The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-08-18
Another Letter from Judge
Dupre.

OPELoUsAs. La, Aug. 10. 1900.
l1r. HOMER Mo~Soss, LafayeIf<, La.
Dear Sir:-I have read and re-read your
comments on my letter of the 9th INST,
giving you some of the reasons why l be-
came Republican. had taken the precau-
ton to send you my letter of July Unpublished
in the Item on the I4th of that month, feeling
assured you would put them both before your
hearts content. You did not publish this
letter just referred to, and yet you criticise
It. Why not have published it and afforded
your readers an opportunity to decide
timed and appropriated Please publish it.
l am willing to stand by its every utterance.
Many ''stay in the party Democrats will
agree with me in the condemnatory language
State. After you will have done this, if you
will come out in the open and sustain the
faith that is within you, upon the economic
issues which govern me. I'll fight it out on
| that line if it takes all the summer. But 1
do not desire the issue be logged over
clouded with the negro spook. Can't you
dismiss him from your mind and argue free
trade versus protection, is that he is
your only stock in trade?
You know full well that the negro in this
State is out of politics. He is dead
pickeled herring. No one regrets his pass
ing away. Most of the men in the Lily
White organization gave the best years Of
| their early manhood towards stamping him
| ont of existence. If you are not aware of
| this fact, the older people in your parish can
fully inform you Ut its existence. repeat
| what said last week. Protection to our in
| dustries is essential to their we'll being.
| You say that protection leaves a tribute upon
| the masses IN favor of the classes. 1 assert
| that it benefits both. Like the dew from
! heaven 1t falls upon all alike. Let me illus
trate: In your neighboring parish of Acadia
the people are almost wholly engaged in the
cultivation Ut rice. With commendable
foresight they raise the raw material and pre-
pare it for market where grown. In this
| way the same persons or many of them, can
be given employment from the time the seed
The labor employed in making the crop,
| IN harvesting same and in milling it, is all
performed by the masses. When this has
| been accomplished. the owner ships his crop
| to some foreign point. where it is sold and
| the money returned to the pockets of the
producer
Emboldened by his success he enlarges
his acreage, or takes stock in some canal
| all points, are the harbngers of the untold
| wealth as yet undeveloped, and in this way
ne puts into circulation the surplus money
which protective tariff has permitted him
| to make, and the bene6ciaries of his bounty
IS that vast army of employees whom he
| could not otherwise employ but for the pro-
| lection afforded him against the importation
| of rice from Japan free from duty.
This money circulates through these va
| rious channels. 1t builds up waste places
and while their less fortunate neehbors in
St. Landry and Lafayette who are raising
| cotton have to send it to England or to
some of the States in the far East for man
| ufacture, are gloomy and Respondent (when
| low prices prevaiD he smiles with opulence
| and Plenty-for the reason he has grown
| the raw material because protected by our
| tariff laws) has manufactured at home
| thereby saving costs of transportation to and
| frons the manufacturer, costs of its manufac-
ture-all of which has to be borne Ivy the
purchaser, without sharing in any OF the
profits derived from its preparation TOR
| market when manufactured elsewhere than
| where grown.
The intelligent cotton grower in St. Lam
! dry IS not helped by the tariff because pri-
| marily he must of necessity export a great
| portion of his crop. If, however, me stood
| by a protective tariff law, he would invite
capitalists to come South and manufacture
| at his elbows the raw material he produces.
| II is automatic that the people who raise raw
| material and sell it as such will always re-
| main Door. Why? Because the costs of
| ufacture for market, and its return to the
producer have all to be added to the oriei-
nal costs of production the producer can
Partake of it in its finished state. If on the
| community and prepare it for market in
| the same place. you save in this way the
costs OF transportation both ways, and you
| likewise share in the profits of the manufac-
turer. Even the profits realized from its
sale returns to the pocket Of the producer
and manufacturer, and is again by them put
in circulation in your midst
1 anticipate your reply. You will say
that this is the effect of manufacturing our
raw material at home, and is not dependent
upon tariff regulation. beg to differ with
you. Our protective system has built up
every manufacturing plant in these United
States. You cannot establish one without
capital, and no capitalist is going to invest
his money in any venture that is going to
prove disastrous. Convince the rice growers
and mill owners of Southwest Louisiana that
a rice trade measure was going to be enacted
permitting the importation of foreign rice
free from duty, and not another canal would
be built, nor another mill erected throughout
that entire section. Assure them to the con-
trary, and additional canals will be built
covering every available acre of land adopted
to the cultivation of the plant, and rice mills
will spring up here, there and everywhere to
meet the demands of the producer. Manu-
featuring plants are the hand maids of agrl-
culture. Our Yankee cousins learned this
years ago. We have been, and some of us
them, and in consequence have, while rails
ing the raw material for them to fashion into
fabrics. grown poorer, whilst they have con-
tinued to enrich themselves at our expense.
No. Mr.. Editor. let the negro alone. He
is stumbling alone quietly and is not going
to dstutb our politics for years to come.
He is dead limb on the National tree. In
stead of preaching white supremacy IA dead
issue) stand by the industries of your State.
Advocate the maintenance of protective
tariff upon our sugar, our rice, lumber,
and every other product grown upon Ameri