Daily Kennebec journal., 1898-01-13
VOICES OF The PRESS.
The Error OF Free Traders.
On. Y. Tribune.)

There are still journalists. and some
other people, who have not learned
how protection can benefit an industry
without enhancingthe cost of its prod =
ucts. FlarinS editorials frequently
appear deriding the Republican party
for its failure to protect if prices have
gone down, or denouncing it for rob
hing the people if prices have gone up.
Sometimes the malignant mendacity of
these articles is their most obtruSiVt,
feature. but more frequently their al
most inconceivable ignorance makes
them highly amusing. 1t almost passes
BELIEF that any man whose duties com
Pei him to observe events at all can
Yet be ignorant that the tariff under
which the production of steel rails rose
from nothing to over 10000 tons in 4
year did not prevent. but actually pro-
mGted, the reduction in price from STA
a ton in 1868 to $l9 in 1897. or of the
similar experience in many other prod
ucts during 30 years. and in tin plates
even now. People who never can
comprehend that protection is the
shortest and sureSt road to permanent
Cheapening of products for consumers
and that the profits of the rail mill
with rails at sl9 are greater than they
ever We're with rails at $50, really can
not have opinions worth hearing on
changing.
The root Of the whole matter is the
fact, familiar to everybody in business.
that the store which has an assured
and enormous trade can prosper wi h
profits so narrow on each article sold
that it would bankrupt a concern to do
the same business in a small way. \
great manufacturing concern puts
some millions into plant and machinery
before it can turn out a rail or box
Of plates, and the interest on that
capital alone would be so a ton if the
output sold We're no greater than the
entire production of steel rails by all
the mills in this country in 1869. The
cost of a great plant lying idle half the
year is enormous. and if it can turn out
100000 tons. aud foreign competition
makes it impossible to sell more thar
50.0o0. the cost of every ton is increased
almost beyond accurate calculation.
The national system which gives the
advantage in the home market to the
home producer offers to him a lar2"
business if he can do il within Il
moderate margin Of profit. If he sue
ceedss others undertake the same man
ufactare and enter into competition for
the profits. naturally pushing down
prices for all. The result is a cheaper
ing of the product for consumers. even
down to the point where there ceases
to be living profit for all, so that some
concerns have to lie idle until the de
mand Increases. Those able to con-
tinue get living profit on a large bust
less. whereas they could have made
70 profit at all on a small business eX-
posed 10 the constant uncertainties of
foreign competition. But men ask.
How is it possible for an industry 70
groW under such conditions?' 1t is
made possible by the national policy
which secures better employment and
better wages to % 00o, 900 workers. and
thus enables them to purchase more
than the people in any other land, and
80 increases the demand for clothes
and shoes, food and houses. for rail
ways to move the cattle and the grain
and the goods for buildings in which
to carry on a vastly expanding buSl-
ness, and for tools implements and
machinery with which to work NOR"
cheaply.
When the cheapenng is pushed 50
far by whatever cause, that profits fail
and works close, thousands are thrown
out of employment. Because these can
70 longer buy as much as before, other
works have to close and other thou
sands are made idle. and so the evil
spreads. In that case prices have gone
100 low. either for the health of the
industry or for the good of the con-
sumer. Only the small margin be-
tween a living profit and no profit is
necessary to reverse the movement;
Prices of iron and steel products are
now barely 3.5 per cent. higher than at
the lowest point ever touched, and yet
the output is the greatest ever known,
and has increased nearly 40 per cent.
since the enactment of the new tariff.
So in other branches of business in
great number; the course of all buSi-
ness has been reVolutiOnized by the
certainty that at least narrow profits
may now be expected instead of losses
The millions who We're idle but are now
employed the millions who earned
little but now earn more sustain by
their increased purchases a progress
which is to men of all parties Il sur
prise