Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1844-08-01

lIleIeIOTe CONSTITUTIONAL. AS IL IS CeIldil tildt
higher taxes are exacted from the citizen on
account of it, that his property is taken from
him to sustain it, they can hardly stop at ne
gative point. They admit its protective infiu-
ence is beneficial. because it choapens goods to
the consumer. This is, at least, new, il not
q good position; but it is SO Inconsistent with
their own doctrines, and SO false in itself, that
we must suppose argument to be abandoned,
and the more convenient method of fabricating
facts and figures is now their instrument to
sustain their flagitlous policy.
The protective policy cheapens goodsi and
yet, in their very next breath, after some thir-
ty years Of protection, they declare to us that,
without the continuance of the present protec-
tive tariff, the highest and most comprehen-
sive that has ever been put upon the country,
all the manufacturers of the Union will be ru-
med. A thirty per cent tariff will be their
desolat!on To support this wretched fallacy,
which would disgrace the debating club of a
country schoolhouse, the Commute of Manu-
features of the present Congress have gravely
put forth in their report several tables. These
tables show that many articles of manufacture
at the present are now cheaper than they were
five Or ten years ago. Every one knows that
this must be the case in every manufacturing
nation in Christendom, from the introduction of
steam, and the Improvements in machinery dali
! ly going on. But why did not the committee,
if they intended to show the truth, run par
allel column, showing the prices abroad2 The
reason is obvious. This would have shown
that, although prices had fallen in the United
States, from causes common to manufacturers
everywhere, they had fallen still lower in for
eign nations; and that, after thirty years. mo-
nopoly of the domestic market, the prices of
manufactured goods We're still, as compared
| with the foreign production, as high, if not far
higher, than they ever were; and, consequent
| ", that the same tribute was exacted from the
| American consumers to support them. But to
show that this new doctrine of the effect of a
protective tariff to cheaper goods is untrue,
and that its advocates know it to be untrue.
we have only to turn to the report itself, and
read its reasons for laying duties for protec-
ton. ''The two great items" says the re-
port, (Which go into productions of all kind
are capital and labor; and in both of these the
! foreigner has manifest advantage over our
citizens. In England and on the continent,
capital is worth only three or four per cent,
while in this country it is worth from six to
eight European labor costs faom IS to 9s
per 1ceek, including board; while in this coun-
try labor costs that per day. Under these cir
cumstances, hoy can the american ma1aufac-
turers compete Nth those Of Emope2 We
want protective duties mainly to counterfeit
the influence of cheap labor" Here the
whole matter is disclosed; and we have only to
meet these sophisters with their own question,
to show their own falsity of their assertion
that their policy enables them to undersell the
foreign manufacturer: ''under these circum-
stances, how can the American manufacturer
compete with those of Europe2" 1t is impos-
sibe, by their own showing and acknowledge
ment, 50 long as the prices Of capital and la
Dor, which constitute the price Of all commodi-
! ties, remain unequal-it is impossible, unless
/ counteracted by other advantages, which have
nothing to do with this policy, that the Amer
lean manufacturer can sell his goods as cheap
as the foreign producer; and all assertions and
pretensions to the contrary are blushless false
hoods. The American planter and farmer, in
spite Of the cheaper capital and labor Of Eu-
rope, can undersell the foreign producer not on
" in our markets, but in those Of Europe
They must, therefore, expect no aid from gov
eminent; and the government can give them
none, to secure to them the domestic market
by duties on importations. Protection, in spite
of the professions Of its advocates, with them,
can never be any protection. A hundred dol
lars duty laid on every barrel of wheat, or bag
of cotton, imported, will be precisely equiva-
lent to no duty at all; because they already sell
cheaper than the foreigner, both in our mar
kets and in those of other nations; and are,
therefore, beyond his competition. With or
without the duty, there can be no importa-
tons of wheat Or cotton, excepting in extraor-
/ Of who ~
not to be any duty. And this partial opera
ton Of the protective system is absolutel y ne
cessary to its operation at all. If all pursuits
of industry in country were protected alike,
as the advocates Of the system say they pur-
pose, it would be no protection at all. If the
manufacturer, when he got dollar more from
the wheat-grower for his cloth, had to pay him
a dollar more for his wheat, what would he
gain? How would he be protected? Should
every man in community, by dnties imposed
on foreign importations, be enabled to sell the
products of his labor twenty or a hundred per
cent. higher, who would profit by it? 1t would
be precisely like an expansion of the currency
all would get, nominally, higher prices, but
none would be richer for them. For there to
be any protection at all to any interest, by le-
gislation, it is necessary that 1t be partial. To
take from all, and to give back to all equally,
is as useless as it is absurd. You must take
from some and give to others, to benefit any.
Its advocates know that the protective policy
cannot, in the nature of things, be general in
its operation; and they would renounce it if it
could be SO. To sell dear and to buy cheap
the great doctrine of free trade-in spite of
their denuncations of it, is their principle
They would buy at the lowest prices which
natural and foreign competition will produce.
They would sell at the highest prices that CO.
ercive legislation, by excluding foreign compe-
tition, will enable them to sell: thus using the
government to appropriate to themselves the
property of its other citizens. This they must
do, to be protected, as it is politely called.
! Mr.. Chairman, if we will look over
the world, we will see how the Almigh-
ty himself has placed his ban on this