The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-04

or any previous year shall be exposed
TO the dangers Of backsiiding. They
are being cultivated as assiduousiy as
the prospective voter. Literature Is
tremendous circulation Of boiler plate"
and patent outsides. Is being used to
the utmost advantage. In n recent
year In which there was no election the
League distributed twenty-five million
pieces of literature.
After this goes on for nearly two
years the political campaign opens up.
The party operators. party workers.
and party organs suddenly get busy
and continue so for few months.
Thsn comes the voting and the an
nouncement OF the result. Little won
der Is II that the party espousing
Protection is the winner. Men may
differ as to the questions involved In
the tarin; but those who know what
cribe much OF the credit OF victory to
the missionary work of the Protection
propagandists.
onEthe other hand. the low tariff adj
vocates are able to do but little mis-
sionary work between campaigns.
There are not those wealthy people
who have sufficient motive to put up
the money required for an out sea-
son campaign in behalf Of q low tariff.
It In always hard enough for the low
tariff people to get money sufficient
to carry them through a campaign,
much less to wage the war between
elections. Only few times in the
history Of the country has 1t been diff
ferent.
The constant fight In favor of Pro-
lection. before the people, was begun
about 1890. New York and Philadei-
phia had societies pledged to the sup
port OF home industries. and the test
which determined their attitude toward
politician was whether he would
wear American -made clothes. Similar
societies sprang up In other states, and
the politician who opposed them had
hard sailing afterward. Even presi-
dents Of the United States found 1t adj
visable. 81 not necessary, that they be-
come members. About this same time
the petition and memorial to Congress
was freely brought into requisition,
and that body might well have con-
Guided that the world was on fire for
humber Of long papers presented.
whose breath has long since been
squeezed out Of them by,their incorpor-
alton In the big volumes Of "The Amer
lean State Papers" At one point
Philadelphia high tariff society took a
Virginia low tariff association to task
tor advocating Free Trade and the ar
Then as now. the tariff was largely
local issue. and when the southerner
mad something to protect, he lapored
Tor Protection as assiduousiy as any
other man. The propagandists knew
this full we'll, and always sought to
take advantage Of the situation. This
sort OF crusade did not suit the Free
Trade advocates of that day, and many
or them took the propagandists severe
ly to task for II. or their work in
1920 one member said: ''Their unbound
ed and inflammatory statements have
pervaded every part OF the Union.
Zach member OF the present Congress-
has been deluged with enough stuff to
fill two large volumes"
The high tariff publicity campaign
which resulted in the passage OF the
Bill of Abominations, was the greatest
that had yet been undertaken. The
country was fairly deluged with Pro-
lection literature. HeZekiah Niles and
Matthew Carev LAd come onto the
stage of action. and they trained their
most powerful guns on the Free Trader.
Niles had started his Register in Bal
tinlore wears before. but 1t was now
coming into its own. { A man perfectly
sincere In his convictions, with no sell
fish interest intermixed herewith, he
made the american system" the pas
sion of his life He made Niles Reg
lister the recognized authority on all
tariff matters. and acquired an in
fluence perhaps never before or since
enjoyed by any tariff writer.
Matthew Carey went at II In diff
ferent way. He was the greatest
pamphleteer Protection has ever had.
In one of his later pamphlets he states 1
that he had written and published 4
fifty-seven booklets on Protection, ag-
gregating some 1895 pages, besides
many essays, circulars, memorials and
newspaper articles. He charged the
manufacturers whom he had helped by
his work with being ungrateful, and
when they refused TO pay him $3.50
for expenses incurred he published the
letters of gratitude they had written
him alongside Of their answers to his
requests for compensation.
From the DAYS OF Carey and Niles
down to the present time the output
of literature in favor OF protection
has never been allowed Il fall. OFF.
The manufacturers of the country
contribute literally to the propaganda,
and in addition to this use their own
instrpmentaltties to reach the pubic
At tn present time leading manu-
facturer OF automobiles is sending
broadcast to the press liberal supply
of high tariff literature, and others
are following his example.
When one looks over the list or
pub licatiOnS dealing directly ana lnui-
rectly with the tariff. as shown by the
indices Of the Library Of Congress. he
is astounded by their vast number.
They range all the way up from ten
page pamphlet to a six-hundred-page
book, and from that up to ten vol
ume set. Nearly all of this literature
is controversial, and most of 1t bears
the mark OF the partisan and the poll
tician, rather than that of the student
and the historian. In all the vast ar
ray there are not over half dozen
books whose statements are not more
or less tinged by partisan bias. The
Protection literature bears proper
ton Of more than two-to-one as COM
pared with the Free Trade literature.
The propaganda has justified Its ex-
istence many times over to those res
nonsible for it. Representing as 1T
does the most incessant and complete
missionary effort ever made by any
political party I'm any country, 1t has
also yielded fruits beyond the richest
dreams of avarice. Whether. the doc
trfne Of Protection Is right or wrong,
II has been hammered SO deeply Into
the minds of the people that at the
present time 1t seems not to be ques-
ton of Protection or Free Trade, but
~ the degree of Protection. The pro-
paRandists have taught the nation to
FORGET the old idea that Protection
should be a temporary thing and to
regard II as a permanent principle.
downright, 1909, by Frederic ]. kas-
~.