, 1899-11-09
ACT OF MADNESS"
THE PROPOSED ABANDONMENT
OF PROTECTION.
n We Are to Achieve Commercial
supremacy We Must Hold to the Policy
That Has Made Us IndustriaIIy and
Financially Supreme.

A timely article on the subject of
Commercial Empire and Protection"
is contributed by Hon. Edward N
Dingley to Gunton's Magazine for Oc-
tober. 1t is just now quite the fash
ion among certain e%xpounders of lad
yanced" economic theory to assert that
protection has outlived whatsoever use
fulness 1t ever had in the matter of
developing n sustaining domestic in
dustries, and, in view of the new con-
ditions which have arisen, must HOW
be greatly modified, or, better still, al
together abandoned. Such is the pur-
port of an article in a recent number
Of the Forum. n to this proposition
Mr.. Dingley addresses himself with the
vigor and zeal born Of an intense con-
viction that the abandonment Of our
fixed national policy just at a time
when its successful operation has
wrought such splendid results would
be an act of madness.
1t was by establishing and maintain
ing a protective tariff, as Mr.. Dingley
points out, that the founders of our
republic. after having thrown of the
political yoke of England. tool steps
to throw off the commercial and indus
trial yoke which the mother coun-
try had so firmly fastened Upon the
necks OF the American people. How
successful was this determination and
what magnificent results have flowed
from the practical realization OF the
hopes OF the fathers OF the republic
are matters of history. Today the re-
public stands supreme among the ma
tons OF the earth-supreme, industrial
ly, commercially, and financially; the
home OF the prosperous and pow
'erful nation the world has ever known.
After the lapse of a century from the
passage by congress of the first tarirr
bill under the federal constitution,
framed by Madison and approved by
Washington-an act FOR the support
of the government, for the discharge
of debts of the United States, and for
the protection OF manufactures'-the
same fundamental principles remain
alive in the Dingley tariff law Of to-
day: the raising OF and the
encouragement OF domestic Industries.
The effective manner in which these
principles are carried out under the
existing tariff law. together with the
demonstrated fact that because Of the
increased employment and the in
creased purchasing power of the
people a protective tariff produces more
revenue than a free-trade tariff, are
matters which Mr.. Dingley's article
emphasizes most convincingly. SINH
larly cogent is his demonstration that
the home market can be preserved
only by maintaining to the highest pos
sible degree the purchasing and con-
Stunning power of our w people," his
is the pivotal point of the whole ques-
ton.
Turning to the question OF CONNER
cial supremacy, Mr.. Dingley urges that
"a nation must be industrially and
financially supreme before 1t can be
commercially supreme; 1t must be
strong at home before it can be strong
abroad" 1t is for the full develop
ment and maintenance OF this strength
at home hat the writer appeals-a
strength which has come by and
through protection. and which will re-
main with this nation as the result OF
steadfast persistence in the faith OF
the fathers who planned protection as
the surest. the only. way to secure for
their country absolute freedom, abso-
lutte independence. absolute prosperity.
If for no other reason than to serve
notice upon all whom It may concern
that protectionists see nothing in ex-
listing conditions which suggests the
wisdom OF abandoning the American
policy, but are, IN the contrary, tirmer
han ever in their adherence to that
policy, Mr.. Dingley has done we'll to
make public his views in the article
in Gunton's from which we have quot
ed. Protectionists know where they
stand. and It is well that the lad
vanced" theory expounders should also
know.