Alpena argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1893-1909, 1894-09-26
Hurd on the Situation.

At the Democratic state conven-
ton in Ohio, last week, Hon. Frank
B. Hurd, of Toledo, while addressing
the convention said:
For more than twenty years tar
if reformers pointed out that re-
striction of the market which is the
object of protection, would end in
an overproduction Of domestic goods,
in which the producers would per-
ish. They foretold that the farm
ers would be beggars in the midst
of their own plenty and that manu-
featured articles would decay and
rot in their own superabundance.
How perfectly these predictions
have been fulfilled the deplorable
situation to which | have referred
demonstrates. Nor for this condi-
ton was the Democratic party in
any respect responsible. 1t had OPP
posed the policies which created
the conditions. 1t possessed for
thirty years no power to enact a law
or carry out an administrative pow
er. The whole responsibility was
upon the Republican party, inform
ed as it was by the tariff reformers,
as to the certain consequences of
the measures it was advocating.
The promise of business revival
is the result of the new tariff law
just passed by the Democratic Con-
gress. This has followed partly be-
cause the element of uncertainty as
to what the tariff rates would be
has been removed, so that business
can securely adjust itself to the new
law, not likely to be modified for
some time by general revision.
Meritorious as is this law, it is
but the beginning of the work of
tariff reform. There will be and
need be no general tariff revision
for years to come, but the different
schedules will require further add
justment in the interest Of free
trade. Whoever expected that the
great system ofprotection, strength
ened as it has been by the aid of
the government for thirty years,
could be overthrOwn in single day
or by a single measure, was doomed
to disappointment. From the time
England first repealed the corn
laws until the present system was
adopted forty years elapsed. 1t will
not take so long here and now, with
the greater light and knowledge of
our people. But even here it can
not be done at once.
The duty, therefore, before us is
plain. The Chicago platform de-
clares that protection is unconsti-
tutional and "a robbery. If that
declaration be true our mission can
not be ended while a protective
statute remains. Let the agitation
continue until business learns that
it cannot be secure so long as it is
in partnership with Congress. Let
the farmer learn that the law can
give him neither a market nor high
er prices for his products, and that
his only hope of relief is in the re-
moval of the burdens which the law
has imposed upon him. Let the
manufacturer learn that the same
overproduction from the depression
from which it is now recovering
will again occur unless he finds an
outlay for his goods in the foreign
market. Let every one learn that
the eternal law Of justice requires
that all shall have equal opportu-
mites in the race of life, and that
Congress has no right to help one
man or business at the expense of
another. Then the day will not be
far distant when the last vestige of
protection shall have disappeared
from the legislation of America.