The Forrest City times., 1900-02-16
TARIFF AND EXPANSION. rse Mckinley Policy of Protection Does Not DovetaiI with Ter
 ritorial Requirement..

It was inevitable that the Mckinley policy of expansion sooner or later would come into conflict with the Me Kinley policy of protection. The ideas underlying the two policies are antag- onistic to each other. It is not surpris- ing, therefore, that the protectionists In congress should offer successful re- sistance to the carrying out of the presidents plans of free trade between the United States and Porto Rico. Itis one of the anomalies of American po- litical 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 fer 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- iary to the main one, or perhaps it might be called another phase of the same idea, is that the highly paid Amer ican workmen must be protected from the competition of the underpaid labor Of other countries, especially Europe and the far east. This idea found it's boldest expression in the Mckinley law Of 1890 and again in the Dingley law enacted during the early days of the Mckinley administration, the rates of duty in which are so high as to be ab- solutely prohibitive 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 policy is defended chiefly on the ground 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 interiors 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 protest against any course of action that would permit the unrestricted inn portation from the West Indies or from the Philippines of cigars made by the low-grade workmen of those islands. It was the protected interests directly concerned that were instrumental in blocking the presidents recommenda- ton for complete free trade with Por- to Rico. Those same interests, un- 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 Qnd).