The Disease And The Remedy

For thirty years the policy of a protective tariff has held the undisputed right of way in this country. Each sücceeding change, and there have been many, has been in the direction of more distinctive protectionism. All industries desiring protection have received practically all they asked. No principie or policy was ever given a fairer trial. It is still in full operation, and yet the industries of the country, according to the most approved republican authority, are flat. If this policy is all that is claimed for it, it is folly to argue that the mere apprehension of a slight reduction of tariff rates, could cause such an industrial stagnation as exists throughout the length and breadth of the land. An industrlf 1 policy which, after a third of a century of unquestioned supremacy, will leave the business interests of the nation in such a precarious condition as to need but the mere breath of hansion to sweep them from what ought to be rock foundation, must have inherent weaknesses which are fatal to its claims. Furthermore, the premonitions of the coming storm were unmistakable long before the people declared for tariff reform in 1892. In fact the germs of the disease from which the country is suffering are inherent in the policy of protection itself. Similar crises have marked its history throughout. The great panic of 1873 came upon the country when there was not the least apprehension of a change of policy, and threw 3,000,000 men out of employment. Strikes, lockouts and great labor unrest in those industries most heavily protected, have marked its entire course. How could such a policy be expected to opérate otherwise? It was designed to opérate in the interest of the few at the expense of the many. It has tended directly to the concentration of wealthin the hands of the few, and the corresponding impoverishment of the masses. Claiming to opérate in the interest of labor, it has robbed labor to enrich the manufacturer. The manufacturer has absorbed practically all the profits of the governnient favoritism, and whenever labor has made a demand for its share, it has been locked out and its place supplied by the very dregs of the labor population of Europe. And so unfair has been the división of the profits of protection that even this ignorant foreign labor has repeatedly rebelled against the degradation to which it was subjected, as soon as it became acquainted with the conditions of its environment. The whole system being artificial and unnatural, has led to a corresponding development of certain industries and an overstocking of the market with various protected products. This in turn has resulted in the closing down of the milis and a constant disturbance in the labor market. The remedy for this condition of things lies in the direction of a change of policy, a "separation of government and taxation from the control of private and selfish influences." As the removal of the restrictions and discriminations laid on the commerce between the states under the confederation resulted in immediate and lasting improvement in all kinds of trade, so now the abolition of duties laid in the interest of protection would undoubtedly result in the removal of many of the causes of the present industrial depression and revival and improve ment in the business of the whole country.