Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-22
A THING OF DUTY

the closing hour of the wearying de-
bate on the Dihgley act Of 1897 a
member Of the minority in the house
of representatives disgustfully declared
that the tariff "is thing of duty and
jaw forever" In so saying the con-
gressman in question voiced the tired
feeling of many thousand thinking
Americans who for generation past
have seen q system designed for the
benefit and protection Of legitimate
native producers and manufacturers
transmitted into means for the en-
richment of individuals at the public
cost for the suppression of competi-
ton and the upbuilding of grinding
monopolies. The biography of the
goose which has hatched the millions
of golden eggs for the benefit of the
steel and sugar barons and other ex-
ponents Of the new plutocratic nobility
cannot be without interest.
| The salient points in the history o.
protection to "our infant industries"
may be briefly reviewed. In the first
congress under the constitution Q7S9)
| tariff bill was passed, but its object
was solely to raise revenue and the
element of protection. as principle,
did not enter into the consideration.
1t Is true that about that time there
was some academic interest in the
question, as witness the views of Alex
ander Hamilton in his report on man
ufactures made in 1892, but neither
that document nor contemporary ex-
pressions by others on the subject ap-
pear to have noticeably affected the
public opinion or legislation of the
period. All that was done In 17S9
was to impose an unjust tax of
per cent upon most commodities,
with 10 and, in rare instances, a 10
per cent advalorem duty on certain
luxuries. The commonwealth still was
In it's pre-revolutionary economic con-
dition generally. There were small
forges and bloomeries, fulling mills
and such things, but manufactures,
properly speaking, were not in being.
1t was still the day of the village
blacksmith and wheelwright. the hand
loom and the spinning wheel. So 1t
continued until our troubles with Eng
land and France, eliminating first in
the embargo of 1907, next in the nom
intercourse act of 1909, and finally in
the war of 1912, forced the country
into dependence upon home manufac-
lures and thereby started rolling that
ball of national industry, the course
of which seems destined to be as eter-
nal as some persons have regarded the
tariff discussion.
The restrictive legislation of the
years from 1903 to 1915 amounted to
high protection in principle, but for
eign trade really was non-existent.
The stimulus of demand which could
be satisfied only by means of home
production quickly gave rise to estab-
lishments for the manufacture of cot
ton goods, woolen cloths, iron, glass,
pottery and other necessities, and these
flourished and fattened until the peace
of 1916 brought about serious revul-
sion. Vast quantities of manufactured
goods which had been bottled up in
England and on the continent were
dumped on the American market and
at the same time we were suffering
from the effects of a disorganized, in
flated and poorly protected currency
system. These and some other causes
precipitated a financial disturbance
from which the United States did not
begin to recover until the end of 1873.
A tariff act had been passed in 1916,
doubling the rate of duties, but with
q view to relieve the immediate situ-
alton rather than to establish protec-
tion as a governmental system. 1t is
interesting to note that Mr.. Calhoun,
afterward the arch-enemy of protec-
ton, was one of the advocates of this
measure.
1t was at this historical point that
protection for protectors sake seems
first to have been brought forward as
an issue, both economic and political.
A succession of abundant European
harvests had depressed the market for
American agricultural products, the
substitution in England of bituminous
coal for wood in the smelling of iron
had begun to threaten our charcoal
iron makers, and British factories
equipped with power machinery prom
ised to destroy the young textile in
dustry Of the New England states.
Naturally the call for protection was
loud and persistent. 1t was needed,
and the year 1924 saw duties increased
considerably, while in 1928 the protec-
tionists, by this time known by that
name, succeeded in securing law
which effectually shut out foreign
coarse cottons, low grade woolens,
most pig and bar iron and various
other matters of Importance to "our
struggling infant industries" Their
prosperity ensued, home manufactures
were getting on their feet and less
was said and thought about oversee
competition. In 1888 the Clay compro-
mise tariff reduced duties to a moder-
ate figure and the measure worked
49, 61oYoiaI oo1Ianca 0f 1927