Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-02-08


in southern cities are engaged in a dis
cussion which is certain to be product
i've of good results. 1t is a healthful
sign when Democratic newspapers in
that part Of the country fall to discuss
Ing tariff matters as related to the in
terests and welfare of their own peo-
pie That is what is now going on. 1t
should be kept up. Southern people
are. as rule. averse to taking their
political cues from Republican newspa-
pers, but they are willing to receive
argument when advanced by journals
of their own political faith. In this
way they are ready to absorb some
new ideas on the tariff question-ideas
new to them, but very old and very
strongly in favor in other parts of the
ountry.
considerable portion of the Demo-
cratic press of the South seems to have
| awakened to the fact that the Repub-
lican doctrine of protection to domes-
tic labor and industry is worth while
considering, in spite of the fact that it
is Republican doctrine. These newspa-
pers have begun to suspect that the
protective tariff is not sectional affair
not, as Calhoun used to preach, after
he turned free trader. a device for the
enrichment Of the North at the expense
of the south, but policy which builds
up and benefits all parts of the coun-
| try. We find evidences of this crafty
| ing discovery in a recent issue of the
Charleston News and Courier, rock
| -ibbed Democratic paper, as follows:
The Louisiana delegation, it need
| lot be said, is wholly consistent with
| itself in supporting the application of
the Dingley tariff to the products of
| the foreign Philippines, and it is right
besides. There is no justice in the ag-
| ricultura1 sugar interests of the South
and West being butchered to make a
reciprocity holiday for the manufacture
| ing interests of the East. And the del
.gations from Western beet states will
doubtless be forced to be of the same
mind. Let well enough alone; or, if
| the holy tariff must be scaled, let it be
scaled even"
| Commenting on this expression the
New Orleans Item says:
This is in line with Senator McLau-
in's views and indicates that since
South Carolina has become the fore
most cotton manufacturing state of the
South, her views are getting back to
4 those entertained by John G. Calhoun
before the days of slavery agitation.
And yet, Notwithstanding the necessity
for a protective duty to defend and
build up our cotton mills, we find ev-
cry Democrat in the house except three
| Louisianians voting to break down the
tariff wall and let the products of a
hundred fertile islands and ten mil
lions of cheap laborers into the United
| States in competition with our sugar
and cotton
The Item then proceeds to remind
| the Democrats of the Southern states
that they are badly and wrongly repre-
| scented on the tariff question in con-
gress. 1t points out that the cotton
grower is as much interested in a pro-
| tective tariff as the sugar grower.
Even with the present 40 per cent duty
on cotton goods there is an import
from foreign mills of fifty million dol
lars worth of cotton goods annually.
If this tariff were removed every cot
ton mill of the South would go to ruin
and the labor which has been collected
by them in comfortable and prosperous
villages would be scattered to the
wind. AS soon as our market is left
open to the free competition of Great
Britain and Germany the mills of Eu-
rope WOulQ LA tlC " iSO VI SOteoAA, anu
our friends would then see the cotton
planter not nearly, but entirely, in the
hands of the sheriff. How much cotton
the Philippines can grow is not yet
known, but it is certain that il can be
grown in those islands with native and
Chinese labor, as easily as 1t is now
grown in China. In the olden days we
used Nankin, or nankeen as it was
called, in this country, for clothing
and with the tariff wall removed we
may again find it cheaper to get cot
ton goods from Nankin and Manila.
The New Zealander. casting his nets
from the ruins of London bridge, was
looked upon as an amusing absurdity
of Macauley's, but it is not beyond the
bounds of credulity to imagine the
slant-eyed Manilans selling sugar and
cotton.
Quite in the same vein the New Or
leans "Picayune,' a stanch Demo
cratic newspaper, resents the action OF
Southern Democrats in Congress in re-
fusing to act with Louisiana's repre-
sentatives in defending Southern agri-
cultural and industrial interests against
the unfair competition of cheaper labor
in the Philippines. in Cuba, or any
, where else. Says the "Picayune":
eff raw sugar were allowed to come
in from abroad free of duty, the sugar
of ToniSiona and tho West