Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-09-03
WHOM DOES PROTECTION CONCERN

This question, is asked rs to the Tariff, and as
the greater interest of the poor the rich in Proe
tive duties, is good deal like asking, VhO ha'
the greater need to be defended by the laws, Il
weak or the strong For as the strong are able
live with less aid of laws than the weak can tn
wealthy better take care of themselves than tn
desttute-For the latter there may be need of poor
houses and other public charities these, therefore
though purely artificial coptrvance, all Govern
ments find it good to create but is it the rich who
require them2 We approhend not.
Now, to say that protective tariffs are adopted for
the benefit of the capitalist is just about as true as
that laws made for the benefit OF lawyers only,
that houses are built merely for the sake OF
the overseers of the poor But there arc others who
have much greater interest i'm the existence of
law than lawyers, and i'm that of poor houses than
the overseers. 1t is all the difference which man
has between the necessity of living and that of get
ting rich. Laws and poor-hOuses may enable law
yers and overseers to grow richer but the rest of
the community could not exist without the laws and
The paupers would perish if there were not roor-
houses So is it with laws that, by what we call
the Protective System, create more lucrative en-
Payments Tor those dependent for subsistence on
their daily labor. The same laws help the CAPT
tast-a man already possessed of some weaIthLto
get more but what is the little and vain endowment
oil show, which added wealth creates for him, i'm
comparison with the solid comfort spread amonp
whole bodies of the poor by these laws which BRING
their labor into constant demand, and advance the
compensation still more in that continual employ
mont than in tho nero rite nf ,cns,es z
IT, then, protective duties are to the advantage of
one capitalist (who could, however, live without
thcm.) they are of vastly more relative advantage
TO perhaps hundreds of poor in each mandatory.
who could scarcely lire, even, without them, and
about whom at any event. they double and triple
and qdadrupe all the security. and comfort, and re-
spec,ability of life
To Judge surely of the fact which we arc
asserting, let any one look ut the comparative CON
dton OF the laboring poor, in those quarters where
the Protective System has reared up these artificial
employments, and in those other quarters, where it
has not. In the former, you see all busy, digent;
and well paid the women as profitably occupied as
the men, in proportion to their strength; and tho
very children either at work. or at school, upon
funds which the surplus of their own wages has in
reality often supplied. No rags, no wretchcdness.
no melancholy cabin, aliroocss, and with floor of
mud, tattered troop of wild children about it,
sad mother looking half famine struck, to be seen
occasionally through the dismantled door or broken
walls, her husband probably gone fishing or a
hunting because he, the sole worker Cor the family;
cannot get employment more than half HE time
This latter is the description, familiar TO every body,
OF the poor of all those parts Of the country where
the bcneicent action of the system speak of has
not yet created employments. Among them tho
habitatiOn is such as scarcely defends from the
weathcr the raimen is scanty, coarse. unstlited t,
the season, and full of rents patches the food
itself is bad, Insufficient and always uncertain for
the morrow and five dollars at time in money is
4 thing no more to be dreampt of than the posses
sion of the Bank of England. Add to all this the
saddest ofhuman deprivations-thca absence of near
ly all hope of ever lettering their condition. This
is the situation of the poor--of those who have not
farms of their own-ovcr nearly the whole country
where manufactures have not yet sprung up. Elk
cept their color, and some few general signs of be-
longing to civilized life they very little better
off than savages.
On the other hand see what general comfort,
what cheerulness in the dwelling, what decency
and fitness Of the apparel, what abundance and nice
ty of the food, what multiplication of all the
household conveniences, what habits Of order and
industry, what general education, what respecta-
bility, what cheerful expectations Of the future.
grow up among the laboring classes around every
centre of the employments which these laws for the
encouragement Of production at home bring about.
Let any man look all this, and tell u.s. if he has
the conscience, that this system and these establish
ments for the benefit of ''bloaed capitalists ~
For one benefit to those capitalists, they confer
hundreds of benefits on the working classes This
we will take another occasion more infinitely and
Systematically to explain, and to develope as we'll
as we can, the whole necessary relation and de-
tendency between the employer and the laborer-a
dependency Gas we have said) much more necessas
ry to the latter than to the former.-Nm Int