WHAT PROTECTION HAS DONE FOR AMERICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1620, 13 August 1887, Page 3

WHAT PROTECTION HAS DONE FOR AMERICA.

(San Francisco “News Letter.”) No man with anything like a well informed and thoughtful appreciation of what a protective tariff has done for the industrial development of this great country will desire to witness a return to the “ Freetrade ” of the socalled political economists. The day may come when we, like England, may beableto open our ports and invite and defy outside competition; but that is not yet. To attempt anything of the kind whilst we have not yet overtaken all the wants of our home market, in the matter of manufactures, would be madness in the extreme. _ We are simply not going to do it, and the sooner foreign traders take notice of that fact, and govern themselves accordingly, the better. And there is good reason why we should not. We, as a people, are getting along exceedingly well under our present system, as the facts of our marvellous growth demonstrate to all the world. What are those facts ? Let us hastily glance at what 20 years of Protection has done for our nation. Under the present tariff we have grown from a purely agricultural country, largely dependent upon Europe for our manufactures, to a nation teeming with important industries. During 20 years we have added 20,000,000 to our population; the number of our cities and towns with over 8000 inhabitants has actually doubled, having increased from 141 to 286. The population of our cities has more than doubled, having increased from 5 000,000 in 1860 to upwards of 11.000. in 1880. The important industries have developed in the same proportions. The annual product of our coal mines has increased from 14.000. tons in 1860 to 96,000,000 now, or nearly sevenfold. Our iron mines in 1860 produced 900,000 tons of ore, but the stimulus of Protection has brought up the annual yield to nearly nine times that amount, or 8.000. tons. The various metal industries of the country were in 1860 employing about 53,000 hands, consuming 100,000,000d01s worth of material, and producing 280,000,000 dols worth of annual products. Today these same industries give employment to 300,000 hands, consume 380.000. worth of material, and produce every year 600,000,000d01s in value of manufactured goods. In 1860 about 180,000 persons were engaged in industries relating to wood and its manufacture; to-day 340,000 are so engaged, while the value of the annual product has increased three-

fold, exceeding now 500,000,000d015. A judicious tariff has increased the number employed in the woollen industry from 60,000 to over 160,000, while the value of the yearly products of our home mills has risen from 80,000,000d01s t0270,000,000d015. In the cotton industry we have practically taken from England our entire home market of 55,000,000 customers, increased the number employed in our mills to 200,000 persons, and in the last two decades doubled the value of the product. Imports of cotton goods have declined from the enormous quantity of 227,000,000 yards in 1860 I to almost nothing now, whilst in 188l] we exported 150,000,000 y silk industry show* a like inf^ ne Our 3G,ooCLmiles of railroadjf creasy. ( have increased to'"4-2Q,oG(wjles, or about equal to the railage of the rest of the world. And while all this has been going on to the benefit of the producer, the consumer has also benefited by a marked cheapening of prices. Before the fostering care of a protective tariff made us independent of the foreign manufacturer we were subject to such prices, often exorbitant, as he chose to exact. Now the' keenness of home consumption has settled all that. Prices under Protection are wonderfully less than under a low tariff. The opening of our coal mines has reduced the price of coal in the United States to less per ton at the mines than the cost in Great Britain, and, owing to the low rates of frieght, to less per ton at the same distance from the mine. A policy of Protection has reduced the cost of iron and steel. In 1864, when our Bessemer steel works were undertaken, American railroad managers were paying from 80dols to lOOdols per ton for English steel rails de livered at English seaports. To-day home manufactured steel rails are quoted below 30dols per ton. The carriage of freight ever our railroads have been reduced since 1873 from lcent 7mills per mile to 1.07 in 1880, which is the lowest railroad transportation service in the world. The tariff has »o reduced the price of j cotton goods to the consumer that I many grades are now cheaper here than in England. A like experience is found in regard to woollen manufactures. The same is true in respect to silk, glass, earthenware, and every kind of manufactured article that we can at this present writing call to jiind. Millions hare been saved to the consumer, hundreds of millions have gone to the wage-earning class, a home market has been secured to the farmer, ani, whilst everybody kai been benefited and nobody hurt, we have rapidly grown to the proportions of a self-sustaining, independent nation. These broad, palpable, and undeniable facts are the envy of the word. History records no such industrial progress as baa been made ia the United States during the pa 1 ] 20 years. The present popularity and I strength of our protective system lie

in the prosperity it baa given|the nation; in the great industrial cities it has built up ; in the prosperous and diversified industries it has founded ; in the profitable home market it has given our farmers; in the varied employment it has given the men and youths of the country. la all that goes to make a nation strong and prosperous ; in all that goes to make a country great and independent; in all that goes to broaden the horizon of the j laborer, increase his earnings, cheapen I the cost of what he buys, and improves his condition—in all this lies the strength of the protective system. Firm in the convictions of our leading leaders, deeply seated ia the experiences of the country, strong in the hearts of a prosperous people, and laden with evidences of its rich fruit, we are not going to change it during the present generation at least. The tariff may undergo changes, but always towards Protection. We shall certainly not recur to the " early Colonial Bystem," nor be seduced by the Manchester School of "Freetrdears," charm they never so cunningly. The American system is safe in the hands of those who have prospered uuder it.