The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-08-10
PROTECTION.


from the lowest to the highest and
most perfect. 1t forms the basis
of every human action. 1t is not
only the right but it is the duty Of
every individual to protect himself
and those dependent upon him and
if he does not devote his best
thought and best action to &C
complish this object he is unworthy
to take his place among men and he
is detriment to any community OF
to any nation, yet man who would
or who does sacrifice the interests
of every other member of his
family in order that a favorite
member may receive all the protec-
ton at the expense of the others,
loses the function of protector and
becomes an oppressor and if he
picks out the strongest and most
favored member and builds him up
at the expense of the weaker and
less favored his action instead of
being commendable becomes crimi-
nal.
Protection is the basis of all
beneficial legislation. Laws
enacted for any other purpose than
to protect the people are the result
of corruption and the instruments
of graft. 1t is as much the duty
of nation to protect its citizens
as it is for an individual to protect
his household. eve are all
children of the King" or to Ameri-
canize it owe are all sons and
daughters of the republic" and if
the government picks out limited
number of the strongest and most
favored and furnishes them protec-
ton at the expense of the great
majority of weaker and less
fortunate, such action ceases to be
protection and becomes oppression.
By no legerdemain of legislation
can plumber be transformed into
protection. 1t is impossible to
think of protection without as
sociating it with its antithesis weak
ness. 1t is an absurdity to talk of
protecting the strong from the
weak, or the powerful from the
insignificant. A proposition to
protect wolves from the sheep-fold
or eagles from turtle doves would
be a ridiculous mockery of the
term.
These principles of protection
and all of them formed the founda-
ton of the protective tariff and a
protective tariff must contain all
these elements of protection or it
ceases to be a protective tariff and
becomes an oppressive one, it ceases
to be Legislative benefaction and
becomes an instrument of legisla-
tive plumber.
The idea of protective tariff is
to benefit an industry and not the
owner OF the industry. For
instance the present tariff on the
products of the steel trust does not
benefit the steel industry but
cripples it and enables the owners
of the trust to amass fabulous
fortunes. 1t does not make it
easier for any American citizen to
engage in the manufacture of steel
but aids in making it impossible
for any person outside the trust to
engage in it. 1t doesn't bring in
any revenue to the government for
there is none to speak of imported.
In order to get revenue from a
tariff on imports you must have
imports to levy tariff on. There
isn't man of any political intelli
gence in the United States but
knows that the only function now
performed by protective tariff on
the steel trust products is to enable
the steel trust magnates to practice
extortion on the American people
This is equally true of the tariff
on lumber. 1t brings in no revenue
but 1t enables the lumber barons to
raise the price of lumber every time
the waters in the rivers rise or fall,