The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1893-12-14

A. AUGUSTUS HRALY IN paper in the
December Forum gives the hey note O
the situation when he says "The capacity
OF the American people to produce, fal
exceeds their ability to consume" 1t is
a striking expression as it describes, in
brief, condition of progress which
chafes at home environments, and is an
argument, neultum in paruo, we'll calcu.
lated to throw responsibility for the de.
pressed condition of business where it
Justly belongs the high protective
tariff. No man OF intelligence or ambl-
tlor is content with a business which
supplies his own needs, merely. 1t is not
greed of acquisition; it Is the pleasure OF
conflict and the satisfaction which comes
from success which induce men to make
their resources active to an extent be.
You'd the pressure of necessity. The
most prominent distinguishing feature
between civilized and uncivilized people
is the difference IN limiting effort to
providing for immediate wants. 1t seems
strange that commercial system whose
chief boast is a creation OF conditions
favorable to rapid and broad expansion
should in reality be restrictive in it's
operations and limit industrial activity
to local needs. The home market is
good enough for us; we want it all to
ourselves" has become the shibboleth of
protection. 1t means that we are con-
tent with supplying our own needs and
must drop the ambition of enlargement
beyond the limits Of local demand. Ven.
Ice and the Dutch republic became each
the commercial mistress of the world by
a policy directly opposite to that imposed
upon the United States by interests
seeking undue advantage through gov
ernmental interference. England now
enjoys supremacy through having dis
carded commercial restrictions on the
laws OF trade, repugnant to all sense of
natural justice and subversive of indivi-
duals rights. She has taken the world
for her market and is in consequence the
commercial queen of the world.
But look at the condition OF the Eng
Ish laborer," is the stock reply to every
argument designed to show the wisdom
OF England IN emancipating herself from
restrictions which hindered development.
But compare his present condition with
what 1t was before free trade was inaugur-
ated. Then restitution was the rule: now
1t is the exception. Look at our own la
borers who after years of the blessing of
protection designed for their special bene-
tit, and under which they attained to a
period OF unexampled prosperity" re-
duced to a condition of starvation and
physical suffering after a period of less
than SIX months Idleness. What can we
say of system which has been in opera
ton for 81 years, framed with particular
reference to the good of the laborers
whose accumulated results have not been
sufficient to provide for the exipen cies of
six months?
The commercial in-breeding which we
have followed SO long has left us in an
eneryated condition. If, instead of a svs-
tenn OF plratical practices, one against the
other, We had sought to increase our
foreign trade, would we be in the straits
We now find ourselves? We have been
commercial cannibals while England has
been reaching out for legitimate trade,
and now that "our sin has found us OUT
and We are paying the penalty, we shirk
confession and plead for the old regimen
which Is our source Of weakness,
The parasite has no independent ex1s.
tsnce. 1t appropriates the product OF
the toll OF Others and points to its own
luxuriant growth as proof OF the wisdom
Of predatory action. But the parasite is |
not factor In the creation Of substance.
What it coniruibtes to the public good
I secures by levy, not by creative activity.
Ind robs the real donor Of credit as we'll
Is of meterial.
The protective tariff has robbed this
country OF opportunities as well as rob-
'ed its people by substituting certain In