Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-12

IS NECESSARY
MAJOR A. n. HAMILTON SHOWS
WHY PROTECTIVE TARIFF
Is ESSENTIAL.
REVIEWS THE PAST
Pioneer Iowan In Special Article For
The Courier Points Out Advan-
taees Of the Republican
Tariff Measure. ...

| A protective tariff is necessary to
protect the wage worker. II 1t were
not for that necessity, the United
States could have free trade. One
reason why protection is necessary is
the fact that the standard Of living In
this country is higher than abroad
These facts are incorporated in con.
vincing article prepared for the Cour-
Ter by A. H. Hamilton. MI. Hamilton
has lived in Iowa for over fifty years.
He has witnessed the prosperity of
the country under war time presidents,
democratic presidents and republican
presidents. He has been great stud
/ ent, an observer of things that have
changed Iowa from wilderness to
the present great state 1t is, and he Is
eminently qualified to write on the
important subject of protective tariff.
| The voters will find much of inter
est in the following article written
by A. H. Hamilton:
Why Protective Tariff?
There Is general agreement that a
tariff is desirable for revenue. The
republican party demands protection
should accompany the raising of rev.
enue. The democratic party demands
tariff for revenue only.
In the early history of this country,
we were cutting out the forest and
making homes; an agricultural people;
practically no manufactures. England
the mother country, chose to do
our manufacturing, obliging the
colonists to confine themselves
to raising the raw material. When
we became an independent nation, in
order to foster and build up manu-
factories as against the skilled labor
of the mother country, we were oblig-
ed to lay duties upon imports from
Europe, and among the very first
things done under Washington's ad
ministration, was to pass a law for
this purpose.
The need of this kind Of protection
continued for many years. In the cot
ton belt states of the south, it was es-
pecially unpopular and to large ex-
tent in all the states south of Mason
and Dixon's line. Slave labor could
only be applied to raising the raw ma
terial and so the south wanted to have
it's manufacturing done abroad. 1t
was this state of things that caused
the attempted notification of protec-
tive tariff law In 1882, under the lead
of John c. Calhoun of South Carolina.
Then largely, but not quite as much
as now, the strength of the democratic
party lay in the south and naturally it |
fashioned the free trade policy of the
democratic party.
This nation has now become so en-
trenched in power as manufacture
ing people, so skilled in invention, in !
machinery, in educated labor, that we
could fight successful battle with
the world under the banner of free
trade, if it was not for one thing.
And that one thing is we can't change;
we don't want to change and we won't
change.
That one thing is the difference In
the pay of labor in this country and /,
the pay for labor in the nations of the
old world. Labor enters largely into
the cost of all productions. The manu-
facturers of this nation cannot COM
pete successfully with nations who
pay from one-fourth to one-half what
we do for the labor that enters into
the cost of production. |
So it is at this period Of our ma
TONS history, so far as the protective
feature of tariff is concerned, might |
say the sole cause for it,. is to secure |
a good wage to all our men and wom-
en- who labor 1t is as plain PROPOSE
ton as that two and two make four.
For instance: take that wonderfully |
virile island nation Of Japan, whose
food is the rice that grows in her
swamps, the fish of the sea that sur
rounds her and her tea. These articles
constitute the ration for her army at i
one-fourth or one-third the cost of the
ration of our American soldiers. Yet
Japan has become one of the world |
powers and her manufactures are
noted for their productions while the !
laboring man receives but the merest |
pittance.
With one voice the laboring men of !
this country say the Japanese must
not be allowed to migrate here and SO
says the nation. Japan is so imbeded |
in the rule Of royalty that her people |
commit suicide to follow the Mikado in !
death. We are nation Of people in
which the people are all sovereigns; /
they are the government, and hence, /;
we must have an educated people. We |
must have such return for all labor
er's toll as to enable them by econ !
omy, industry and sobriety to have |
homes of their own, to rear families
in comfort, educate the children and !:
so make each generation capable of i,
wisely exercising the elective fran
chise. At the very best it is true, as
Mr.. Lincoln said, the people get fud-
died sometimes but finally correct /
themselves.
Just here, indulge me In referring to ,
our common school system, in the line
Of the education of the sovereigns of ,
this nation To make intelligent vot-
ers, the property Of every man is tax
ed for the education of the children. !
This is right, it Is a necessity. At
least one-fourth of the taxes l have :,
paid for the last twenty years, with !
out a child to participate in it, has
been paid to educate other peoples ,
children and yet persist, it is emin ;
emily right and is demanded for the :
prosperity and perpetuity of our be-
loved republic.
Just so it is absolutely necessity !
that the working man Of this country