Woodruff County news., 1901-04-04
PROTECTION AT FAULT.
Changing Commercial Conditions Bring About an Awkward Situ-
 atiOn for Tariftites.

Of protective tariff were to divide | into opposing camps. The infant | industries are now full grown, and | are disposed to deyour one another. They were happy family as long as there was enough of the "home mar ket" to go around, and they waXed i fat, if not cherubic, under the pam pering. The American people in dorsed the brand of food and it's wholesale administration, although certain unpatriotic, impracticable and objectionable people called atten- ton to the dangers of letting infants have their own way. In obedience to the warning, the brand of food was changed a time or two, but the petted darlings raised such an outcry, that | they not only compelled the foster- parents to yield, but also to grant them an increase of diet to compen | sate for the temporary deprivation. | Is it not an ironical outcome that protections civil war should break out during the admins tration of a man who has been looked upon as it's high priest? It was really a great day for the benefciaries of protection when Mckinley stepped into power. His selection was taken as an indorse- ment of the protection principle and as final disposition of the contro- versy whether individual enterprises should have the support of the gov ernment. But if the advocates of pro- lection would learn nothing from maXims at home, they were com pelled to consult markets when they went abroad. Their first lesson came when they discovered that alien peo- pies would only trade on fair terms, and in no event would they yield all the profits. Our manufacturers then began to understand that it takes two to make a bargain, and, what was Il more singular, a trade could actually result with benefit to both sides!
 But in compliance with long
 formed habit, our tariff benefciaries were disposed to hold on to a good
 thing when they had it.. and they adopted another plan in lieu of deal
 ing wth nations on fair terms. They
 would use the tariffs protecting the
 home market as so much bounty. and. ; with the adlantage thns gained they l would undersell by a good figure. , their competitors abroad But this ., very result is defended by tariff ad- vocates, and is pointed to as vim dication of their policy! If the con sumer here. at the very doors of the
 factory, protests that he has to pay more for his goods than people across the sea for the same products after the cost of export has been added, he is pronounced unpatriotic and a hinderer of his country's great and beautiful expansion policy.
 Up to the war with Spain the pro
 lection advocates stood toge ther, but
 that conflict brought about a change in conditions. As it happened, the soils of our new possessions were especially aGapted to the raising of sugar cane and tobacco, two articles of production which promised to form two new industries here, to the qualification of the country and the "protection of American labor" The first shock to the protection theory was given by the Porto Bican tariff bill. The sugar trust, the sugar and tobacco growers, after a fierce con test. won their l>sint in the principle that the bill embodied. Certain "pro- tectionists," who voted against the proposition to levy tariffs on Porto Rican goods, reconciled their action with their old time principle by wei coming the suggestion that Porto Rico was not, after all, foreign ter ritory. Their consistency was there by preserved. But the colonies and Cuba may be expected to add further trouble to the protectiCnists when syudcates, attracted to them. shall want the United States for a market
 The recent cdict of Russia added another disturbing factor to he situ- ation. The managers of the steel and iron industries have not recov- cred from the blow yet, but they threaten, in their daze. 10 go back on the principle of. a lifetime. Shall this nation. they ask--note their unSelfish- ness alwaN the danger of dwaf- ing it's foreign trade just for he sake of benefitin@ a few tobacco and sugar growers and the sugar trust? The proposition is an outrage. Moreover Secretary Gage was not the man they took him for if he could not stretch the provisions Of the law for the gen eral good But unfortunately, to these objeetors are opposed, not the innocent and helpless consumer of the "home market" but a sugar and tobacco trust or two, which have also had the benefits of lcng experience in looking out for their own inter ests. Here at last, then, ensues an i instance in. which patriots and the flag are arrayed on both sides of the controversy. Will they fight it out? The consumer has no objections, Will they compromise on reduced tar ifs? Again the consumer will be benefited. Indianapols News Qnd). I Some republicans actually seem J 10 be afraid that theyarious schemes