What is the Republican Partys traditional position on protectionism versus free trade?
Alfred E. Eckes, professor of history at Ohio University, former chairman of the United States International Trade Commission, and author of the tariff history Opening America’s Markets, explained in the New York Times of February 27, 1996 that protectionism is the traditional Republican policy. He wrote: “From Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to Alf Landon in 1936, every Republican Presidential candidate ran on a platform endorsing high protective tariffs — averaging more than 40 percent ad valorem on dutiable goods. . . . Protectionism was associated with prosperity and independence. Preaching class harmony, 19th-century Republican economic nationalists justified the protective tariff as essential for protecting domestic workers from imports made by cheap European labor. They considered the tariff a fee on foreign manufacturers for participating in the American market. . . . Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “Thank God I am not a free-trader.’ “From 1860 to 1932 the high-tariff card worked well for
