Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1904-07-03
PROTECTION RIDICULED
Leader Williams Tells What II
Is and How 1t Works.
THE GREAT BANANA INDUSTRY

The Hon. John Sharp Williams, the
new minority leader in congress, is
making his Republican opponents I'M
comforta bic whenever he rises to speak,
| which is quite often In his rafting
&, speech OH Cuban reciprocity he said IN
| part.
"protcction is a system Of taxation
whereby many are robbed il order that
few men may be hothouscd by leGis-
| iation into artificial prosperity. As a
supplementary definition protection is Il
system of taxation whereby capital and
I labor are DETECTED from naturally prof
tia bic pursuits and enterprises into the
cha nnels of naturally Improbable pur-
suits aud enterprises. And as corol-
| larry the method whereby they arc dc
fiected is by the enactment of laws
/ forcing the consumer to pay TO the arti
| fetal hothoused enterprises Il higher
price than with II free commerce the
consumer would have to pay.
THAT brings me, Mr. Chairman. to
my favorite banana theory. There IL
not in the United States, suppose. 4
! hundred acres of land where bananas
can be grown III the open air and yet
could were the legisiating body of this
! country or were ! the car, with abso-
tate power and disposed to make people
| pay the price for it. create Il great
J American banana industry ! could
! put tax of dollar apiece on bananas
| which are now selling at three for Il
nickel. aud inside of five years could
| with a good custom house service have
created and exploited vast banana
Industry. 1t is true that Il great many
people who formerly ate bananas could
not buy any bananas at ali. but it is
q lso true that Il great many people who
| ar" plu'o.rats and aristocrats would
! eat them because the common people
dasoeS, .lerSrymen and MissisSippians-
could not
| IF | continued that system Of taxa
ton in existence for twenty years at
the end of that time there. would have
| come 10 the front q new generation
that knew not Joseph nor cheap hH-
nanas and the moment sensible PEG.
pie c:i,ie into power with lie, idea Of
reviSin. tie banana schedule These .cl,
fj"ilscu who know not Joseph and l!a.i
c"il" into the American banana bust
| ness aud perhaps formed 81 banana
trust would come to the committee
room OF the national legislature knock,
ill- upon tEr doors all the time and
giving utt"rlncc to crsts of unut1oraalc
Woe: Are you .oin. to strike down the
great American banana industry? Are
you going to reduce the duty from !.
dollar apiece on bananas to so cents:
| We can't stand it. 1t will ruin MS
| Are YOU going to make the people en-
| gagged in banana raising go to the soup
houses? Are YOU going to discriminate
| in favor Of panpcr tropical sunshine
against self respecting American hot.
| house IaborerS'
Lrt lis stop a moment and follow
| the banana theory a little further be-
| cause | am fond Of bananas What
would have been the result Of es!ab-
fishing that industry? Merely this.
that YOU would have DETECTED a GER
tain amount of American labor and
capital engaged in the general hot
house industry into different chan
| ueI Of dollhouse proceedings, and in
stead of having their hOthouSes for the
purpose they have them now they
would have converted them into In
| mana nurseries. and the consumers
would be paying COLLAR apiece or per
haps 80 cents apiece for bananas h.
cause the protected interest would have
to undcrscll somewhat the foreign mar
kets.
After fifteen or twenty years home
competition would have reduced the
| price Of bananas in the American mar
kct to, let us say, 40 cents apiece. and
then Republican orators and politicians
would say privately, in newspapers and
on the stump and within these walls
with due solemnty and without lnu-
tual smile: 10 and behold: See how
protective tariff has reduced the
price of bananas from 90 cents apiece
in 1850 to 40 cents apiece in 1865, near
" so per cent decrease in price to the
consumer. Protection did it.
eyes; reduction from superlative cx
tortion to comparative eytortion.
But in all this picture keep in mind
one thing-while protection lasted ba
nanas would never reach three for a
nickel. because if they did that public
enemy tropical sunshine, would be
master.
what would you have accomplished;
Would you have increased the wages OF
labor? Not particle. You would mere
~ have DETECTED capital from one chan
mel to another, from one sort of hot |
house production to another or from
one production which was not hot
housed a all to a dollhouse production"
All Is Lovely.
Our secretary of the treasury, Shaw
went over to Wall street the other day |
he goes there frOOrpntlV-tO ret hi.