Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1905-05-31
Protection and High Protection.

The issue raised by the Panama ca
nal commission when it decided that
ships and supplies needed in the con-
struction of the canal should, In alb
sence of any decision of congress to the
contrary, be purchased where they are
to be had cheapest, was, without any
question, the hardest blow to the pol
lev of protection to American capital
that it has ever had.
The statement made on unquestioned
authority, that steel rails manufac-
tured in the United States can be
bought for 500 a ton in England.
while the same quality of rails manu-
featured by the same American cor
poration will cost from $2S TO $33 per
ton on this side Of the water, is certain
to make an impression upon the public
mind. 1t is not for moment to be
believed that the steel trust is eager
for foreign business that it has to do at
loss The trust is able to pay Amer
lean wages and still sell its product in
England for 500 per ton, while, be-
cause of the Dingley '.infant industry"
schedule, which bars competition and
is therefore prohlbitory, American
purchasers of the same product are
compelled to pay the higher price.
So far as the steel industry is con-
cerned, it does not need any protec-
ton. It has long since passed the in
FAINT stage and is able to get into mar
kets of the world and successfully
complete for business. The steel
tariff, therefore, every cent of it, is
protection, not to American labor, but
tribute exacted by American capital.
1t is the practical application of the
theory of protection to the American
dollar, saving it, SO far as the home
market is concerned, from ''ruinous
competition with the pauper dollars
of foreign countries. This particular
kind of protection is what may be de-
signated as ''high' protection, distin-
gushing it from the protection neces-
sary to some American manufacturers
to enable them to successfully meet
the difference in cost Of production
here and in foreign countries.
High" protection of steel is no pro
lection, but burden. to every Ameri-
can manufacturer who uses steel.
Manufacturers ftools and manufac-
turers of farm implements and manu-
facturers of vehicles of every kind, all
employers of American labor, and all
finding it quite as necessary to pay
American wages as it is for the steel
trust to pay them, are burdened with
this excessive charge upon their bust
ness, rot to enable the steel trust to
pay American wages, but to enable it
to pay dividends on one and a quarter
billion dollars capitalization of bust
ness that cost it but about four hundred
million to purchase. They are so bur-
dened in order that the trust may earn
three and half times the profit it is
fairly entitled to earn. Is this our
boosted protection to American Indus
tries? It cuts the throat of every
other industry to fatten the purse of
one industry.
Congress will doubtless take early
action in regard to the purchase of
canal supplies. 1t ought to have taken
the action last winter when Secretary
Taft said in his report to the president
that if the canal commission was not
bound by any restriction Of congress it
would seem to be their duty to con-
struct the canal as cheaply as possible,
and so to buy what they need where
they can buy it the cheapest.-Milwau-
kee Free Press.