Birmingham age-herald., 1894-09-12
THE LOST CAUSE.

The advocates of protection are making a desperate effort to increase it's popularity with the people, but protection is lost cause. It's fallscies have been exposed, it's Bophistries exploded, and its delusive hopes have proven false. Many prominent man. ufacturers have deserted the flag of protec- tion. They are "ise enough to see it's falseness< The fact is that protection of it. srseif ends' in freer trade. Protection is the chrysallis; freer trade the butterfly. When a certain industry is protected by high tariff it's growth is forced, like that of a hot house plant. Much capital is diverted from other lines, and invested in this in- dustry. Production is increased too rap jdly-it is overdone. The home market Is supplied, and the output falls back upon the producer. Then he begins to econo- mize, to cut wages and curtail expenses in every way. Thus the cost of production is reduced by these economical devices to just about the duty levied on itnpertations. We see this result in the iron industry. When tariff of $6.72 was levied on foreign iron then the cost of production was about S10 per ton. This high tariff fostered the iron industry to a remarkable degree. Many furnaces were built add the output rose from a few hundred thousand tons per annum to sev- eral million. The natural result was that the home market was glutted. The price of iron went down even with q high tariff. Then the iron masters bent their energies toward decreasing the cost of production. And they succeeded admirably. Some seven or eight years ago 1t cost S10 or $12 a ton to make iron in the Birmingham dis frin vuha ha tc half that sum. Hence the iron masters are not concerned at the reduction of the duty of s6. 72 in the Mckinley bill to $4.0o in the present law. In fact, one of the largest iron masters in the Birmin gham district, and one who has heretofore been persistent in demanding a high tariff, now admits that the Birmingham district would be safe from foreign iron eveu if the duty WAS reduced to B ton. He is proud to acknowledge that the Birmingham dis trict can compete with the world. This very gratifying state of affairs is due to our natural advantages and the valuable lessons our furnace managers have learned from surrounding conditions. MT. Aldrich, in his campaign, will no doubt renew the old arguments in favor of protection, but they will fall flat, for they have been proven false by the logic of events.
 The fact is that the iron and coal opera tors having supplied the home market are already making shipments to foreign mar kets, and ii these shipments were success ful under the iniquitous discriminations of the Mckinley law they will be all the more successful under the freer trade provisions Of the new Democratic law. Alabama has shipped both iron and coal across the water. There are seductive markets to the South, to the East, to the West, to the North. It is gratifying to know that while the output of iron decreased in 1893 that our exports of the manufactured product largely increased. The market is widen. ing, the world lies before us. Our iron and coal kings eau exclaim, ''The world is mine!''