The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1894-03-07

rawncss is universally troubled with
the disease Of p~aternaiism. But pro-
lection is peculiarly malignant and
hard TO cure.
start a little factory which employs
n hundred hands. three-fourths of
whom are women and BOYS: and in "A
community Of a hundred thousand pco-
pie the protectionist disease begins TO
show itself. Congressman get shaky
in their brain centers. Merchants. to
whom the very name Of trade tax is
actually an insult, begin TO temporize.
Even farmers learn to repeat the ride
ulous phrases about keeping up Ameri-
can wages with a tariff.
IT is only rs a disease that protec-
tionism can be Analysed or understood
II 1T bore any resemblance TO a doe
trinc, the demand would be for an
exclusive home market u benefit far
mers. who are now selling not only
here but abroad In competition with
riot wages of . and 3 cents a day.
carpenters and bricklayers would be
the bcneficiaries of bountics.
IT il had premises before its conclu-
sions. the machines which displace
labor would have the least tariff per-
centagcs and the hand labor industries
~ ~ WV Ei0dAtNis
There is a protectioniSt sentiment in
some parts of the south and the two
centers are Birmingham and the q
district of Louisiana. Il protectionism
wer not a disease no such sentiment
could exist. Leaving out altogether
the interests of the great agricultural
majority in the South whose product
is sold abroad, the manufacturing in
tcrests itself is under an increasing
necetsity of obtaining foreign markets.
In 1850 the South had an investment
OF S22, DOC, coo in cotton mills. In 1898
the investment was sol. 900. 600. In
1850 its mills consumed 233. $50 bales.
in 1898 they consumed 7l3. s4S bales.
In 1880 the South had onc-fifteenth
of the number of spindlcs in the
country. Now il has one-sixtl. MIR.
r. II. Edmonds, who has for many
years devoted his time to collecting
information upon Southern industries.
has recently called attention to the
fact that local capital has built the
greater part of the increased mill
capacity.
lho South is making iron at lower
cost h any other section or ountrv
Put the metal business on a natural
and healthy basis and the South will
control many departments of the iron
trade as II now gives law to the trade
in coarse cOttonS.
If our cotton and iron industries
were of recent origin there might be a
FEASIBILITY IN asking for protection.
They are as old as the country's settle
ment and they have grown until the
capacity of the mills is beyond the
consuming capacity of the country UNI
der present conditions. We must have.
as the editor of the Chicago Tribune
said in 1889, wider markets or stagna-
ton in our manufactures. We must
have more trade or more difficulties
with overproduction.
Recurring to the relations of apri.
culture To the tariff. it may he said
without qualification that every state
of the South, Alabama included. should
be earnestly for free trade if it were
certain to close every furnace and cot
ton mill. immigration is looking
toward the South. u is looking at a
section which has shown a power of
recuperation beside which the feats of
France sink into insignificance. After
a devastation the like of which France
has not seen since the DAYS Of Agin-
court our Southern States have re-
stored themselves TO prosperity in "A
period of falling prices and amid the
troublcS of a d~emOraliZed labor class.
beginning % years ago almost without
capital. unaccustomed To the organiza-
ton OF energy, and oppressed with
Wretched government they have re-
formed government. reduced debt.
vastly increased their product. built
factories. encouraged railroads. multi
piled public schools. and accumulated
capital, All this without a single
boom except that which sunk SO
much money in falsely calculated iron
towns.
II is astonishing that Alabama will
permit representatives to breathe the
word protection without contempt ano
hatred. There are cheap lands ia
Northern Alabama. touching the very
furnace towns which talk protection
Agriculture can people those lands anC
can add a thousand dollars to tn,
wealth of the State for every dollar
duty ON IRON ore could add, even i
iron ore were an infant industry.
If protectioniSm were not a diseas,
every child would see that a protecte,
industry is necessarily "A dependen
industry. The wealth to support !
must first be created by the unprotect
w va 10 y Ndlt lnllu fdlllO
help seeing hat a business which get
bounties and bonuses either does no
need them or is "A burden upon tn
business which pays the bounties an,
bonuses. The South has paid bonuse
and bounties for nearly IA century. an,
has bought nothing except a terribl
los, in restriction upon trade.
Now, upon the eve of a great in,
migration movement southwark, tn
disease of protectionism makes it
appearance in Alabama and is halle
by the Pennsylvanians as a break i
the tariff reform forces. 1t should b
the very first duty of Northern Ala
bama TO get for agriculture the higl
est rate of profit, the lowest cost q
living, and the most extensive marx
I cts. If of Northern Alabama. then fa
more is il the first duty of other Soutl
ern states to develope the trade activ
ties OF the country with the utmo,
rapidity,
S Protectionism Is poison. The countr
I is now paying doctors bills for IA con
mercial illness which is directly an
, indirectly caused by protectionism an
by nothing else. Protectionism pas.
, ed that sherman act. 1t depleted III
1 Treasury TO make tariff reform diff
cult. 1t fostered the printing pre-,
? currency craze. 1t prolonged section
S alism, deliberately and with malice.
The South is more concerned tina
any other section in the restoration
health. 1t is bound TO reap more ben
2 eft from a revival of trade than an
D other. The Solid South belongs G
p the Wilson bill side.
Any representative from the Sout
, who avoys faith in protection is {