Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1884 — FALLACIES OF PROTECTION. [ARTICLE]

FALLACIES OF PROTECTION.

Eloquent Plea of Hon. Frank Hurd in Favor of Revenue Reform. In every respeot the speech made by Hon. Frank Hurd, of the Toledo (Ohio) District, was the best on the tariff question since the present debate began in the House of Representatives. The Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune (Rep.) says of it: •‘Few spceobess in the halls of Congress for many years have been received with such earnest attention and hearty and enthusiastic applause. The ground he traveled is well known, but he brought into use some now illustrations, and certain passages of his speech were marked with a lofty eloquence to which even he has seldom attained. Hound after round of applause drowned his voice many times during the hour in which he occupied the attention of the Houso. The main points of his speech were that the Government has no right to tax one man for the benefit of another; that the tariff is such a tax; that the protective tariff has nearly destroyed our foreign commerce; is ruining the American carrying trade; is oppressing the agricultural interests; is depressing wages; is shutting up in the Unitod states the surplus manufactures of our own industries, and is bringing tbe country into a condition whore the fanner is to be plaoed moro absolutely than ever at the meroy of the manufacturer. ‘Pass this bill,’ said Mr. Hurd, ‘or within a year tbe farmers of thia country will riso in their might and destroy your whole protective system.' Mr. Hurd paid his compliments to the Democrats who are opposed to the Morrison bill. He said that ordinarily in politics the majority of the mem-bers-of a party oontrolled its polioy. Twothirds of the Democrats in the House believe that tariff legislation and agitation are both expedient at tho present time. They aro following the dlotates of party pplloy as laid down in the national platforms of tho party from the days of Jefferson to the very last national convention. He attacked the Ohio platform vigorously, and declared that if it did not mean the tamo thing as the national platform It should not be taken as an exposition of Demooratlo party dootrine.” The Associated Press Agent at the National Capital furnished the following abstract of Mr. Hurd’s terrific onslaught upon the protective oohorts. It is but a skeleton resume of Mr. Hurd’s magnificent exposition of tho sophisms of protection, and in a future issue we shall endeavor to give a more extended report of tho Ohio Congressman’s brilliant effort: Mr. Hurd denied tho right of the Government to surrender tho taxing power and allow an individual to oxorclso it. When ho earned wages thoy were his own, and he had tho right to expend them where ho pleased, if he could make a better contract with a Frenchman, a Mexloan, u Canadian, or an Englishman than with ait American, he had the right to do it, and the Government had no right to interpose, except in so far as the needs of its revenue wore concerned. Ho rcßted his whole case on this proposition: that, subject to tho needs of the Government, every man had tho right t 6 soil where ,ho oould get the best price for what ho had (produced, and buy where he could buy most (cheaply. This was the approved dootrine of political economy and the plainest teaohing of justloe. It individualized men; it bogot in them a spirit of independence; It turned their eyes from the Government to themselves; it fixed tho boundary line between governmental power and personal rights; it limited ttio authority of public administration; it taught men chat there was no arm so strong for thoir support as their own, and no business so successful as that which their ability and skill had built up; it limited the Government within its proper sphere, and left individuals free to choose their own careers, develop their own resources, and build up their own fortunes. The present American tariff wus an embarrassment to oommerce and injurious to the carrying trade, and It was a question only of time when, under’ this policy, tho American llag would entirely disappear from tho high seas. Tho oceans were free to all. Any person might sail whithersoever ho ploased; but, in this free for-all raoe, where was tho Ainorlcan? The skill of tho sailors of every nation was thero asserting itself, except ours. Fortunes wore being built up for tho people of all nations except ours, and yet this was an ocean-bound republic. Every ripple of the waters on tho seashore was an invitation to enjoy the wealth or foreign nations, and evory stormy wave that beat unon the crags spoke in thundering denunciation of a policy that would lock America out of the markets of the world, [lxmd applause.] What was the effeot of the ruinous system on the farmer'/ It increased the price of all articles which entored into his daily consumption, and this Increase amounted annually to the sum of $450,000,000. The protective system operated to increaso? the price of transportation of grain from West to the seaboard, and from tho scaboitQ to Europe. When tho grain of tho Amerloan farmer reached Liverpool it came in competition with the grain of every other farmerof tho world. The protective tariff of America was unable to help him there, and every dollar increase in the prioe which the transportation occasioned to him diminished the profits of his sales. Hut a protective tariff did more injury to the farmer than in the injury It occasioned his foreign market. It had already robbed America of one-huif of the market of the old world. India now furnished England with wheat. The effect of this on the markets of the Uni tod .States within the last nine months has been a decline in the exportation of American cereals of moro than 47,000,001 bushels and wheat had gone down in Chicago to less than 80 cents. And this development of the wheat production of India wus entirely tho result of the protective policy in America. “I say,” continued he. ‘‘to the farmers of America, the prospect before you is not encouraging now. With the elevators and granaries and warehouses all full of tbe old crqp unsold; with the vast fields greening to the coming harvest: with a crop unexcelled in India; with a splendid promise among all the wheat-growing nations, and with tbe price of wheat at less than eighty een s, the result will be inevitable that tbe price of wheat before January next will not pay the oost of production, and corn ruised on t’ e Western prairies again will be burned for fuel. In that day farmers will bo beggars ;n the midst of their own plenty—paupers by Iho side of their own golden gathered sheaves. There is absolutely no relief except in making foreign markets for agriculture.” Ho went on to argue that the effect of tho present system was not beneficial to manut aoturing Interests, but, on the contrary, wosdetrimentaltothem, in that it prevented them from securing free raw material. “Oh, If I could burn hito the brain of tho manufacturers of America one sentenoe,” he burst forth, “it would be this: ‘Turn from this constant introspection of the nations of tho world.’ Down with walls! Out to the sea! There are 2,000,000,000 people who want to buy wbat you mako. Else up to the truth of tbe great thought that these immense peoples can be supplied by you with all the instruments of husbandry and the tools of artisankbtp. But they will not take your goods unless you take theirs. Let your tariff d'sappear and then, O manufacturer I your attention will be diverted from home markets to generous rivalries in foreign trade, in which a wealth will come to you of which you do not dream to-day." He then dlsousecd the tariff question as affecting tbe ratesof wages for labor, declaring that, so far as labor was concerned, the fruits of protection wero want, penury, and starvation. Those were Jewels in its crown. He wished workingmen would cease to believe in the delusion that protection was a help to them. It came in the guise of a friend, but was realty a mortal foe. Its band was lifted in the attitude of a benediction, but it was really ralsod to curse. It never would permit labor to have tbe full share Jo which it waa entitled of the profits of capital. If employers had not the wisdom to learn the truth, he hoped this agitation would enlighten tho workers, and that they, by their votes, would rologate bus! doss to the natural laws of trade. Mr. Hurd went on to. give reason* why he supported the pending bIH,

and in the course of his remarks asked if there waa anything in the Morrison bill inconsistent with the Ohio platform. “I will answer you,” Interjected Mr. Warner, of Ohio. Mr. Hurd—l had hoped no Democrat on the floor of the Houso would say there ever was a Demooratlo platform which would not allow the people to take off the war taxes of twentylive years ago—{loud and long-continued applause on tbe Democratic side] —and if that be the meaning of that gentleman, if that be the construction he gives the Ohio platform, then 1 say here aud now 1 shall appeal to the gallant Democracy of my native State to repudiate the heresy of that platform, and I have no fear of that result—that it will plaoe itself where it ought to be, close to the great national heart of the Democrats of thia nation. (Renewed applause.] In the glorious result of the struggle to come 1 am sure this protective robbery and extortion will disappear from tho land, never again to offend America or darken her fair fields with its shadow. [Applause. ]