22 THE WESTERN FARMER 



with, but not more than was the introduction of steamboats, 

 railways, electric telegraphs, and other improvements, which 

 largely benefited the many, Avhile they were, for a time, dis- 

 pleasing to a {t\\\ Indeed, it would not be long before the 

 owners both of the displaced capital and of the displaced 

 labour would feel and recognise the advantage of being 

 engaged in industries which were self-supporting, instead of 

 industries which were dependent for their very existence on 

 a national subvention revocable at any moment at the will 

 of the people. 



The manufacturers of the Eastern States " object to their 

 trades being called losing trades, because they and their work- 

 men live out of them." But they do not live out of them ! 

 They mostly live out of the §340,000,000 which the farmers 

 yearly pay to those trades over and above what they need 

 pay if they dealt with others. They live out of that, and 

 of as much more paid to them in the same way by the 

 rest of the American people. We believe that many trades 

 would thrive better unassisted, but by clinging to Protection 

 they proclaim their dependence on it. Were it otherwise, 

 why keep up such heavy import duties, and how is it that, 

 in spite of those heavy duties, foreign goods can still afford 

 to come in ? Surely those must be " losing trades " in which 

 $140 worth of capital and labour are spent to produce $100 

 worth of goods. Such trades depend for their maintenance, 

 not on their own merit, but on other people's help. They 

 are private establishments supported by public involuntary 

 contributions. 



We feel sure, however, that the manufacturers of the 

 Eastern States underrate their own strengtli, and that they 

 would soon walk alone, if they were deprived of the go-cart 

 of Protection. Under the wholesome stimulus of open 

 competition, the energy, activity, and shrewdness of their 

 race would rapidlyenable them to recover the ground they had 

 lost under the enervating influence of the coddling system. 

 We would venture to say to them, " ^Vhy, gentlemen, should 

 you not, v.'ith raw cotton at your doors, compete with the 

 Britisher, to whom it goes across the ocean ? Yet whereas 



