The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-09-27
WOOL AND wOOLENs.

These wooden manufacturers who had
so much influence in securing free wool,
have probably learned by this time what
wiser men could have told them when the
tariff reform idea took root in their heads,
that the interests =; the wool grower and
the wooden anuiacturer must stand or
fall together.
There is nothing new or novel about
this "discoyery." The same rule may be-
said to generally apply. We are not
manufacturing country, alone, like En-
gland for whose interest it is to have all
raw material free. Nor yet are we an
agricultural country, like Russia or the
Argentines, and II is not advisable to pro-
tect our agriculture at the expense of our
manufacturing. We can and do grow
most everything in this big land of varied
resources and climatic conditions, and we
can manufacture most everything. The
principle of protection is something apart
from the question OF revenue. In
measure, it may be said to have nothing
to do with it, though as a matter OF fact,
cur tariff laws made to protect American
industries have always also EN- mbraced
consideration OF the raising OF revenue,
and as a matter OF fact the Democratic
"revenue only idea as embodied in the
hermaphrodite German Wilson tariff bill,
would have made an even more disastrous
failure OF the work OF the SD congress in
providing resources for the running ex-
penses. OF government IL the really pro-
! tective features of the schedule had not
been insisted upon by the Senate
The protection idea involves a broad
consideration OF the interests OF our whole
country. The tariff is "local issue" in
so far as every local interest in this great
land must have consideration, must bear
its due share of burden and be accorded
its proportionate measure OF protection
in the legisl ative fabric made To expand
and direct our common business inter
ests, seeking alike to secure local pros
| perity and national wealth. We must
levy customs duties to secure revenue.
In the method o. levying them we must
keep in view the widespread interests to
be affected, the farmer, the miner. the
manufacturer, the merchant. No "horI-
zontal' levying of revenue can ever be fair
| or be good business. No "tarin for reve-
nue." as commonly understood, can raise
, the necessary revenue. protection
tariff wisely drawn Is cabable OF produe-
ing revenue because it makes business at
home prosperous and prosperity at home
means also revenue at the custom house.
Under the present tariff we are securing
extraordinary revenues from certain inn
ports, but the total revenue of the country
suffers corresponding loss from the un-
fair discrimination that reduces general
prosperity at home.
All this, OF course, is primary school
tariff talk. But some OF our wooIen man
ufacturers have had to learn by hard ex-
perience what they could not understand
| in the primary school lesson. The Ameri-
can manufacturer has his wool free, but
the duties on woolen goods have also been
reduced and he is worse off than he was
before. On the other nand, II the tariff
on the manufactured product had been
maintained the wool grower would have
been made to suffer even more causeessly
than he Is suffering now and it would
have been only a matter OF time when we
would have had no wool growers and
our manufacturers would simply have had
to pay what the agriculturists OF other
countries chose to charge him. From al
this free wool and tariff reduction no COM
pensating advantage has come to the con-
sumer On another hand again, the re-
storation of the duties on wool without
an increase in the duty on woolens would
still further depress the manufacturing
! industry, and finally reduce the market
for American wool. In n word, the in
terests OF the manufacturer and the wool
! grower are common interests. One can
/ not undertake 10 cut the throat OF the
other, or to gain advantage over the
| other by favoritism in q tariff schedule.
Neither can prosper II exposed on un-
equal terms TO foreign competition. They
must stand together.
1
AIA1T THEREt