Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-05-15
Protection VS.. Favor1tism.

The word protection has been, and
is yet, a much misused word in political
discussions in this country The word
may have meant what it was first used
to represent, but it never meant, and
can not mean what it is now used for,
nor what it has been used for at any
time during the last twenty years.
With protection, pure and simple, we
would not have had political issue
between the parties. Democrats made
mistake in accepting the term en-
ployed by republicans as name for
what has really been favoritism, and
not at all protection.
If American products and manufac-
turers are given an equal opportunity
with imported goods that is protection,
if they are given greater opportunity,
that is favoritism 1t is very easy and
simple thing to prove this. Suppose
that a yard of a certain quality of
wooden cloth can be produced in the
United States for dollar, nd that the
manufacturer can make fair profit by
selling it for dollar ten, Suppose the
same yard of cloth can be produced in
England, and shipped to this country at
total expense OF ninety cents, it can
be sold here for dollar, and the profit
OF the English manufacturers selling it
at that price here will be as great as
the profit of the American manufac-
turer selling it at dollar ten cents.
Without tariff the Englishman would
run the Yankee out of the market be-
cause he could undersell him. In that
case how much tariff will protect the
Yankee Is it not clear that ten cents
per yard will put both upon an equal
footing, give neither an advantage
over the other That is protection, the
Englishman is not prohibited or pre-
vented from selling his cloth here, but
tn, Yankee is protected against him.
But suppose the tariff is made twenty
cents yard instead of ten cents, in
that case the Englishman's yard of
cloth costs him 81 10 before he can offer
it for sale here, and as the Yankees
yard of cloth has cost him only dollar
he can sell at 10 and make ten cents
profit, while if the Englishman sells at
that price he makes nothing, and if he
tries to sell higher he will find no
buyers. The Yankee manufacturer is
thus not merely protected, but favored, -
given an advantage over the English
man, which excludes the latter from
our markets OF course the problem
presented to the congressional commit
tee which frames revenue bill is not
in its details as simple as this, for there
will be factors in the given case that
are not always ascertainable,-ch changes
in prices of labor and raw material, so
that tariff bill, like all other merely
human things, will necessarily be inn
perfect in some of its provisions. But
our illustration points out what should
be the purpose of such measure, and
the criterion by which the measure
should be judged for its fealty to that
purpose. The purpose should be pro-
lection, and to SO frame the bill as to
prevent favoritism. Such has not been
the purpose of this class of legislation,
so far as republicans have enacted it.
Hobbies have thronged the Capitol, and
the capital not to obtain mere protec-
ton, but to obtain favors and undue
advantage which should enable them
to force American consumers to buy
their products at exhorbitant prices
And they have been so successful that
in several branches of manufacture,
notably in manufacture of farm ma
chinery, our manufacturers have sold
their wares in foreign countries at
lower prices than they have charged
our own citizens for the same articles.