently enabled and is practically
compelled to raise the rate OF their wages.
Every individual invention, therefore. tends to
improve the condition Of the workmen"
All this has happened under free
trade. If increase of wages had been
due to protection. as republicans IN the
United States impudently maintain,
we should have seen a reduction of the
wages of English laborers in the last
provement that has taken place in
their condition Courier
Journal