The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1895-07-19
THE PROTECTION DOCTRINE.


- - Hsson Entireiy ON MtsundeRstanding(
Of Human Necessities.
The Imports of wool and woolens fol
the first three months of this year ex,
coed in value those for the first three
months Of 1893 some five million dol.
lars This fact demonstrates, in the
opinion OF our contemporary, the
Pioneer Press, and of those more ultra,
thick-and-thin protectionist papers in
whose trail 1t YEARLY and perfume
torily follows, that the tariff act. with
its free wool and reduction Of fifty
per cent in the tax on woolens, has
decreased to that extent the work for
American operatives. II is not stated
that these woolens came to us as a
free gift from their foreign makers,
nor were our people who bought
them "hoodooed' into buying them
They came because there was n
demand for them; because they were
either OF quality tho domestic
mills could not produce-in which
case they deprived no one of work-or
because they were to be had chea per
than similar homemade goods could
be bought for. Either Of these causes
is natural and rightful one. II the
kind and qualities imported are not
produced here, then the policy our con-
temporary advocates requires that
there should be no tax on them, and
the tax was an unjust as well as USE
less burden. II they came because
they were cheaper, then the ''misun-
Outstanding" Of our neighbor and its
kind is as to the simplest of human
rights Its position involves the neces-
sity OF maintaining that consumers Of
woolens should be obliged to pay moro
for them than they are worth in order
that American operatives can be en-
ployed in making them. The logic OF
this is policy Of entire exclusion; but
the effect on the American consumers
and the republican party Of Mr.. Nc
kinley's stride in that direction will
discourage further movements on that
line.
But the misunderstanding" goes
much further. 1t is a quarrel with
economic tendencies that, in other
results, our contemporary and the
most ultra of its kind regard as of tho
highest benefit and the greatest good.
These tendencies everywhere are to-
wards diminished cost OF production
resulting in widcned circle of con-
sumption or use. Ii it is an evil to be
guarded against and prevented, to
have our woolcns obtainabl at less
cost, then it is greater evil TO invent
and use the machinery that has dis
placed the spinning wheel and the
hand looms that formerly made the
cloths. The man was an enemy Of his |
race who invented the application of |
electricity as an illuminant and as a |
motive power: as, farther back, he was |
an enemy who discovered that the |
black oil that oozed from the rocks |
amid the mountains of Pennsylvania !!
could be refined into an oil that gave a /
better and cheaper light than did |
the tallow candles it took the place of. |
The whole doctrine of protection de-
mands, in its support and advocacy, a
negation OF the beneficial consequences
10 humanity OF these manifold invcn-
tons that have chcapencd the cost OF
living. increased the purchasing power
of wages, and brought to the humblest
lome comforts once unattainable,
making the luxuries Of the last genera
ion the necessaries of this. The print
ng press of to-day, the typc-setting
the engines driven By steam.
he implements Of husbandry. all these
,reations Of inventive genius that are
ioing the work that millions of men
and women would DC required to do,
ire sad misunderstanding" Of human
wants and needs, decreasing the work
81 American operatives and. from the
sincere protectionist's view. impedi-
nents To industry that should be sum-
narily abolished. Paul Globe.