Year: 1870

SCHOOL, hlltW nO o'''Ni '''" w
advocate Protection to Home Industry. Here
is its short and easy method of dealing with
the genius and fame of Henry Clay:


"Mr Clay cOntended that infant manufactures re-
quired the fostering care Of the Government because
the country was 80 new and undeveloped. They needed
Protection against foreign rivals TO enable them to take
root while we were acquiring the experience ana skill
which would enable 10 stand the competition on eq
terms 1t is needless inquire whether this was Vad
argument for Protection at the time u was 30 "ar"y
pressed 1t is obvious enough that IL was an argument
which would year by year, lose Its force WIN the proe
ress of the experiment. Infancy cannot he perpe'"a
IT, after the lapse of forty years, our manufactures arc
as helpless they when this argument was ND con
stany in the mouths of the Procctionists that iact
alone would prove the argument unsonnd. III mgher
tariff is needed than thought sufficient TOT our
infant manufactures In 1924, there must have been
fundamental falaoy in the arguments for temporary
Protection until native manufactures could take root
and get established But IT, the other hand the the
ory sound, and Protection was only needed 10 sup
port the totterng steps of infancy till 1t could learn 10
walk alone, manufactures must have long ago out
grown the necessity of such assistance 1t Will hardly
do for the baby Of 1924 plead the claims OF babyhood
in 1870. From the very nature Of the infancy argument
every year of Protection should have rendered our man
uacues more sefsubsstent, and better able to stand
alone without Government support"


Comments by The Tribune


Undoubtedly, the fact that our "country
"was so new and undevelOped" was one OF
the grounds on which Mr. Clay commended
Protection to Home Industry. Results have
justified his warmest anticipations. We are
now making an immense variety of Wares and
Fabrics whereof the quality is unsurpassed and
the cheapness remarkable. Edge Tools, Spades
and Shovels, Cut Nails, Plain and Printed
COttOns, Plows and nearly every implement
used by farmers except Chains, are included
in this category. We export most of these ar
ticles to British Colonies, and sell them there
in preference to their British rivals, because
ours are decidedly the better and practically
the cheaper. We judge that large majority
of the Wares and Fabrics used by the com
mon people of this country are supplied to
them cheaper to-day than they would or could
be if we had never had a tariff.


But there are other American manufactures
which are still in their infancy. Steel, for in
stance, we are just beginning to make in con-
siderable quantities up to this hour, we have
probably imported ninety-nine per cent. OF all
we have used since our Independence. Making
it i'm perfection is difficult art, requiring vast
aggregations of skill, experience and capital.
We shall master it yet, as we have mastered
kindred arts but it is work of time, and our
efforts are embarrassed by great party which
does its worst to enact toward this infant the
ruthless part of HerOd. If that party would
just follow in the footsteps of its late idol
Slavery, and get itself decently and deeply
buried, this work could be accomplished in
half the years that will otherwise be required.


Ten years ago. hardly Saw was made in
America now, we are making more and better
than we import-making them cheaper than
we did or could buy them when we looked to
England to supply us. Give us ten years more
of Protection, and we shall confidently expect
to see the timber of Canada sawed with our
saws, as it is already chopped with our axes.


Shawls and Hosiery are among the recent
additions to our home productions Yet A. Il.
Stewart reports our Shawls as cheap in currency
under Protection as they were ten years ago
under comparative Free Trade; and Yankee
has recently invented and put to work (at
New Brunswick, N. J) inventions certain to
cheaper and revOlutionize the manufacture of
Hosiery throughout the world.


Thus we have manufactures that may fairly
"plead the claims of babyhoOd in 1870" as
well as many that have thanks to Protection,
reached the full stature of manhood. We
mean to sustain these and perfect those. All
alike have to struggle against the advantages
possessed by their European rivals in cheap
capital and cheap labor Give us ample capital
at per cent. and labor at European prices,
and we can make even Pig Iron as cheap
as Europe can; but we cannot do this
with labor averaging 81 per day as cheaply
as they can who pay but half that price.
Our wOrkmen choose to be better paid than
are those of Europe; and we consider their
choice wise one. Prof. Perry says that some
thing that passes for wOrkman's suit of
clothes sells in London for f1 or S. gold. What
must be the wages and living of the tailor
who makes it may be safely guessed. Our
wOrkingmen prefer to live on higher plane;
and this makes some things dearer Gn money!
here than abroad but we get on nevertheless,
and British mechanics and artisans escape to
us whenever they can. We are not devising
ways and means to exile thousands of our
artiicers and skilled wOrkmen at the public
cost, as they are in London.


This country never yet increased more rapid
ly in population, in production, in wealth, than
it has done throughout the last year-is doing
now. 1t constructed so many comfortable
dwellings in no previous four years as in the
last four; but it will construct still more in
the next four if Protection shall remain our
public policy. And never fear that it will
not.