Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-06-08
IRONY OF HISTORY.
SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS FACING
TOWARD PROTECTION.
They Are Urged to Forget the Free
Trade Follies of the Past and to
Avail Themselves of the Policy that
Brings Prosperity.

iruue roiites OF tnc fast anu 10
Avail Themselves of the Policy that
Brings Prosperity.
Between prosperity and tradition
the choice should be prosperity Such
is the closing sentence of an article of
exceptional interest which lately ap-
peared in the New Orleans States
Democratic newspaper, over the sigma
ture Nv. IL. r." 1t is a conclusion full
of force and strength. Well indeed 1t
would be for the South if it had long
ago chosen for its motto. prosperity
rather than tradition" The tenor of
the article printed by the Estates" Is
protectionlst. Obviously written by
Democrat and former free-trader, its
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.
1t is an inexorable fact that the South
now needs protective tariff more than
any section of the Union. With cotton
and its other agricultural staples at pres
ent 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 its fu-
ture prosperity depends more upon the
number of factories that are built here
than the quantity of cotton which can be
raised 10 the acre.
The South for years has borne what
was to this section no doubt a burden in
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 a load, but fostering influence in
the development of its resources.
What the tariff has done in the past for
the North it is calculated to DO in the fu-
ture for the South. The infant industries
of the present are located below the Ma.
son and Dixon line, and ii is a question
If large percentage of Northern manu-
facturers would not soon be better off
with free trade and unrestricted European
competition than with protection by tariff
and the South doing as much industrially
as its resources warrant.
Then follows a stirring appeal to the
Democrats of the Southern States to
follow Samuel j. Randall's advice and
get together" But il is to be a new
sort Of getting together. Instead Of
into inin N ,,,,I. 20 fra
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 fiourishing industries of the
North may, in a few years time, de-
eide to abandon protection rather than
see its aid extended to the establish
ment of powerful competing industries
in the South. III 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 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 ii serves the mercantile interests of
the States it controls. 1t would be the
irony of fate, indeed, if tariff for revenue
only, or free trade, became a national pol
icy at the hour when. it would blight the
infant industries of the South like a Da.
kota blizzard.
Whatever the irony of fate may have
in store for Southern Democrats in the
far future, ii is the irony of history to
find SO queer q turn as this in the me-
andering ways of politics-to find the
party which followed Calhoun's lead
into the ranks of free trade chiefly be-
cause protection was building up New
England and the Eastern States into
great manufacturing commemorative
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-
tion of our common country will pros
per nightly when its people shall once
for all turn their backs upon a past
full of mistakes and stand with their
faces toward future full of promise.
AS between prosperity and tradition
The choice should be prosperity" IN
douitedly.-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-
publican party is significant in its evil
dence that the original sincere Farm