The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-06-03
PROTECTION.

adversary, who can by subtitle dis
Termination sustain a point to its log
lca end even when that conclusion
shapes our own argument contrary to
our wishes or design; but for the
contraversialist, who far the sake of
controversy, or to sustain a false pre-
mise. misquotes or puts a false con-
structiOn on a statement, or refuses
to discriminate, where an obvious
difference lies, We have the most pro-
found contempt. In a long article
about the tariff local contemporary
undertakes to say that protectionists
think high prices are desirable in
themselves, and concludes that there
fore to be a protectionist one must
think that scarcity is preferable to
plenty" because high prices and the
relation of supply to demand are in
lseparably connected.
Carried away by its own fancy our
contemporary conceives the following:
Therefore you reach the inevitible
conclusion that scarcity is preferable
to plenty You contend that famine
and its exorbitant exactions is a
blessing to the human race, and
plenty with its comparatively low
prices is a blighting curse"
Now. that isn't deduction, at all
1t is a connection.
The trouble with the Bryan school
of political economy, is that it tucks
one idea under its arm, and tries to
break through the line of opposing
conditions and circumstances like a
football player to make a touch down
He argues this way: The protective
tariff by shutting out foreign compe-
tition increases the price Therefore
the protectionist must favor high
prices. To make prices high the pro-
duction must be small, as compared
with consumption. If prices are so
high that no one can buy things, or
things are so scarce that the price is
prohibitive. then that is the ultimate
result Of any sort of a protective tar
if. On the other hand, the free
trader says, when things are cheap
can buy more. thereby creating a de-
mand, and as long as there is a de-
mand and | keep on selling, | shall
keep on making more money with
which to buy things that will stimu-
late production and give more people
work and at the same time make
things cheap by making them plenty,
etc. etc
Conceding that cheapncss and
plenty are concomitants; that when
overproduction takes place, produc-
ton will continue at the same rate
and everything will be given away
and house rent will be free. event
ually. We should vote unanimously
for free trade and the millennium. But
our experience of one administration
with the tariff removed, taught us
that when the tariff came off, pauper
made goods of Europe flooded the
country, American manufacturers
were forced TO reduce the price to
meet this foreign competition, and in
order to do it. they were compelled
20 lop off their heaviest expense
labor-and wages were reduced. The
reduction of wages reduced the buy
ing capacity of the country. and the
imports and home made goods com
bined to cause over-production.
Then what resulted? American
production stopped, as 1t always must
when the market Is overstocked, and
American laboring men were thrown
out of employment. that our con-
temporary might enjoy cheap times
and plenty.
The protective tariff, the right kind
of tariff, does not restrict production;
but It expands the demand for Ameri-
can made goods by prohibiting the
importation of the cheap stuff from
Europe. There are two things aimed
al in the protective tariff: the protec-
ton of American industries in new
lines, so as to stimulate both the man
ufacture of the finished product and
the cultivation, If may be, of the raw
material. The other is the fixing of
an exclusive market for American
made goods at price that will enable
the manufacturer to pay good wages.
Hasn't the theory made good?
We have just passed through a
financial panic, caused by our unfort-
innate financial system, and while lack
of means caused suspension of pro-
duction, there has been no material
reduction in wages for such as re-
manned employed. and as mills resume
the old wage scales go into effect.
The protectionist does not desire
thigh prices for their own sake. but he
does know that cheap times are hard
times. and that he wants prices
where good wages may be paid. Nor