The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1897-02-27
THE LIMIT OF PROTECTION.

has held up the protective principle as
one OF the necessary adjuncts Of pros
perity, has at last had the scales re
moved from its es, and frankly az
mits thai protection 10 the agricul
tuI alist. who is the bone and sinew ot
the country, the primary producer OF
wealth, is myth. This admission was
made in the following editorial which
appeared in the issue of Feb. 20, and
requires no comment.
There are signs that the United
States is approaching, if it has not
actually reached, the absolute economic
limits of the application of the policy
of protection to most American in
dustries. Many of these. like the
steel industry, have reached stage oi
development where they can dispense
with projections: where, indeed, it is
Ineffective, because the pressure OF
domestic competition has reduced price
below that for which the product can
be imported.
"This result always has been foreseen
by rational protectionists. Protection
has been urged by its wiser advocates
as a temporary expedient only. a
time would come. it has always been
held by those having faith in the re-
sources of our country and the skill
and energy of our people, when pro-
lection would be unnecessary-indeed,
| impractica ble-because we should pro-
duce all articles of consumption for
| which our soil and climate are fitted
more cheaply than they could be i'm
| ported. No one expected that time to
come so soon as now seems probable:
| indeed, it could not have come so soon
| through the influence alone of pressure
| of domestic competition upon price of
articles produced for the home market
! alone. This influence has been rein
forced powerfully within the last ten
years, with increase of facilities of
transit aud communication among
nations, by pressure of worldwide
competition in production of articles
not susceptible to protection, because
we already produce surplus for ex-
port and prices are made in the world s
market. This presses down the price
of al products for the home market by
limiting the ability of consumers to
pay for them. All our great industries
are in touch, and each reacts upon the
others. If prices and wages in some
are pressed down by world competition,
prices and wages in others must follow
by sympathetic reaction. in spite of
protection of these others from direct
competition.
''The great industries of this county
always have been, and probably for
generations to come will be, agricul-
tural. The most important articles of
our commerce, home and foreign, are
wheat and cotton, corn and cattle in
the form of meat, products of the soil,
and material for the food and clothing
of nations. These and others like
them we produce for export, and their
sale abroad extends our commerce and
increases our national wealth. These
industries are not susceptible of pro-
lection. Duties upon them are
neither help nor burden, are
absolutely ineffective, because the
price of them at home and abroad is
made in the markets of tho world.
Consequently producers Of these ar
ricles, getting no benefit from protec-
tion to themselves, have no compen
sation for the tax they pay as consum
ers of articles made for the home
market alone, whase price is enhanced
by protective duties.
This did not matter so long as
prices of our agricultural products
were renumerative, even with waste
full methods of production and an OK
travagant mode of living, and our ex-
port trade was highly profitable. But
conditions have changed greatly in the
last ten years. The price of all these
articles has been pressed down by COM
petition in the worlds markets by
cheap land and labor in various parts
OF the world, brought in touch with
Europe by extension of steam COM
on land and sea. All our
agricultural interests suffer under |
depression which exacts extreme !
economy in production and living as
the alternative of ruin. Protection !
cannot help these interests. They sell |
to the world, and must take the |
worlds price. The only escape is to
produce and live more cheaply. so as to
maintain their industries at the re-
duced price. That is to say, since the
income of farmers has been reduced,
their outgo for freight, impliments,
lumber. food and clothing not yielded
by the farm, house furniture and all
articles of consumption must be re-
luced in proportion.
This makes the farmers of the
United States who produce for export,
or unconsciously, the
enemies of the protective system. and
creates an economic pressure for re-
luction of prices held up by tariff,
which cannot be resisted for long.
The agricultural interests see the
,risis dimly, and have been striving
% adjust themselves to it. First they
attack the railroads, the source of
heir nearest and greatest expense in
their products. The rail-
'oads are accused of taking all the
profit, and reduction of rates is de-
handed. This must be conceded, as it
las been conceded in large measures
,ut the concession only removes the
PRESSURE one step. The railroads can
10 more bear all the loss than the farm
RS. They must and do demand COM
from their employees, whose
7ages they reduce, aud from all of
7hom they buy, from steel-rail mills
nd locomotive and car works down.
his brings the pressure where the
lrmer has already brought it, by his
demand for cheaper
implements, furniture, ETC.,
pom the protected industries of the
ountry, and they must yield in turn,
hough the inevitable result will be s
reat reduction in the wages of labor. 6
he break in price of steel rails and 8
ne cut of wages in South Chicago is
ypical of what must take place all over