Bridgeton pioneer., 1916-12-07

Factor In the EIeetion-The Tariff AZ
perity.
In the opinion of many well in.
formed political observers the tariff
will be the deciding factor in the
national election of 1916. 1t Is held
by Republicans that the only way the
country can safeguard its prosperity
and make it permanent is to enact
protective tariff law which will serve
as bulwark against the thrush Of the
cheap products of foreign labor After
the war.
Recently the Republican State Com
mittee through its chairman, Newton
A. X. Bugbee, requested number of
practical business men to submit state
ments regarding the effect Of the Dem
ocratic low tariff as compared with a
protective tariff. with one or more spe-
cific instances to give the subject
more concrete character. One reply
which was received is particularly in
teresting and instructive and falls nat
urally into newspaper editorial form:
Industrial PrOsperity'S Sheet Anchor
The sheet anchor of American indus
trial prosperity is tariff protection.
But for the protective tariff we would
have had no great industries to pro-
tect.
Nearly all of the great Industries in
New Jersey belong to this class. Tar
iff protection converted this State from
an agricultural one to an industrial
and was the potential cause for the up
building of New Jersey cities.
Among these industries the Clark
Thread Works of Newark and Kearny.
on the Passaic River, may be taken
for an example.
Prior to the Morrill, tariff at the out
break Of the Civil War all cotton
threads were imported from Scotland.
At that time the now solidly-built-up
Eighth Ward of Newark was almost
entirely undeveloped, with dirt roads,
farms and barrens.
The Morrill, tariff brought the thread
company from Paisley. Scotland, to es-
tablish plant, and a site was selected
on the Passaic, I'm the Eighth Ward,
where land was bought cheap. The
company brought English machinery
and operatives TO run the plant
Today the Clark plant is an immense
one. 1t employs about six thousand
hands on both sides OF the river ana
pays large portion of the taxes, be-
sides contributing in wages many thou
sands Of dollars weekly to Newark
merchants and others. sf
Built Up Residential District.
But the almost immediate effect Of
the plant was to build up the large
Eighth Ward, now solidly covered by
residences, many of them handsome,
and full of retail business places, and
all contributing toward the support Of
local government.
The plant had also another impOr-
tant effect 1t encouraged the devel-
opment Of machinery by American
manufacturers and the imported ma
chinery was eventually replaced by
American-made machinery which also
had tariff protection from European
cheaper labor.
When James G. Blaine visited New
ark in the Presidential campaign in
1884 he was told about the wonderful
growth of the Clark Thread industry
and its more wonderful effects upon
took the time to visit the plant and
view the Eighth Ward, and in his SUBJ
sequent campaign addresses he used
the plant as a great object lesson.
This is one and only one Illustration
of the vast benefits Of tariff protection
to our country. Without it the City
Of Newark would today have no more
Importance ON the map than small
and unprogressive town, and all OF
that vast manufacturing center would
be In the same inferior class. New
Jersey would have no such distinction
as she now has as a great manufactur-
ing State.
Protection Made Them Prosperous.
b Look where we will in tnis State, we
see great Industries that were estab-
lished and have grown to magnitude
under Republican tariff protection.
Take the immense silk industry of Pat
erson. the pottery industry at Trenton,
the glass industry in South Jersey, the
large textile industries ut New Bruins
wick and elsewhere in the State, the
machinery industry, the sewing ma
chine industry as the most prominent
of New Jerseys tariff protection in
dustries that owe their growth and
prosperity entirely to the protective
tariff
And who can question the truth Of
the statement that the protective tar
if is the sheet anchor of American in 4
dustries: Who can doubt that. speak
ing for New Jersey alone, the removal
of this anchor by Democratic legisla-
TORS and a Democratic President will
mean after the war just such disaster
as it has brought before, just such