The Hattiesburg news., 1909-02-20
> IN THE OPEN COURT. :
That Tariff Question.

breaking In upon the business men
and manufacturers of the industrial
| South. And again you will allow me,
am quite sure, to extend my felici-
tations to a constituency that will sup
port a newspaper that has the back
bone to assault Tradition and assail
1t with q sledge hammer of facts. The
great difficulty in the way Of our in
dustrial progress south is our incon-
sistency; our contrariness political
political and pure stubborness in the
admission of economic truths. II we
could get 1t through our minds that
the time has come for reversal OF our
old ideas, If we could Danish sentiment
long enough to appreciate that 1t is
the South that should be heard crying
for a protective tariff and that In this
federal intervention against free en-
tries lies the solution of our industrial
problems, there would be pronounc-
ed change in the political complexion
of the South just as there would i'm
mediately respond greater develop
ment in all lines of industry. Forty,
even thirty years ago, your section OF
the state was the waste place of earth
Your magnificent pine was worth on a
stimulated market perhaps twenty-five
| Thu irnn
beds of Alabama were lying hidden
as they had been for thousands Of
years. The fisheries of our southern
waters were lecal In their influence.
Our coal. the little that was used,
was shipped down the Mississippi riv-
er and placed at tremendous freight
cost at the doors of interior towns.
Our railroads were burning wood in
their locomotives and our manufac-
tories-the few that we could claim
found the fuel cost greater problem
than the labor item. And slow as we
are to admit the truth, as grudgingly
as we deny the rightfulness Of the
claim of the protectionists north, the
fact is that we are today obligated to
more virile north for the manufact-
uring prosperity we enjoy. For half
a century we have clung to the idea of
the old south that tariff tax is rob-
ber tax. Half century ago it was not
realized that the south was so re-
} sourceful in mineral and timber
wealth. We dreamed only of fields
of cotton and we built our castles of
wealth from visions of niger and a
bale of the great southern staple. And
we have been taking the same old
prescription ever since; we have ad-
mitted the developments in every
other science except the science Of
government; that there has been any
change and that we should accept
any other standard than that of fifty
years ago we deny.
, l hope to see the day when the bus
mess men and manufacturers of the
South will smash the old regime. And
, l expect to see time when the South
will be the strongest advocate of a
tariff that will be as high as a Chinese
wall if necessary to protectour indus.
tries and develop our commerce as il
has already developed the industrial
life of the northern and eastern
states. This lead will be taken by
the influential men in every Southern
city and town, and it will spread to the
farmers the moment British India ant
Africa develop the cotton lands in those
dependencies. Cotton is going to bt
grown within a quarter of a century
by collie and African labor at a cos
to crowd our staple out of the sEnglisl
markets, and without tariff will floot
/ our eastern milling centers at the ex
| pense of our southern crop. Low
Y grade cloths will be made from this i'm
E ported product and the cotton grower!
! of the South will find his chosen oc
J.. cupation gone. A long, piteous CRY
will go up for federal law protecting
: our chief crop, and will the north, il
7 view of our attitude since the war an(
before, give us its aid? Does the
r north grow cotton? We asked a few
ears ago why a protective tariff inter
ested us; will it not be natural for
north twenty years from today to asl
in what way does protection on cottor
interest it?
I heard in my ramblings one tim,
that it is the hit dog that howls. Tht
South seems to have been throwing
stones for sometime, but it is Just nov
: learning that the missiles have circlet
the political atmosphere to return ant
land center upon itself.