Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1899-06-08
IRONY OF HISTORY.
SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS FACING
TOWARD PROTECTION
They Are Urged to Forget the Free
Trade Fo1lies of the Past and to
Avail Themselves of the Policy that
Brings Prosperity.

| the cnOlce SnOuld be prosperity Sucn
| is the closing sentence of an article of
exceptional interest which lately ap-
peared in the New Orleans States" a
| Democratic newspaper, over the sigma
ture wv. H. R." 1t Is a conclusion full
Of force and strength. Well indeed it
ago chosen for it's motto, prosperity
rather than tradition The tenor of
| the article printed by the Estates" is
| Protectionist Obviously written by a
Democrat and former free-trader, it's
argument is all the more effective in
favor of the support Of protection by
| the people of the Southern States. He
| says:
If the South forces the tariff issue to
| the front again it will be detrimental to
the best interests Of this section. I"
1t is an memorable fact that the South
now needs a protective tariff more than
any section of the Union. With cotton
and it's other agricultural staples at pres
emit prices there is no apparent possibility
in this section of rivaling the North in the
| accumulation of wealth as long as the
chief local interest is agriculture. The
South is naturally the best manufacturing
region Of the country. 1t has the ores, the
coal, the timber and the intelligent popu.
lation to compete in industrial enterprises
with any portion of the world, and it's fu-
| ture prosperity depends more upon the
number of factories that are built here
than the quantity of cotton which can be
| raised to the acre.
The South for years has borne what
49, i
| the form of protective tariff, and at this
hour when its industrial development has
| just begun it would indeed be superlative
folly to cast aside what in the future will
not be load, but fostering influence in
| the development Of it's resources.
| What the tariff has done in the past for
| the North it is calculated to do in the flu
ture for the South. The infant industries
| of the present are located below the Ma.
son and Dixon line, and it is a question
if large percentage of Northern manu-
| facturers would not soon be better of
with free trade and unrestricted European
competition than with protection by tariff
and the South doing as much industrially
| as it's resources warrant.
Then follows stirring appeal to the
| Democrats of the Southern States to
follow Samuel J. Randalrs advice and
"get together" But it is to be a new
sort of getting together. Instead of
| maintaining an unbroken front for free
| trade, as they have done for nearly
| three-quarters Of a century, they are
now urged to get together on the
| tariff question and concentrate their
| strength for the continuation of the
protective policy. Perhaps the oldest
| feature of this rallying call is the rea-
son cited in support of the plea for
prompt action-namely, the possibility
that the fourishing industries of the
North may, in a few years time, de-
eide to abandon protection rather than
see it's aid extended to the establish
ment of powerful competing industries
in the South. 1t is the dread of such
an eventuality that impels the writer
| in the States to say to his fellow Demo
| Gratis:
| The Republican party is not so welded
| to the protective tariff theory that it will
seek to perpetuate the Dingley or any
other variety of the article a day longer
than it serves the mercantile interests of
the States it controls. It would be the
irony of fate, indeed, if tariff for revenue
| only, or free trade, became national pol
| icy at the hour when it would blight the
| infant industries of the South like Da-
kota blizzard.
Whatever the irony Of fate may have
| in store for Southern Democrats in the
far future, it is the irony of history to
| find so queer a turn as this in the me-
andering ways of politics-to find the
party which followed Calho1n's lead
| into the ranks of free trade chiefly be-
cause protection was building up New
| England and the Eastern States into
great manufacturing commonwealth
whose potency in national affairs men
aced the South's supremacy, now con-
templating a swift right-about face to
protection lest that policy should be
abandoned by the North through fear
or jealousy Of great industrial rivalry
from the mills and factories which the
South shall build up by the aid of pro-
| lection. Politics has furnished few de-
| velopments more unique than this. In
| any case, however, it is to be construed
as @ cheering indication of the dawn of
| better things in the South. That por-
ton Of our common country will pros
per nightly when it's people shall once
for all turn their backs upon a past
full of mistakes and stand with their
| faces toward a future full of promise
AS "between prosperity and tradition
| the choice should be prosperity" IN
| oubtedly.-American Economist.
The Significance of PETER.
| Among the various recent signs Of
the breakup of the Populist party the
return of ex-senator PETER to the Re