Show e r j Ti jr r r PUBLIC OPiNION The Peoples Department of The Dispatch Think For It Write For It Edited by Sam A Kins To the Editor PUBLIC OPINION Nature is made better by no mien But nature oiakes that mien And oer the art which you say adds to nature Is an art that nature makes The above is conceded to be true by every student of nature in its physical and vital forms and it is equally true in the domain of intellect Every socalled improvement on nature if traced backward to that i which gave birth to the suggestion i will be found to have its origin in nature Whenever men depart from the simple laws of nature in their mode of living serious consequences result And whenever men depart from the teachings of natuie in framing laws for the control of industry and commerce they drift away from the moorings of safety and stability The law of nature relative to its unrestricted un-restricted intermingling of the elements ele-ments is the only safe guide that men can follow in their industrial and commercial com-mercial relations Whenever digressions digres-sions from that law are made industrial indus-trial and commercial paralysis results and just in proportion to the length of time and greatness of the departure from the natural law of interchange are the inevitable consequences Nature Na-ture demands the utmost farthing of he penalty she inflicts for any infrac tion of her laws Every industrial and commercial panic that has afflicted the human fam I il y can be traced to obstructive legisla tion or to some glut caused by overproduction over-production or unwise speculation Protection socalled in the fictitious or artificial values which it induces stimulates production far beyond the demands of the consumers of the products pro-ducts and stagnation in those lines of industry is the natural result And itt it-t lois to raafcon that the greater the pro sction caused by higher tariff laws nd the more uumeioua the products hat ire thus protected the greater will be tha incentive to production and wben the markets refuse to receiVe ceive the surplus products greater tagnatiou will be the sure and natural consequence and those that have been engaged in manuf cturing those pro tected commodities are forced to shutdown shut-down their works and discharge their emp oyes Thus dots tho stagnation caused by prottction icsult in two evils First suddenly throwing on the labor market thousands of men and women that are dependent on their daily toil for their daily bread and the sudden lowering of the price of products far below the cost of manufacture In order to check production and maintain prices the manufacturers form combinations factories are shutdown shut-down or the number j f their employes reduced and the prul cts disposed of in accordanre with the demands of the consumers Ti us are the manufactur era forced to the unlawful creation of combines in order to protect them selves from the inevitable consequences consequen-ces of the protection for which they are clamoring For more than thirty years the republican ican party has been building tariff dams in the stream of industry and commerce Every few years they have increased the height of those protective protec-tive dams and by eo doing have clogged clog-ged and obstructed the natural channels chan-nels of trade until the mighty pressure baa been so great that our industries have been unable to withstand the artificial strain and the result is that wreck and ruin have come to them An acorn may be planted in the soil of a hot house and in the heated artificial arti-ficial atmosphere of such a place its growth will be so unnaturally stimu lated that it will attain a growth in a few years equal to that of fifty years hi its natural soil and climate In an earance it would resemble an oak butts but-ts fibre would not be nearly so dense nor tougn and if exposed to the chilling chill-ing blasts of winter it would wither and die Many of the industries of the United States have grown up in the heated and stimulating atmosphere of artifi clal protectionand today the people are witnessing the devastating effects of such artificial growth Suppose the industrial development of our nation had been exposed to natural trade laws and environments growth would have been slowerbut like the oak that has grown up in the open air and subjected to alternations ot heat and cold the industries of our land would have been rugged and healthy and would have weathered the storms and tempests of natural conditions Such a thing as a combine which flourishes test under artificial conditions would have been almost unknown Strikes would b aye been less frequent because the industries would haye been developed in propor tion to the needs of consumers and overproduction would have been out ot the question Every strike lessens the wages of the employes by the law of competition among those out of employment for the privilege of laboring labor-ing in those industries not affected by strikes Had unrpstrected trade been the policy of tne United States the large foreign element would not have been lured to this land by the glitter of higher wages and thus the competition between American toilers for American = < V employment would have been reduce I to the minimum Under the soi > allec protection policy of the republican party and the high wages incident to the civil war wages in this country were at the highest point thirtv years aso and every time a foot or EO has been added to the height of the tariff dam wages have cone down As before be-fore stated those same high prices for labor have brought hither hundreds of thousands of foreigners who not only have been competitors with American working men but they have become a menace to the very existence of the industries that attracted them tothis land and to the government that shelters them The democratic party have charged the protective policy oi their opponents with the crime for it is a crime of building up one section of the country at the expense of another ano of fostering foster-ing one industry to the detriment of another That indictment has been met only with derision hut there is a case in hand which eyery man and woman in Utah can uiiderBtiud Thirty years ago the valleys and so called deserts of southern Utah were covered with grass white sage bud sage etc which furnished nutritive and almost unlimited pasturage for I tens of thousands of cattle The mountains provided a luxuriant summer sum-mer range from which the cattle would emerge so fat and sleek that they could endure the severity of winters with but little loss of flesh or numbers All it cost in those daysto raise a steer was a week spent twice each year at the spring and fall drives The owner of two or three cows could regain posseision of them at the spring drives and by securing the calves could turn them on the rich natural I meadows adjoining the town and make buttei during the summer for winter use In the tall tIe could turn out his cows and the natural increase would in a few years male him independent But protection to the wool industry came along and the stockmen as i class have been ruined Protection of wool so stimulated the sheep industry that the mountains and vallejs have been tIlled with droves of sheep whose close grazing and sBaip hoofs Lave destroyed the forage vegetation in the mountains and are rapidly killing the grass and sage of the desert ranges Jn addition to the natural profits of wool growing the protection afforded tho ownere enabled them to make trcm fifty to seventyfive per cent on th investment in-vestment This fact stimulated the industry all over the United States to the extent that the supply of native wools exceeded the demand and right 1 in the face of the highest tariff ever 5 known on wool it began to deprecIate in price until competition in tba selling sell-ing markets and a still closer compe tion lor western ranges had wellnigh ruined the industry before the panic which i 1 fifTjv tcniJafrle to the protective pro-tective policy finished the work of ruin to the wool industry of the west Now will not the most obdurae of our friends the republicans acknowledge acknowl-edge that those who raise stock are one class and that cheepmen are another an-other class Will they not concede that the tariff increased their profits Will they not ala > concede the fact that the unnatural profits of wool growing induced in-duced an unnatural expansion of the industry Will they not grant that the million and over of sheep in Utah denuded the range to the extent that cattle cannot now live where ten or fifteen years ago they would thrive In short will not any candid man concede con-cede that the sheep industry has killed the cattle iLdustry and that in so doing do-ing one class has suffered for the benefit ben-efit of another class aud that this condition con-dition of things has been wrought by the unnatural illogical wagedestroy lug and damnable policy of protectionism ism V J P GIBBS |