Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1903-08-13
IT'S OLD TIME IDEAS
STRONG PROTECTION ARGUMENT OF
FORTY-EiGHT YEARS AGO.

FORTY-EiGHT YEARS AGO.
Free Trade Advocate of Today
Was In 1855 "a Strenuous Exponent
of the Policy of Legislating For
Americans and Not For Foreigners.
aEditorial in the Springfield Daily Repub-
lican of Jan. II, 1855
We have no faith that the efforts at
Washington to change the tariff VIII De
successful. They are not well ground
ed efforts. Principle does not animate
them. Only passing policy or per-
sonal purse gives them vitality. An In
fuential lobby may connect enough OF
these schemes Of policy and plunder to
aggregate force sufficient to beg or
buy through congress some changes In
the present law. But the probability
is stronger that the whole thing Will go
over to the next congress. There we
shall hope to see it met and treated In
a different spirit from that now animat-
ing the ruling powers at the capitol
The argument of the administration
and that only which has a general
force is that the present tariff produces
too much revenue; that it must be cut
down in order to keep the treasury
from overflowing, and that the govern
ment plan for accomplishing this Is
wise and proper, upon Its principle that
revenue is the only object Of tariff.
But the great reduction in the imports
of the country, consequent upon the re-
action of overimportations and the
general prostratton Of business Is rem
edyirig the evil of superf1uous revenue.
The customs receipts for December
alone were two millions less than those
of the same month year ago, and the
available surplus in the treasury Is be-
ing rapidly reduced by its necessary
payments and the redemption Of the
public debt. So long as many millions
of that debt remain, and especially
while the reduction in importations
bids fair to bring the revenue down to
healthy point, it will be neither use
full nor wise to further reduce the ex-
isting tariff rates.
The country is passing through a
change of opinion on the subject Of tar
ifs and the uses to which they should
be put. The emancipation of the popu-
lar mind from old and ironbound par
tisanship will, we have great hope,
produce benefcent results here as in
other respects. The Whig party, as the
champion Of the protective policy, was
a great obstacle to the success of that
policy. The two were identified, and
though the protective policy was poprl-
10 4 hn ~ Thn Iof
ter carried down the former. But now
times are changed. Protection to
American industry can now be favored
and secured without at the same time
giving aid and comfort to the Whig
party. The doctrines of the new Amer
lean party, which is swallowing up all
the old parties, lead directly to protec.
ton. Preference for American labor
for American goods, for American men
over the labor, the goods and the men
of other countries-this Is the whole
spirit Of the American party, and it is
equally the whole doctrine and princi
pie of protection. The two are toe
thoroughly identified to be separated
and if the American party Is to triumph
American policy must triumph with 1t
1t is this view of the inevitable results
of the new and grand political move
ment that more than any other, gives
us such hope in the future and enables
us to regard with a calm philosophy
the sometimes unjust, the often awk
ward steps by which the movement
goes forward.
Here springs up our deadened hope
of the return of the nation to the pol
icy and practice of protecting Ameri
can industry and developing Ameri
can resources through the operation OF
the tariff. We had well nigh given up
We were prepared to go the furthest
extreme of the free trader. And now
we say If we cannot have protective
tariff let us have none at all. Free
trade is correct in theory and correct
in practice II we are legislating for the
benefit of the whole world. But IL we
are to legislate for America let us legis
late for Americans by protecting theil
interests and their labor against the in
terests of the uneducated and impov
erished labor Of Europe.
Away with merely revenue tariffs
They are destroying American indie
pendence. They are transplanting oul
workshops to Europe. They are car
rying off our gold as fast as 1t can be
dug in California. They are obligine
us to wear German and French broad
cloths by forbidding the manufacture
of American. They are shutting ur
factories, reducing the rates of labor