The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-08-13
Industrial Preparedness.


The Chicago Tribune quotes Prof.
Emory Johnson, the Pennsylvania
political economist. as stating that
every great war of the past has been
followed by the rapid expansion of
the industrial and commercial inter
ests of nations involved. and as pre-
dieting that while Europe will per-
haps buy heavily of us Immediately
after the war. European producers.
within two years after the war. will
limit their purchases as much as pos
sible, and will endeavor to sell large
volume of manufactured products in
order to reduce their debts and to
secure funds for further industrial
expansion" The Tribune adds: I'VE
know that when the war is over there
will be a desperate effort OF Euro
pean people to regain lost ground, to
/ build upon the ruins. in short. unless
the war continues to the stage of vir-
I tual annihiliation, which is hardly
conceivable. We shall find ourselves
in a competition even more siren
uous than before the war"
/ 1t is amusing to note how the Tri-
bune, as an ancient foe of the pro-
tective policy. sidesteps the inevita-
BILE conclusion that if We are to avoid
the results of such ruinous compe-
tition, We must rear again the pro-
tective walls against foreign COM
mercial invasion. But the Tribune
thinks We can Tighten and shorten
the depression" by 'mobilizing" our
financial and business powers. and by
pulling the teeth out of the Sherman
antitrust law, so that we may fight
the foreign invader with the sixteen
inch guns OF big business.
But why go to war at all on our
own soil when we can avoid the ne
cessity of conflict by restoring the
protective Notifications which enable
us to fight from behind breastworks?
Why invite the commercial invader
in. and then depend on mobilization
and commercial Krupp guns to drive
him out again? Why give up the
market which under protection con-
sumes ninety-five per cent of the out
put of the American farm and fac
tory in order to go crusading for |
markets across the seas in which this |
fiercer competition is to rage after
the war? Why not take to ourselves
the lesson of the depression which
followed the enactment of the Under
wood Tariff law before the war be-
gan. and the lesson of the great war
itself, which teaches the absolute ne
cessity of American commercial indie
pendence?
No mere banking system. no IL
cense to monopoly to go as far as it
likes, no mobilization of resources"
whatever that may mean, will save
the American people from the deadly
effect of the cheap labor, cheap ma
terial competition that is certain to
rush in upon US after the war. I'm
less We are prepared to fight Europe
and the Orient with its own weapon
cheap labor-which means a lower
ng of wages and living-then we will
be like Russians fighting machine
guns with pixies. and must suffer de-
'eat that will mean suffering to mil
ions OF the American people.
The duty and the desire of the
American people is clear. They were
fooled in the abandonment of the
protective system in 1912 by, just
such newspapers, ,aso the, Chicago
Tribune. which has always been un-
friendly to the protective policy. and
rad as much to d. NJ. any one news
,aper in the West in persuading the I
'ountry to protectors abandonment. Il
rhey intend to throw up again the i
inptegnabre coast defenses OF Of the +
American farm and factory which I,
,rotection only affo.dst The Ameri-e I,
AN sbeople resIize that the ctsaApg
lown of such brsastworks does not
reyent similar defenses against our