Iron County register., 1900-02-08
EXPANSION AID TARIFF.
The Mckinley Policy of Protection
Does Not Dovetafl with Ter
xit0riaI Requirement.

It was inevitable that the Mckinley
policy of expansion sooner or later
would come into conflict with the Nc
Kinley policy of protection. The ideas
underlying the two policies are antag-
onistic to each other. 1t is not surpris-
ing, therefore, that the protectionists
ta congress should offer successful re-
x:stance to the carrying out of the
presidents plans of free trade between
the United States and Porto Rico. 1t is
one of the anomalies of American po-
iitical life that the man who has done
most to erect existing trade barriers
about the United States should be the
one to champion the policy that is an
Indirect means of breaking down those
same barriers.
The basic idea of the protectionist
school of American political econo-
mists, of whom William Mckinley is
the leader, is that the American mar
kets must be reserved for American
producers. Those markets, it is con-
tended, are the best in the world, and
their retention is of more Importance
than the extension of American trade
to other lands. Another idea, subsid-
fary to the main one, or perhaps it
might be called another phase of the
same idea, is that the highly paid Amer
lean workmen must be protected from
the competition of the underpaid labor
of other countries, especially Europe
and the far east. This idea found its
boldest expression in the Mckinley law
of 1890 and again in the gley law
enacted during the early days of the
Mckinley administration. the rates of
duty in which are so high as to be alb
solutely prohibitiye in many cases.
With the Dingley law still on the stat
ute books President Mckinley sudden
ly enters on a policy Of territorial ex-
pansion by acquiring possession of is
lands in distant parts of the earth. This
that it will benefit American COM
merce immensely. Trade" we are
told, follows the flag That asser-
ton can only have application, however,
where the flag also means free trade
with other portions of the country
whose authority is extended. But free
trade means that products will be i'm
ported as well as exported, and to the
extent that such importations come
. into competition with American prod
ucts they interfere with the home mar
kets for American producers and force
American workmen to compete on
terms of equality with outside labor.
The trade unions that profit from the
protective policy were quick to see this.
The Cigarmakers' union early entered
a protest against any course of action
that would permit the unrestricted i'm
portation from the West Indies or from
the Philippines of cigars made by the
Iow-grade workmen of those islands.
1t was the protected interests directly
concerned that were instrumental in
blocking the presidents recommends
ton for complete free trade with Por
to Rico. Those same interests, IN
less they are defeated by the courts,
are likely to prevent the establishment
of free trade relations between the
United States and our other newly ac-
quired possessions.
Yet without free trade with those
islands how is our commerce to bene
fit from their retention? Why should
we acquire territory for the sake of
the trade advantages it affords and
then proceed forthwith to erect bar
riers to trade with that same territory?
Chicago Record Ond).