Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1890 — Protection or Free Trade, Which? [ARTICLE]

Protection or Free Trade, Which?

There need be no misunderstanding of the issue between Protectionists and Free Traders, however zealously the latter may seek to confuse voters by diverting their attention to subjects in no wise affected by tariff laws. Protection means that employment shall be given to every man who wants work, and that for such work the compensation shall be sufficient to enable him to live as becomes an American citizen. Free trade means that all work which can be dong cheaper elsewhere than in this country shall be turned over to the nation that succeeds in getting from its people the greatest amount of labor for the smallest amount of money. Protection means to build up in this country all litu s of m anus actures necessary for making our people comfortable and prcsperous in time of -peice, independent and invincible in time of war. Free trade means to keep this country in perpetual dependence upon foreigners for a market for surplus farm products, and that by way of payment we are to accept manufactured products at such prices as the foreign sellers may dictate. Protection means that the existing American standard of life shall be maintained' that the wages of all classes of workers shall remain, as now, higher than the the wages paid to Europeans for similar service. This cannot be done exdept by placing a tariff on foreign products sent here for sale in competition with the products of the farms and factories of this v , \ < . Free trade means that all barriers against the competition of foreign labon and commerce shall be removed, with* the inevitable result that wages throughout the world wilt be equalized, or that the labor on all products that can be transported be turned over to those who will perform it for the least money—whether it be in making the " loom, weaving the cloth, or at the sewing machine by which cloth is transfoi med into garments; whether in mining or smelting the ore or in making machinery by which the products of the farm are transported to market. The issue now before the country is to determine which of these divergent policies shall prevail; whether, following the advice of Jefferson and Clay and Lincoln, we will continue the policy of keeping mills and factories near the farms that feed their opera-

fives, or whether in accordance ' with the teachings of Cobden and i Gladstone and Cleveland, and other advocates of tariff 1 reform, Jwe will consent that our people ' shall confine themselves to agriand turn over to others those privileges and profits found ; only in a diversity of industries.