New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1916-07-08
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
AND PROTECTION.

confirmed by the convention il
St Louis. is said TO be the handl
work Of President Wilson himself
Under these conditions we may
consider that from a high demo
cratic point Of view the protcc
ton plank in the democratic plat
form is cx cathedra. coming from
the president himself and heartily
accepted by all Of the people. nm
less it be some Of the extreme
radical free traders. who make a
religion Of their trade beliefs
These radical views Of the free
traders have not had much cur
rcncy in the United States until
during the last forty years, when
il was found that the cotton states
of the South and the great wheat
growing states Of the Northwest
were inclined toward free trade.
claiming that thew got no advant-
ages by tariff protection and that
all Of their own produce was az
fected in price by the values that
it had for export and that thus
these great interest. the cotton
products and wheat products. were
really injured by such tariff as
woul1 develop the latent rcsour-
ces Of our great country. which
could in the end ontstrip the
whole world if these resources
could be exploited and realized
upon.
It is a well recognized fact that
a very large fraction Of the Dem
ocratic party was intensely pro-
tcctionist and the Pennsylvania
and New England democracy were
as intent upon proper protection
for American manufactures as
were the sugar producers of Lou
isiana or the iron manufacturers
of Pennsylvania. As the lines be-
gan to draw more slosely. these
democratic protectionists became
known to some extent as "Sam
Randall Democrats, as Mr.. Ran
dali was the great exponent Of
such legislation as should lead to
the general development of all of
our industries. New Jersey had
many prominent Democrats of
the same tyre. o,s 'a f'.qe t.9
While President Wilson has the
reputation ofbeing a free trade, .as
least theoretically, the following
tariff plank, which is the main
plank in the recently adopted
Democratic Platform. and doubt
less the work of his own hands,
shows that NE appreciates the
necessity Of Keeping all Of the in
dustries Of the United States in
the front lihes of progress and in
this way to be able to meet any
kind of competition that may come
to us as a great nation. Thomas
Jefferson taught the same Demo-
cratic doctrine and the English
vagarv Of On absolute free trade
is in a fair way Of Abandonment |
by the English ntion and the
platform plank which we now
quote indicates what President |
Wilson wishes US to do. This |
plank Of the platform reads as
follows:
1--WE reafirm our belief in the
doctrine Of a tariff for revenue
,nlv and unreservedly indorse the
Underwood tariff law as truly
sxemplifyinR that doctrine. All
competitive tariff rates are, neces-
,arily subject to change, to meet
,haneing conditions in the
production and trade.
Such changes should be made only !
.fter investigation Of the condi.
ions at home and abroad by a
bipartisan tariff commission
whose findings should be present
ID to Congress for appropriate se
ion. and the normal conditions of
air competition between AmeriI /
an and foreign producers should
'e maintained by an anti-dumping
aw. which would keep the tariff
'ates on fairly competitive basis i
n times Of surplus production
Ibroad."
The Wall Street Journal, in dis. II
ussing thin matter, states that
flank includes the entire doctrine
+ protection and that no protec- |,
ionist could have stated it more
'learly. Any protective tariff is |,
'nti-dpmpihg law and that is ex-
city why protective tariffs are d
Dumping is said to be a
fashionable eitphet, but still is
onvevs the idea that our manu-.
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