The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-14
B.. REEDS GREAT
SPEECH FOR A PROTEC-
TIVE TARIFF.

To the Ed tor of the Jersey City Nelos:-
Republicans rightly regard the speech of
Congressman Reed as the greatest delivered
during this session from their side of the
House. As this contention may be admitted
without qualification, it may be well to sub
NIT Mr.. Reeds speech to the cold fash lights
of criticism, where its oratorical fire pales
to less e~ffectual radiance. The unmistakable
marks of careful and laborious preparation
which it bears, Justify the same careful con-
sideration of its statements. Let us, there
fore, examine some Of these seriatins:-
The history of protection has bsan most re-
markable. Fifty years ago the question seemed
to be closed. Great Britain had adopted free
trade. the United States had started in the same
direction, aud the whole world seemed about to
follow. Today ths entire situation seems to be
reversed. The whole civilized world except
Great Britain has become protectionlst, and the
very year last passed has witnessed the deser-
ton of English principles by the last English
colony which held out. This has been done in
defiance Of the opinions of avery political econo-
mist in England, who wrote prior to 1880, and
OF most Of those who have written since.
The grain of truth that this contains adds
to the force of its ~assumptiye falsehood. 1t
is a delightful piece of disingenuousness.
And its peculiar artfulness rests in the
| words:l'Today the situation seems to be
reversed. The whole civilized world has be-
come protectionist." We might. jump hast
ily to the conclusion-f we were entirely
ignorant of the matter-that the nations
had within a very recent period-s'today"-
reversed their fiscal policies, whereas such
policies In relation to customs imports have
remained, with the exception OF England,
practically unchanged for centuries.
The argument would certainly have force
if it were true; but the fact is the principle
of free trade is coming more and more to be
recognized as the true economic policy.
Such conviction has not yet affected
legislation, to any great degree, in countries
in which the scale of intelligence is low, and
power is confined to the few. 1t is not pos
sible to maintain, save under exceptional cir
cumstances, protective tariffs where the
people have power, and at the same time,
possess intelligence. The Wilson Bill is the
first formulated utterance of a conviction
rapidly becoming popular in a country
where the people have power; and the only
other county where the masses really govern,
established free trade coincident with the ex-
tension of the franchise. The examples of
other countries than America and England
are valuable merely in the results afforded
by a comparison of their intellectual status
and commercial progress with those coun-
tries, England and the United States, where
with the hopes of greater economic freedom
mems thoughts are stirring.
The argum mt of tbs polit ical economists.
clear as crystal, do not seem to have convinced
the world nor, what is much worse. do they
seem to have made any substantial progress.
On the contrary, these economists have taken
up the task of telriig each other to pieces, so
that today there is hardly a namlole important
proposition on which they agree. and the NOR e
the facts of the universe are Developed the
more confusion seems to reign among them.
Meanwhile the world has proceeded in its own
way without much ragsrd for tn 'ir theories
and their wisdom. I do not mean that siudi-
Gus men have not discovered great truths and
had glimpses of still greater, but In the main
they have only passed from one inaccuracy to
another, because they have forgotten that the
whole race is wiser than any man.
This is not the fact. The truths of politi-
cal economy nave been constantly recog-
nized in legislation. Political economy shat
tered the mercantile th cory" and legisla-
tors walked in the new light of its teachings;
it attacked the economic weakness OF slav-
cry, and the anti-slavery agitators borrowed
its cold rhetoric to strengthen their position;
political economy, chiefly at the hands of
Adam Smith and the little group of noble
Frenchmen, who were his teachers, did more
than can be computed to abolish the stupid
systems of octroi duties, window taxes, head
taxes and the like. Legislators did little
more than follow where political economists
led in the most important of these reforms.
1t is a gross perversion of facts that as serts
the impotence of political economy. Its
little finger is more powerful than the
thews of the largest Maine Congressional
district. No wonder il it be true, as the
newspapers report, that Cardinal Gibbons
countenance darkened as he leaned from the
galleries to listen to this Maine Canute-a
not unheroic figure in his way, because wag-
ing so unequal a eontest-ordering back the
waves Of intelligence as they come rolling in
on the world during the Fifty-second Con-
gress.
Nor has political economy sspassed from
one inaccuracy to another. ut has on the con-
trary been a steady progression of harmoni-
GUS and coordinated laws, presented in the
searching light of successive investigators,
who have profited by The discoveries of their
predecessors, SO that from crude and unre-
ated conceptions it has passed into harmonies
beautiful as Newton discovered in the field
Of his investigation.
After citing the universally Of protection
as a proof of the correctness Of its theory, it
seems u-naccountable that Mr.. Reed should
then have said:A
Whether the universal sentiment ia favor Of
protection is sound or not. l do not stop to dis
cnss.
Observe that that is precisely what he has
been discussing.
Whether it Is best for the United States alone
concerns me:
What was of great moment at the begin
ming of this Grafton is of no Importance at all
as the speech proceeds. The fact that ac-
eording to Mr.. Reeds metamorphosis of his
tory the civilized world has reversed its pol
icy of free trade and become prorectionist,
which was cited as a triumphant discrediting
Of the teachings of political economy, and a
~. 49, - =