The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1912-07-13
THE FREE TRADE ISSUE

n & REE hAOE IOOOE
The Brooklyn Eagle, one of the
ablest Democratic newspapers in the
country, sees the danger to which its
party is exposed through the domi-
nance of the free trade element of
the party in this campaign. The
Eagle in discussing this matter says:
There will be plenty of talk about
the tariff, when and after the cam
paigners get down to serious business
and some of the speakers will over
look this fact:
whenever the protectionist has
been beaten at the polls his defeat
has been followed by hard times.
"There is nothing variable about
this rule and nothing ineXplicable
about its operation. 1t is much near
err accurate to call protection a sys-
tenn or a policy than it is to describe
| it as a privilege. To this system or
policy the manufacturers of the coun-
! try have accommodated themselves.
They have included in their calcula-
| tons all the schedules directly or in
directly affecting their products And
they have made up their payrolls ac-
cordingly.
This has had an effect upon en-
ployes They have become accustom-
ed to rates of pay in excess of these
prevailing elsewhere for similar work
which is to say. they have been saw
ed from competition with 'pauper la
Dor The system, so-called, has been
so long in vogue that it has gone in
to the business vitals of the country.
1t has become part and parcel of our
Industrial being and radical reduc-
ton can only be likened to a capital
operation, looked forward to with APP
prehension by the patient.
Nobody disputes that some of the
schedules are grotesquely excessive.
Nobody takes serious issue with the
contention that there is plenty of
room for revision. That became OBJ
vious long ago. But it is one thing
to talk of abandoning a policy and
another to discuss readjustment.
There is not a particle of doubt that
the schedules should be modernized.
There is just as little doubt that re-
adjustment should be by experts,
| laAnCA IMAM ny 4NODOuN
calls upon a blacksmith to regulate a
watch.
The Eagle is not now holding a
| brief for protection. nor is it denoun-
cling free trade. 1t is calling atten-
ton to facts For good or for bad,
for better or for worse, the principle
or whatever it may be called of
protection has been established If
the republican platform is TO be be
lieved serious interference with il
| would destroy many industries and
| throw millions of our people out of
| employment 1t holds that duties
should be high enough, while yield
ing a sufficient revenue, adequately
to protect American Industries and
wages"
In Vermont and other eastern
states the more intelligent Democrats
are not supporters of free trade or its
big brother, tariff for revenue only.
They have seen what a manufacture
ing community has to suffer under
experiments of that kind, but they
are helpless before the onslaught of
the south and west, which are rich
in corn and cotton and short on man
ufacturing enterprises.
There are men still living in Ben.
nington who can remember sixty to
seventy-fye years ago when there
was a string of wooden mills in this
town There were two in this vii
lage, one at Bennington Falls and
three or four along Paran creek at
North Bennington.
Along came the Democratic tariT
for revenue only, and not one of these
thriving Bennington industries suryiy-
ed the depression that followed.
Every mill failed and every employe
had to seek a new job when jobs were
mighty scarce.
a free trade basis or a radical tar.
i'll for revenue only act will close or
cripple every knitting mill and every
cloth manufacturing mill in Benning-
ton unless the employees are willing
to accept greatly decreased wages.
As long as the great Industrial ma.
tons like Germany, France, Austria
and Belgium maintain the protective
system, 1t would be a dire calamity
for the United States to attempt a
revenue tariff basis.
With a good chance to win this
year. it is most unfortunate that the
Democrats surrendered their plat
form to the anti-protection advocates
of the cotton and corn states. II
would have been far wiser for them
had they allowed the New England
and other eastern leaders to have