very well adapted by nature
for raising sugar, for the reason that the cane has to be planted
every year, and every third year the frost puts in an appearance
just a little before the sugar. Now, while I think personally that
the tariff on sugar has stimulated the inventive genius of the
country to find other ways of producing that which is universally
needed; and while I believe that it will not be long until we shall
produce every pound of sugar that we consume, and produce it cheaper
than we buy it now, I am satisfied that in time and at no distant
day sugar will be made in this country extremely cheap, not only
from beets, but from sorghum and corn, and it may be from other
products. At the same time this is no excuse for Louisiana, neither
is it any excuse for South Carolina asking for a tariff on rice,
and at the same time wishing to leave some other industry in the
United States, in which many more millions have been invested,
absolutely without protection.

Understand, I am not opposed to a reasonable tariff on rice, provided
it is shown that we can raise rice in this country cheaply and at
a profit to such an extent as finally to become substantially
independent of the rest of the world. What I object to is the
impudence of the gentleman who is raising the rice objecting to
the protection of some other industry of far greater importance
than his.

After all, the whole thing must be a compromise. We must act
together for the common good. If we wish to make something at the
expense of another State we must allow that State to make something
at our expense, or at least we must be able to show that while it
is for our benefit it is also for the benefit of the country at
large. Everybody is entitled to have his own way up to the point
that his way interferes with somebody else. States are like
individuals--their rights are relative--they are subordinated to
the good of the whole country.

For many years it has been the American policy to do all that
reasonably could be done to foster American industry, to give scope
to American ingenuity and a field for American enterprise--in other
words, a future for the United States.

The Southern States were always in favor of something like free
trade. They wanted to raise cotton for Great Britain--raw material
for other countries. At that time their labor was slave labor,
and they could not hope ever to have skilled labor, because skilled
labor cannot be ensl