The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-10-07
This is A DEMOCRATIC YEAR.
A BIT OF HISTORY.


Protection is a sweet and grateful
sounding word to women and children,
because their natures are such as
to demand and entitle them to 1t,
and to men that cannot reason or re-
fuse to do SO. In a moderate degree
and upon special industries that could
not survive without it, protective
tariff might be permissible, just the
same as other illigitimate means might
become permissible under certain con-
ditions. The early history of our
country presents just such an occasion.
Our industries were pitted against
those of Great Britain and other old
countries. Duties on imports presented
the easiest and most direct method of
securing funds for the maintenance
of the government and greasing the
machinery.
With virgin soil and climatic con-
ditions capable of producing every
thing that the people might desire;
mighty forests replete with every kind
of wood; with mountains gashed with
iron, copper, gold, silver and lead;
with inexhsusfibIe coal measures with
which to reduce and fashion those
metals, few years of protective tariff
were all sufficient to place American
Industries fairly on their feet. The
old whig party had been relegated to
the rear and the democracy was in the
ascendancy. America had become an
eynort nation; the tariff had been re-
.rresd to the minimum and was con-
ffr I for revenue only, and of which
ghsre as an abundance for all goy-
ern,neL al needs. In the unexampled
prosperity of the United States its
citizens ere contented and happy;
peace end plenty sbounded and an
era Of good feeling was the result of
low taxes.
One of the chief benefcent results
of lew tariff was found in the diffu.
sior Of wealth which was in the hands
of the masses. and up to the
year 1860, if our memory serves us,
there were but two, possibly thres,
millionaires in the United States, and
which conclusively proves that low i'm
port duties tended to prevent monopol-
les and combines.
The civil war was precipitated an 1 |
it became necessary to raise larger
revenue Tor carrying on the struggle
for the union. The duties on imports
were largely increased and many meth
DDS of raising revenue were adopted
that, under other conditions, would
have been tyrannical and illigitimate.
The exigencies of the occasion were
their only justification. Four times
during the war the duties were raised |
and at one time the increase was fifty
per cent. on all dutiable articles. The
people patriotically submitted to the
burthens of tariff taxation because it
was a means to an end, and that end
was the union, one and indlssoluble.
1t was glorious object-the freedom
of the colored man-and was well
worth the price paid for it, although
the price could have been reduced at
least one half had it not been for the
cupidity and treachery of many of the
leaders of the republican party.
Owing to the high protection re-
ceived by the manufacturers and con-
tractors, colossal fortunes were made
during the war. The very means that
was freeing the black slaves were en-
shaving white freemen. Such con- |
carmorauts as James Fiske,
Jay Gould and others fattened on the s
national calamity like hyenas on the {
carcass of lion. .Monopolles and |
combines had taken deep root in the {
soil of the United States and were c
gradually absorbing the financial life
blood Of the people-the toilers. And