The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-07-23
.SOUTH'S PROTEST ON
FREE ORE AND COAL
Prosperity Is Threatened BY
Tariff Legislation
LOCAL MEN GROW ACTIVE
Telegram Signed by Representative
Men VIII Be Sent To President
Taft Today Volcing the
Districts Protest.

Baltimore, July ESPECIALLY 1.-THE
editor of Manufacturers Record sent to
President Taft late this afternoon the
following telegram;
If 1t be true, as claimed by many
papers. that you are seeking to In
fuence tariff Legislation in favor of
free iron ore, coal, lumber etc. 1 beg
to suggest the following for your con-
sideration;
The south, so long handicapped by
the financial difficulties following the
war and by adverse legislation, has in
recent years, under the existing tariff
policy, been making great Industrial
progress. Its prosperity is now seri-
ously threatened by tariff legislation.
1t asks for no favors not granted to
other sections, but it earnestly pro-
tests at being sacrificed for the benefit
of special interests in other sections. 1t
is producer of things enormously
called raw materials, such as iron ore,
coal and lumber.
To the miners of ore and coal and
the timber men their output is rs much
the product of labor as is the steel
rail or the watch spring. The south
has a right to ask that what 1t pro-
duces sh ould receive the same measure
of protection as given to the products
of other sections. There is as much
reason for making free textile ma
chinery for the benefit of southern cot
ton mills and free steel rails for the
benefit of the railroads, as there is for
making free iron ore for the benefit of
the rail mills and the textile machinery
builders.
Does not fairness to all sections and
to all people of the United States de-
mand equality in protection, that one
section should not be sacrificed to en-
rich special interests in others. With
vast stores of ore reaching into bill
lions of tons awaiting utilization, with
three times as much coal as Great
Britain, Germany and France available
for development, with nearly one-half
of the standing timber in the United
States, the south has resources enough
for an industrial development greater
than that of the whole country today
to it's own enrichment and to the en-
richment of the entire land. But of
what avail are these treasures, of
what value to the south or to the
country at large IL unutilized, and IL
their further development is to be
halted by the free importation of such
materials mined or manufactured by
labor receiving only a pittance COM
pared with the wages paid in this
country? If the south is forced by ad-
verse tariff legislation to meet this
pauper labor of foreign competition 1t
can only do SO by forcing down the
prices of it's own labor to the almost
starvation wages of foreign ore and
coal miners.
Under the drawback provision of the
tariff such so-called raw materials as
enter into the manufacture of goods ex-
ported have been admitted virtually
free of duty That drawback has been
an Injustice to producers of such ma
terial in this country, but that in
Justice is nothing compared with the
Injustice of admitting free of duty
these so-called raw materials while
maintaining duties upon the products
In the manufacture of which they are
used. Justice demands that either a
protective tariff should protect all or
else that there sh ould be no protective
tariff. RICHARD H. EDMONDS,
Editor Manufacturers Record.