Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-15
n1rrrEs oN1RoN AND COAL.

1 voted to put coal and iron ore upon the
 free list, and that this vote was not dem l ocratic. The theory of the democratic l party is to put upon the free list those
 articles that are not produced in this | country and to put low revenue tariff upon all articles which come into com 1 petition with our home products. The
 Wilson bill proposed to discriminate as
 to duties, and to use the tariff as pro-
 lection to certain industries and certain | sections of the country. It sought to put | iron ore and coal upon the free list in or | der to aid the manufacturing industries l of New England. That section believed | that by getting coal and iron free of duty l from Nova Scotia it would not be com | pelled to buy our Alabama and Tennes- see ores They sought therefore to use the tariff as a protection scheme to help
 one section and to damage another. This was utterly contrary to the spirit of the democratic platforms. If such policy had been admitted, where would it have stopped? It had no support until MT. Cleveland formulated his plausible but
 unfounded doctrine of aiding manufac- lures by a discriminating tariff favoring the introduction of raw materials free of duty. In what respect such a policy diff fers in principle from the republican poll icy of protective tariff we fail to under stand If we once admit that raw ma terial" should be admitted free of duty, the people who pay duties are taxed in favor of the manufacturers who get the raw materials free of tax. Is this fair? Is 1t honest dealing towards the tax pay CTS? Should not every article bear it's just proportion of duties, whether it comes to us in the shape of raw products or improved products? The error in MT. Cleveland's newly devised attachment to the democratic idea of tariff for revenue only consists in the impossibility of l clear definition of what constitutes raw
 material The materials which form the l basis of one industry are themselves the
 finished product of another. Ore is the raw material of the furnace and iron IS l the product; but iron is the raw material l of the steel manufactures and steel IS the product. Steel is the raw material of the l spring maker, and springs are the prod
 uet. Springs are the raw material of the
 watchmaker. and watches are the proo- l uct If it is just to let ore in free to help
 the iron maker, it is just to let In ron | free to help the steel maker. and to let In | steel to 1elp the SpFlfS lldhei, anu '' 'ss
 in springs to help the watchmaker.
 And thus also by way of Illustration
 we might say that the grass of the pas | ture is the raw material and sheep IS the | product and that we should let hay Tn
 free 10 aid the sheep grower, and then | let sheep in to aid the wool clipper and | then let wool in to aid the spinner, and l then let the yarns in to aid the weaver, l and then let cloth in to aid the tailor l There is no beginning or ending in this free material. theory. There was no
 possibility of implanting it into demoe- 1 racy as a cardinal doctrine except by discardlng our ancient principles entirely
 and admitting that the tariff may be
 rightly used to aid one section and one
 class at the expense of another section l and another class.
 l Our senators did perfectly right in re- l quring a duty upon foreign ores just as l they required duties on all other foreign | articles brought into competition with | our own. There was no reason for vio | ting principle to help the coast of 1 New England There was no justice in 1 making discriminati ations in duties because MT. Clarke might be able to get British l
 Birmingham coal and Cuban ores for something less than Bessemer ores.
 1 The free material hobby of MT. Cleve- 1 land was defeated respects coal and
 iron, and was rightly defeated. The State 1 Herald stands by congress in its modif- l cation of the Wilson bill in that respect, l and we have no fears of the feeble ar rows of the Clarke organs which are now assailing us as favoring protection.
 We wish 1t to be distinctly understood
 that the State Herald desires the mineral 1 region of Alabama to have all the pro- l lection that can be furnished it by a | tariff for revenue upon coal and iron ore, l and that it will fight to the death against discrimination against us in favor of any | other section or interest. Our coal and
 iron ore as 1t lies in the ground is raw
 material. It is of little value. It gets l its value from the human toll that lifts 1 it to the surface, from the railroads that l run into the mines and from the trans | portaton that conveys it to the con- l sumer. The ore when delivered is made
 up nine parts of human labor and one l part of raw material. In placing a duty | on the raw material we have incidental
 encouragement not only to the one part | of material, but also to the nine parts l of human labor. We prefer to aid the
 human labor of Alabama rather than
 that of Nova Scotia and England.
 | MT. Clarkes indorsement of MT. Cleve- | lands protection of the labor of Great Britain as against the labor of our own mineral regions cannot deceive single
 intelligent working man. The laboring
 man who votes for such a theory is talk ing food out of the mouths of his wife and children. | THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY.