Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1901 — OUR PROTECTIVE TARIFF. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR PROTECTIVE TARIFF.

rhe Rock Upon Which American Manufacturers Have Builded. The protective tariff has been the solid foundation upon which the American manufacturers have builded their unequaled prosperity, and it is the only safe anchor for the labor and business of the American people. If the tariff is excessive beyond the necessities of American labor it may be good policy to reduce it, but it can be safely said that the people of this- country are opposed to any reduction that will reduce the wages or the labor of the workingmen of the United- States. Tinkering with tariffs unsettles business, causes doubt and hesitation, and the laboring men and their families are the first, last and worst sufferers by the changes made. That fact is again illustrated by the business depression in Germany at the present time—a depression wholly caused by the efforts of the agrarians of that country to prevent the importation of farm products of the United States. It is possible that they will succeed, but it will be well for the statesmen and agrarians of that country, and the people of all other nations, to remember the prediction of Signor Luzatti, one of the political leaders of Italy, as quoted by the New York Tribune, that the adoption of the proposed new German tariff would mean, first, reprisals by other nations against German Industry; next, ruin to German industries and heavy losses to German agriculture; then, the export of less merchandise and more men, and, finally, the decay of German commerce and the fatal decline of German political influence.—Des Moines Register. Reciprocity with Canada. A delegation representing the chambers of commerce of the United States has told President Roosevelt that It believes reciprocity with Canada will be of great value to American commerce and industry. The President told the delegation that he would take the matter “under advisement” This is usually a polite method of saying that one is not ready to take action. At this time Canada is the best purchaser of American products after the United Kingdom and Germany. There is no doubt that freer trade relations with the Dominion would add largely to its American purchases, especially as regards manufactured goods. There would also be a largely increased consumption of American coal. It will not be an egsy matter, however, to negotiate a reciprocity treaty such as Canada desires, for the reason that the Canadians will be more ready to receive than to give. They will ask for many concessions. They will be filling to make few. But even if a 1-eaty should be negotiated on what could fairly be called reasonable terms, its ratification would be more than doubtful. There are so many Interests which would protest against a reciprocity in which they would see an injury to themselves. As a matter of course Canada would Insist on lower duties on farm and garden products. Against this concession all the American farmers anywhere near the boundary line between the two countries would protest They would tell of their losses if the cheaper vegetables, eggs and poultry of the Canadians came into competition with their products. These farmers are not without influence in Congress. While the mine owners of Ohio and Indiana would favor free trade in coal, Eastern mine owners who do not wish to have to compete with Nova Scotia coal in New England would object to it. The manufacturing interests as a rule would look kindly on reciprocity, but other powerful interests would oppose it So until a reciprocity project shall have been devised which offends nobody the customs duties on Canadian products are likely to remain as they are. To get up a scheme which does not displease somebody is beyond the power of man.—Chicago Tribune.

Free-Trade in Disguise. Much of the reciprocity talk is free trade in disguise. Men who indulge in it are anxious to increase their importations and incidentally their or they do not understand the subject. No one can find fault with an importer for wishing to enlarge his business, but when he wants to curtail the business of a home manufacturer who employs home labor he is trying to increase his business to the detriment not only of the home manufacturer, but he is trying to do so in a manner that wil injure a large number of wage earners. If it was a question of one man against another man the people could afford to say let them fight it out and may the best man win, but when one man represents himself and the other stands for a swarm of bread winners then the people do not hesitate. Their sympathies are immediately enlisted on the side of the men who would be thrown out of work. Reciprocity Is a good thing so long as it takes from the foreigner things we do not produce and want, but when it is pushed far enough to take work from our wage earners then it is dangerous.—Jersey City Journal. Mail Subsidies. Although we have a heavy deficiency as to our Inland or dont|eßtic postal service, we have a surplus of >942,733 on our foreign or sea borne mails, or over >2,500 per day. England, on the contrary, has a decided • surplus from the carriage of its domestic malls, but meets with equanimity a deficiency of about £I,OOO a day on its foreign or sea borne mails. Virtually all of this goes in "postal contracts” to British steamer lines. England does about 50 pet* cent of the world's shipping business, and we do about 10 per cent of our own. If she did not pay such enormous subsidies In

the shape of mall contracts to her steamer, lines, does any one think our great publicists would fail to call attention to the above figures? Wi’d Hunt for New Markets. Now just watch those journals which are clinging to the crumbling edges of the free-trade propaganda. It will not be long before they are heard denouncing this reciprocity convention as a delusion and a snare, from which no good can come. They will be mistaken, as a great deal of good may be expected from the deliberations of this body. It will no doubt do much to promote a reciprocity which is honest and beneficial, but not that sort which Mr. Robert, of Massachusetts, said “will open our markets to foreign competition and give us nothing in return.” It will not, to use the impressive words of Senator Hale, of Maine, wtjo was James G. Blaine’s spokesman for reciprocity in the Senate, propose to “Imperil present conditions by a wild hunt for new markets which have never had and never will have any trade or commerce at all to be compared with the vast trade and the Immense exports from this country to our great rivals.” The reciprocity Avhich will be aimed at is in such Important trades as those with France, Germany, the British dependencies, and certain countries, especially in Southern America, which buy more of us than they sell to us. This is the reciprocity which Mr. Blaine proposed, which President McKinley meant in his great Buffalo speech, and which the Republican party has declared for and stands ready to favor.—Paterson (N. J.) Press. Carryins Kindness Too Far. The annexation of Cuba would amount to exactly the same thing economically as freeing Cuban sugar from duty. Possibly annexation may be “manifest destiny,” but we are not destined to have it if we don’t want it. Expanding the country is a good enough thing, but we are not called on to sacrifice the interests of this country to those of any other .country, not even Cuba. The thought is bubbling up in the minds of a good many people that perhaps we have done enough for Cuba, at least for a while. The wealth producing possibilities of the island are quite sufficient without the strangling of our fast growing and wholesome beet sugar manufacture in order to favor Cuban sugar. The Cubans should be satisfied with what they have and not seek to ruin our industries in a reckless effort to build up their own on the jump. Their country is fertile in the highest degree, and they have only to develop it to become a very rich people. We have no call to impair our own welfare to still further enhance the prosperity of Cuba. An Indienant Protect.

American Wage Earner—We don’t want any of this infernal nonsense. Tariff tinkering has always worked to our injury. Let the tariff alone! Unearned Praise. From the votes in the reciprocity convention, so-called, it would seem that a lot of journalistic shouters for reciprocity as a handmaiden—or “handout”—to free trade had misapprehended the view’s of many manufacturers. The latter were floridly announced as having changed their minds on the tariff and as being now ready to depart from protection. It is sad to think that the praise showered upon these gentlemen for their sensible and patriotic change of view was wasted, but it looks that way. Trusts and Patriots. With the American sugar trust adding its facile Ingenuity to the abilities of Cuban statesmen it will be strange if the insular patriots do not almost persuade us to give them anything they want—reciprocity, free sugar, free tobacco, free anything—even if we have to destroy an industry or two of our own to do it French Proverbs. Among the French are some apt proverbs that go directly to the point The following, translated by Margaret Harrington, seem to have lost none of their wit by being put into English: The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. To be happy, one must have nothing to forget A good intention makes but a short ladder. Happy is he who is not obliged to sacrifice any one to duty. For all misfortunes there are two remedies—time and silence. Indifference is the heart sleeping. The greatest the strongest, and above all the cleverest man, is he who knows how to wait The sorrows of to-day make the happiness of to-morrow. The beauty seen is partly in him whs sees it—Bovee.