The herald., 1896-08-14
STANDING UP FOR PROTEC
TIONISM

The legend on the plate glass window
of the San Francisco Call which reads
THE Call stands up for silver" needs
altering so as to be more nearly in ac-
cord with the actual position of that
journal 1t should run The Call stands
up for protectionism. For silver the
Call longer stands, but for the PROPOSE
ton that it is honest and wise for the
government of the United States to in
sert through the medium of tariff leg
islation, its fingers into the pockets OF
one set of citizens for the purpose OF
extracting therefrom wealth to be be"
slowed on another set. a chosen few,
in no just sense entitled to it, the Spreck-
els journalistic venture battles with the
abandon born of a sense Of immunity
from the trammels of truth and the lines
of logic.
Fearing, apparently, an inadequacy
| on the part of its editorial columns tof
| the proper presentation Of the cause of
| tariff plucking. the paper which stood
| UP for silver is running in its local col
| umns series of articles which are in
| tended to exploit certain dire effects on
the industries of the country of the pres
ent tariff law and eXalt the saving vir-
tues of protection. Like the average of
the expositions of protectionists this
series consists almost entirely of state
ments that are either false or of the halI-
a-truth brand, and OF conclusions not
justified by any process of reasoning
other than that taught by the school
of the tariffites.
1t would involve waste of time and
space to answer specifically the allesa-
tions and the sophistical arguments Of
the Call. The knowledge common to the
people best refutes that papers asser-
tions; the reasoning of men gifted with
ordinary "horse sense is sufficient TO
upset its pretenses at logical deduction
Wool iron and lumber have been its es
pecial themes. Salvation for these in
dustries and fair recompense for the men
employed in them are. according to the
Call. only to be obtained through pro-
lection, and that exemplified in McKin-
leyism. Yet it is a fact that throughout
the period of protection for which the
Republican party was responsible wool
declined, and under the law tagged with
the cognomen of the Canton Clam,
touched it's lowest point 1t is fact that
during the thirty years of Republican
protection the manufacture of wooden
goods utterly failed TO keep pace with
the growth of the cOUntry's populations;
that instead of wooden the masses have
been wearing shoddy clothing. 1t is a
fact that the shutting down of the wool
On mills of California occurred during
the regime of Republican tariffs, AMI
that the measure of the syndicate can
ddate for the presidency failed to re-
open single institution of the kind
in this state.
The iron industry in all its branches
is still the beneficiary of government ia
vor. That such is the case is distinctly
to the discredt of the present tariff law.
The consolation about the matter is that
the favor is not as bounteous s that
granted by the Mckinley act and the
preceding Republican enactments. The
numerous branches of this industry
have been tenderly nursed by this gov
crnment for more than thirty years,
and the most conspicuous results of the
coddling have been small crop of ar
rogant milliOnaires, and an army Of Ia
horers and operators who have eVinced
their discomfort with the paltrY share of
the protection swag doled out to them
by repeated strikes. usually accom-
panied by bloody and expensive disor
ders IT is Il fact hat stands cut like the
rock of Gibralter that the only consider
able reductions in wages in the iron in
dustries were made between the enact
ments of the Morrill, tariff and the re-
peal of the Mckinley tariff, that the
greatest reductions were made while the
latter was in force, and that the restora
tion Of the wages paid when the Nc
kinley act became a law occurred afte,
that act was superseded by the present
tariff measure. The data ia substan-
tiate these assertions has been published
too often to permit of their denial.
The removal of the tariff on lumber
may have curtailed the profits of lun-
ber syndicates, but it has not prevented
the growth of timber nor the cutting OF
the same. 1t has not reduced the wages
of either the men who make or the men
who work with lumber. The wages OF