Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-19

by the protectionists. They nave gone
so far as to draw a chart snowinS
the coincidence of free trade ana naru
times from the beginning of the gov
ernment down to the present. 1t looks
like a series of stairsteps showing the
ups and downs of the times. IL is a
remarkable chart and to the casual
observer a remarkable showing: ~
Is true that 1t attributes to the tarlil
many seasons of hard times tnat are
attributed by the historians 10 otner
causes. If is also true that IL deslg
nafes some of the historic tariffs as
free trade tariffs, when by its own
showing they were higher than otners
which are designated as protectlon tar
lns but In spite of all this 1t is sun
a chart calculated to impress the man
who reads as he runs.
George Washington gave protection
90 FIRST great sendoff in his message
40 CONGRESS wherein he advised that
the tariff be used to encourage the
manufacture of those things essentlal
10 the conduct of war. The majority
~ Inc people of all the states readily
acqulesced In this policy though most
Of those who did not were merlpers
OF the Anti Federalist party. In tne the
wears that were to come this was an
10 change Gradually the Anti-Feder-
alists became the party of protection
and the Federalists the party OF free
trade. until in 1916 each party found
itself In the others camp. beueral-
istic Massachusetts, was now very
hotbed of free trade, and under sucn
environment Daniel Webster became
n most ardent free trader. In later
wears the south was to become the
stronghold of free trade and the north
the fort of protection. :,
In the campaign of 1924 all the presi-
Dental candidates were, or at ieast
were represented as being, champions
of protection. Henry Clay had always
been its conscientious advocate, CEN
eral jackson had saved the tarin Dill
of that wear from defeat on its third
reading in the senate. John Quincy
Adams was in favor of it. During the
next four years there was much Ell
fort to make political capital out or
the tariff James Buchanan ana
group of others sought to turn the nght
over the tariff of denominations TO the
political advantage of Andrew jack
son and they were successful. A gem
Grafton after that some one said tnat
there was vet another president in the
bloody shirt, and he might nave Dor
rowed the idea from the other man
who said that they were trying 70
make a president out of the tariff
of denominations.
In the election of 1910 the wings
decided that 1t would be best not to
play too much on the protection horn.
They had lost out on that music be-
fore, and sought to avoid the replti-
ton of their i'll fortune. So they side
tracked Henry Clay, out and out pro-
tectionist, and resorted to that expe-
dent which often has been turned 10
good adVantage-nominatin war
hero. Old '"Tippecanoe" Harrison jus
tilted their hopes, and through the sub
ordination of the tariff as an issue
in the campaign they were able 10 get
a majority in congress which resulted
in the passage of the highest tarin
the country had ever known.
Four years later--to borrow an ex-
nression immortalized two-thirds of a
century afterward-the Wings decided
to ''stand pat" on the tariff OF 1912 and
nominated protectors greatest living
exponent Henry Clay. The Democrats
nominated James K. Polk, and the
campaign that followed was full or
wonders. In the south Polk was re-
garded as advocate of low tarin, but
in the protection centers of the north
he was held up as better protection
ist than Clay, and the Wings were
dared to touch the tariff of 1912. Polk
was elected, and the protectionists who
had voted for him were Mortified when
he appointed as his secretary of the
treasury Robert j. Walker, a Penn
sylvanian who had become south
erner and an out-and-out free trader.
The result was the Walker tariff of
1916, a bill not at all satisfactory to
most protectionists. But good times
accompanied it's operations and the
masses cared little for high or low
tariff so long as there was prosperity.
In the following presidential year
the Wings concluded to try the game
that had worked so we'll in 1910 when
they had nominated a hero and won