PROTECTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1892, 13 July 1888, Page 3

PROTECTION.

TO THE BDITOB, Sir, — In your issue of the lith yon have q acted an article from the "New York Tribune," of which you say, " We hardly think the argument m the above can, m principle, be controverted." To Bhew that It can, I am led to write the following. i The article goes on to cay that "without I protection aocloiy and c'viliaatlon cannot j exist." The first thlm; to do ia to define what la meant by " Protectior," If by i that tortn wn mean wh»,t Is understood m politics, or m political economy, as Protection, then I fall to see that there is any truth In the above quotation. Ia it merely an assertion (whloh goes for nothing), or is it a conviction, the result of experience? Protection, m the true meaning of ttie term, as applied to politic?, Is of modern application. Therefore all tho more anoienc civilisations aad soolal organisations have existed without it.

The great fault with the writer of the artlole quoted by you is that he does not aside by the meaning of the term, hut inoludeo every meaning to which you can apply the word Protection, which is moet uojust and unreasonable, and quite against all the rules of argumeut and common sense. I am quite willing to allow, and use, the term m its fullest and widest application.

I again quota from the article meationed. "It reduces the dangers fend chances ia the straggle for life " (fir a few, and Incteases i{ for the many), the words included m the braketa should have been added, and then it won Id bavo been true. It Is true that It Is protection whloh sustains civilisation and society &b atpreseftt constituted. And the writer m the quoted artlole takes it for granted, that the present state is just and good, «nd worthy of protection. I beg to diffor from him m that reipeot. Any system which porpetaates destitution and poverty Is pernlolous, unchristian, and hateful , Is there a country under the bud, m the present form of civilisation and social organisation, but abounds In poverty, destitution and crime, on the one hand, aad wealth, arroganos, licentiousness and orioie, ou the other 1 Two opposite causes producing like results, it Is not that nature responds with niggard hand to man's efforts at production. For man m hla primitive state, who ha* no protection In any sense of the term, lives with little exertion m a state of plenty, as far as the necessaries are oonoetned at any rate. Tney have uq work houee, no r.t?erty, no destitution, which shows th.Bt mm with all the advantages of clvillebtlon, under a just social organisation, should live m peaoe and plenty, and that there should bo no ohronio poverty ia civilisation Then if protection m this sense of tho term produces those roBUJts, would we not be better without it— that ia monopolies either m l»nd, social and political privileges, trade and manufacture, or any other thing. To quota again from tho article mentioned; '• Civil laws define his rights, and courla protect him m them." That |it certainly does, but often m a moat unjust and barbarous manner, defining and protecting persona and olauees In rights which cannot m any jastloe belong to them, as for instance m the clearances In the Highlands m Scotland, where the landlords with the help of the law lurnoi the inhabitants of whole dlstrlots out of house and homo, burning their houses and destroying their goods, and m some cases forcing them to emigrate against their will. These men, who were indeed the sons of tho soil, they and their fathers having lived on the soil from time immemorial, who reckoned that thoy had aa good a right to live m their native as any oqo living. But it would fill a book to enumerate all the kinds of abuse and injustice that tbiakind of protection has led to, and which to a very great ox tent o*iet yet. With regard to tho following quotution tho lees said about it tho better, that w, the lesa said m its protection. It is |r Armies and navieß serve no other purpose than to protect nations against other cations." There is nothing m civilisation so degrading as its system of warfare. A^ savage nation goes to war fo? revengi or some kindred emotio.n, but civilisation keeps profoeaional murdorera to butcher their fellowmoa m cold blood and all for what 1 To proteot theiußelvoii m monopolies, j abuses, and all kiird of injustice, 1 have not yet gone into the strict letter of pro tection m its political nnaain.g; it would draw this letter out tQ too groat length. At another tirao I may give yon something on that line, — I am, etc , A. Ireland