Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-05-10
TIE CORVALLIS GAZETTE.
FRIDAY, MAY IL, 1901.
PROTECTION NATIONAL.

issue. Before the civil war our
manufacturing interest were in
the New England and Middle
States. The South and West
were mainly devoted to agricul-
tire. The great staples of the
South were cotton and tobacco.
These were produced by slave
labor. Of skilled labor the
South had little or none because
she had no necessity for it and
afforded it no employment.
"Cotton is king" was her indus.
trial shibboleth, and she was con-
tent to look to the North and to
Europe for supplies of ,nanufac-
tured commodities. Her pro-
duct was in constant request for
export, and her efforts were put
forth to supply the demand.
Under these conditions she
naturally desired free trade.
In the South neither the demo.
cratic nor the old whigI party
favored protection. A tariff for
revenue only,-as nearly free
trade as possible,-was most ac-
ceptable to the South. Calhoun
carried South Carolina into acts
of notification because the federal
tariff was framed as a measure of
protection as we'll as for raising
revenue. Protection was vehe1n-
emily opposed by southern poll
ticians and statesmen, who de-
nounced it as sectional legisla-
tion," "class legislation and
"utterly unconstitutional" The
supreme court affirmed the con-
stitutionality of protection yet
the South continued to brand it
as ''class legislation.'
In the manufacturing North
the two great parties favored pro-
lection. Thus, Influenced by
considerations of seeming self.in-
terest, the two sections of the
country were at variance on a
great economic question. AS the
democratic party passed more
under the domination of the
South it gravitated toward free
trade until outside of Pennsyl-
vania it had but few earnest pro-
tectionists in its ranks.
Although the constitutional :
ity of protection had been
authoritatively affirmed and its
friends with intelligent and un.
firing devotion to the cause SET
forth the benefits which it would
bring to all sections of the coun.
try, mistaken self.interest and a
growing distrust of the North
kept the South in favor of free
trade, or at most of a tariff fol
revenue only. When the repub-
hcan party was formed among
its first utterances was that of de.
votion to protection. Through the
whole history of the party it has
ever championed that cause and
insistently taught that it is a
potent factor in our national pros.
perity. The party has endeavored
to lift protection out of the
domain of partisanship and place
it where it properly belongs with
those economic measures which,
because of their national impor-
tance, should not become in
volved in party rancor and strife.
This much has already been
accomplished; that is, the Ameri-
can system of protection has be-.
come national policy. Our
people hold it so, and other
nations recognize it SO. 1t meets
opposition, of course, as what
policy does not; but this is con-
fined to a few commercial traders
and impractical academicians.
The mass of our people, manu-
facturers, artisans and agricu1-
turists, favor protection. No
party pledged to destroy it could
possibly carry the country.
The free trade South no longer
exists, for the South is directly
interested in manufactures. 1t
will not be many years until
South Carolina will produce
greater amount of cotton fabrics
than Massachusetts,, and Ala
bama, Georgia and Tennessee
will press closely upon Pennsy1-
vania in products of iron and
steel. Her agriculturists will
find, as those of the North have
found, that the home market is,
from every consideration, the
most desirable. The remarka-
Bile industrial progress of the
Soath has carried the maxims of
protection along so that the sys-
+a,,, &c y1,a11 fortiHed there