Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1846-08-08
WHOM DOES PROTECTION CONCERN

WHOM DOES PROTECTION CONCERN
This question, asked as 10 the Tariff, and as to
the greater interest Of the poor the rich in Pro-
tectye duties, is good deal like asking, Who have
the greater need to be defended by the laws, the
weak the strong For, as the strong are able to
live with less aid Of laws than the weak so can the
wealthy better take care of themselves than the
destitute. For the latter, there may be need OF
poorhouses and other public charities these, there
FORE though purely artificial continuance, all Gov
ernments find it good to create but is il the rich
who require theml We apprehend not.
Now, to say that protective tariffs are adopted
for the benefit of the capitalist is just about as true
as that laws are made for the benefit Of lawyers
only, or that poorhouses are built merely for the
sake of the overseers of the poor. But there are
others that have much greater interest in the ex-
stence of law than the lawyers, and in that Of
poorhouses than the overseers. II is all the differ
ence which man has between the necessity of liv-
ing and that of getting rich. Laws and poorhouses
may enable lawyers and overseers to grow richer !;
but the rest Of the community could not exist with
out the laws, and the paupers would perish if there
were not poorhouses. So is it with laws that, by
lucrative empoyments for those dependant for sub
sistence on their daily labor The same laws help
the capitalist already possessed Of some
weah-to get more but W hat is the little and vain
enjoyment of show, which added wealth creates for
him, in comparison with the solid comfort spread
among whole bodies of the poor by these laws,
which bring their labor into constant demand, and
advance its compensation still more in that continual
employment than in the mere rate of wages
If, them protective duties to the advantage of
one capitalist (who could, however, live without
them,) they of vastly more relative advantage
| to perhaps hundreds of poor, in each mandatory,
who could scarcely ive, even, without them, and
about whom, at any event, they double and triple
and quadruple all the security, and comfort, and
responsibility Of lile
| To Judge more surely of the fact which we are
asserting, let any one look at the comparative con-
dton of the aboring poor, in those quarters where
the Protective System has reared up these artificial
employments, and in those other quarters where il
has not. In the former, you all busy, diligent
and well paid the women as pro6tably occupied as
the men, in proportion to their strength and the very
children either at work. or at school, upon funds which
surplus of their wages has in reality often sup
Piled. No rags, no Indebtedness, no melancholy
cabin halfroofess and with floor of mud, tatteret
troop of wild children about it, sad mother looking
haf.famine-struck, to be seen occasionally through
the dismantleddoor broken walls her husband pro
badly gone fishing or hunting, because he, thu
sole worker for the family, cannot get employment
more than half his time. This latter is the descrip
tion familiar to every body, of the poor of all thos
parts Of the country where the benefcent action
the system we speak of has not yet created EN-
Payments. Among them, the habitaton is sucl
as scarcely defends from the weather the raimen
scanty, coarse, unsuited to the season, and full
rents~or patches the food itself is bad, insufficient
and always uncertain for the morrow; and five dol
lars at time in money is thing no more to b
dreamt Of than the possession of the Bank of Eng
land. Add to all this the saddest of human depri
vations-the absence of nearly all hope of ever
lettering their condition. This is the situation Of
the poor-of those who have not farms of their
own-over nearly the whole country where manu-
factories have not yet sprung up. Except their
color, and some few general signs of belonging to
civilized life, they very little better off than
savages.
On the other hand, see what general comfort
4 what cheerfulness in the dwelling, what decency
and fitness of the apparel, what abundance and
nicely Of the food, what multiplication of all the
household conveniences, what habits of order ant
industry, what general education, what respecta
bility, what cheerful expectations of the future
grow up for the laboring classes around every cen
ire of the employments which these laws for the
encouragement of production at home bring about.
Let any man look on all this, and tell us, if he has
the conscience, that this system and these estab-
shments are for the benefit of "bloated capitalists "
For one benefit to those capitalists, they confer hun
dreds of benefits on the working classes. This we
will take another occasion more infinitely and sys-
tematically to explain, and to develop, as well as
we can, the whole necessary relation and DEEPEN
dency between the employer and the laborer-a de-
tendency las we have said) much more necessary
to the latter than to the former.
i FROM MEXICO.
The frigate Raritan, Capt. GREGORY, arrived at
Pensacola on the Oath ultmo from Vera Cruz,
which place she left on the 18th.
Gen. Paroles was still at the city Of Mexico.
Il -. Il Al a