The morning call., 1894-02-05

IMPORTANT CONCE SSIONS.

In his great free-trade speech In the
House Mr.. Bourke Cochran said:
proceed TO the other question, the effect of
your protective tariff upon the general produc-
lion OF the country. First, have already con-
ceded that by protection you can diversity in
dustries. l coneede, for instance, that the
operation OF your tariff may have started lin
plate Industry in this country.
If protection diversifes industries free
trade will have the opposite effect. If pro-
lection has enabled the American people
to do things they could not have done
against free foreign competition, some of
these industries must be abandoned under
free trade. Which branch of industry will
be the first to go? The iron and steel in-
dustry was built up by protection. For
years the free-tradeTs commended that pro-
lection could not establish it. But trade
reports show that nearly all the steel rails
used IN this country are made in it, This
industry is marked 10 go. The wooden in
oustry is another result of protection.
Without duties on foreign wooden cloths
American capital could never have been
coaxed into the construction of the costly
mills necessary to the weaving of wooden
cloth. This is another industry marked
order in which labor predominates as
factor in the total cost of goods. Under
free trade we shall be driven mainly to
industries that cannot be prosecuted
abroad. We shall produce raw material
and depend upon Europe and Asia for
finished goods. Besides the waste involved
in shipping raw material TO Europe and
Asia and bringing European and Asiatic
goods back. our inventive faculty will be
impaired for want of encouragement. In
-ventors VIII protect their discoveries IN
countries where the highest use is made of
machinery. We could not have built the
best of the vessels of the new navy if pro-
lection had not built up the iron and steel
industries in this country. The knowledge
OF our dependence on foreign skill would
have made us towards in controversies with
foreign powers
The Chicago Inter Ocean makes some
holes in Mr.. COckran's industrial balloon.
That Journal saws:
Il is easy 10 see where Mr. Cochran gets his
political economy. He does not get il from
New York nor from New England. nor from
anywhere in the North, for the doctrines he
teaches did not originate there. lie got his
ideas from the old South. the South of Calhoun
and slavery times. Having slave labor, which
was fitted for field labor only. and which could
not be utilized as long as slavery lasted for
manufacturing purposes, since II would have
been unsafe TO give the slave that education
aud training which would have made him OF
value in the factory, the shareholders favored
free trade.
Mr.. Calhoun said, as Mr.. Cleveland says
now, Let work be done where it can be
done at least cost" Slave labor could
raise cotton but it could not spin cotton
into cloth. And the owner OF that labor
rebeled at tariff which added a cent to
the cost of the finished article he could not
produce himself. One may see some sense
in the stand taken by the shareholders in
the days when the cost OF foreign goods
fixed prices. But the ground they had was
taken from under them when home COM
petition began to affect foreign prices.