The Cortland Democrat, Friday, September
7, 1888.
Protection in the Old Days.
EDITOR DEMOCRAT:—In the years of 1780
to 1782, Alexander Hamilton was urging upon the people of this country the
adoption of a system of taxes, or a tariff upon imports as a source of revenue
and an incidental means of protection or "encouragement," as he called
it, to our home industries. The strongest opponents and the strongest feeling
of popular hostility to his financial scheme were found in the New England
States, especially Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The citizens of those states
being largely interested in importing goods for the whole country, were
bitterly opposed to the idea of levying any tax upon such imports. But after Mr.
Hamilton had succeeded in convincing the leading minds among them that the consumer and not importers would have
to pay the tax, he brought them completely over to his views and they were ready
to adopt his plan for a national revenue.
And upon the matter of protection Mr.
Hamilton argued that it would be necessary to give "our infant industries"
only a slight protection or "a little encouragement " for
a few years, and then, we had such natural advantages and such unlimited
supplies of raw material, that no country in the world could at all compete
with us in manufacturing any of the chief articles of commerce. Especially did
he claim that this was the case with iron. And so he recommended a tariff of
about 2 per cent on iron, assuring the nation that in from 10 to 30 years we
could produce that, and many other kinds of manufactured goods so cheap that no
other nation would think of competing with us, at least in our own markets, and
none of our own manufacturing industries would need any further protection or
think of asking it.
But how mistaken the great
financier was. For now, after nursing our "infant industries" with a most liberal supply of bounties
for about one hundred and eight years, we only seem to have succeeded in
raising up a number of great, fat, strong babies, who cry and kick
lustily at the least attempt to take from them, or reduce in the smallest means,
the supply of the pap upon which they have grown so big and fat, and
still like so well.
And strange to say those that
have received the pap the longest, and the most of it, cry the loudest
and kick the hardest. Those industries that have enjoyed the most protection,
assistance and encouragement, for over a hundred years, are the loudest in
their claims that they cannot survive without it. Yours Truly,
INDEPENDENT VOTER.
PAGE TWO/EDITORIALS.
What a sorry mess the Republican State
Convention, held at Saratoga last week, made of their platform. With a National
platform favoring free whiskey, they adopted a high license plank for their state
platform. The party is looking both ways, but they won’t catch any prohibition votes
by such methods.
A republican of this
place has been spending some weeks in New Jersey. He arrived home yesterday,
and reluctantly acknowledges that New Jersey will give the largest Democratic
majority this year that the state ever gave. He says the farmers and mechanics
are getting their eyes open on the tariff question.
Edward F. Gould, a Knight of
Labor of Indianapolis, has been collecting evidence to establish the charge
that Benjamin Harrison said, during the railroad strike of 1877, that $1 a day was enough for a workingman, and that
were he (Harrison) Governor of Indiana he would shoot down the strikers or force
them back to work. The Indianapolis Journal has denied that Harrison
ever said so and offered a standing reward of $2,000 for proof that he did say
it. Gould now produces fifteen witnesses who say they heard Harrison say so,
and claims the reward. State Senator Leon F. Bailey of Indiana also made a speech
to a great audience in Indianapolis Wednesday night, reviewing Harrison's record,
and furnishing evidence that he had used the offensive expressions. The whole labor
element of Indiana is fighting Harrison and fighting him hard. That fact alone will
have great influence throughout the country, whatever may be the specific facts
as to his record.— Elmira Gazette.
 |
| Construction, La Tour Eiffel, December 26, 1888. |
FROM EVERYWHERE.
Florida is to grow opium.
Russia has just borrowed
$220,000,000.
A boulevard 200 feet wide will
be laid out between Auburn and Owasco lake.
Twelve hundred convicts are
locked in their cells in Auburn prison, for lack of employment.
The estimated value of the
estate of the late Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, is about $5,000,000.
Last year Italy sent 120,000
emigrants to South America, an average of 10,000 a month.
Last week Wednesday nearly 134
tons of newspapers were mailed from the New York post office.
The poormaster at Batavia is
said to be caring for ninety-five families consisting of 267 persons.
Senator Frank Hiscock will
deliver the agricultural address at the Dryden fair, September 28th.
The "one thousand foot
tower" at the Paris Exposition will be only 984 feet high. It will take 2,500,000 rivets to put it up. [La tour Eiffel—CC editor.]
The Smith observatory at
Geneva, which William Smith is having built for the use of Prof. Brooks, will
cost about $30,000.
The new oil pipe line from
Lima, Ohio, to Chicago is in successful working order, the oil now flowing at
the rate of 333,000 gallons a day.
There is much excitement in
the hop market throughout the State. C. S. Terry, of Waterville, has just sold
his 1888 crop at 25 cents per pound, an advance of 10 cents within one week.
A new glove factory has just been
built in Elbridge and will soon be in running order, and the ground has been
broken for a new chair factory, 40x150 feet, three stories high.
Apiarists say that the
prospects are for a small yield of honey this season. B. Bacon of Verona,
Oneida county, an old and experienced apiarist, says that the crop in this
state will be only 25 per cent of the average.
The colossal bronze statue of
Gov. Seward has arrived in Auburn. The plaster mold from which the statue was
cast was made by Walter G. Robinson. The Ames company of Chicopee, Mass., cast
the statue. Its weight is 1,700 pounds. The pedestal will be completed in about
two months.
The little son of C. E.
Huntsberger, of Lyons, has a live frog in his stomach, and all efforts to expel it have failed. The boy held the frog in his hand
and opened his mouth. The frog jumped at the invitation.
To Rent.
Good suit of rooms with or without
barn. Inquire at No. 20 Reynolds Ave.
Rooms to Rent.
Normal students can find
handsome rooms for rent at No. 43 Groton Avenue.
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