Wisconsin herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1846-1849, 1848-01-22
For the Uisconsia Herald.
The Protective Policy.

/ The Protective Policy.
The real question at issue, between the
advocates of protection and the advocates
of free trade, is this: whether we will give
Americans or foreigners, the control of our
markets. Its pretended that protective
tariff, is oppressive on the interests of agri-
culture and labor. 1t is asserted that it in
creases the price of manufactures. Now it
/ is fact Of which shall challenge contra
diction, that every protected article of man
uiacture which we can make and do make
extensively, has been reduced in price, by
protection. For instance, American cot
tons, which cost eighty-fve cents a yard,
when Mr.. CALHoUs's first tariff was inn
posed in 1916, are now selling every day in
our Atlantic markets, at seven cents yard;
jeans, which in 1910, was selling at sixty-five
cents a yard, is now selling, of better
quality, at ihirfy-fye cents. This is the re-
suit Of american industry and skill, pro-
exercise It's full energies and occupy its own
proper market, undIstur5ed by the parper
competition Of Europe. Take, for instance,
those ninimums which are so badly cursed
by the free traders, where the duty is spe-
cific, at so much per yard. Those duties, it
is said, under the tariff of 1912, amounted
to two or three hundred per cent ad valor-
EN-. Why Because the duty was fixed,
however, the price of the article protected,
might vary. As the price diminished, the
duty increased its proportion to the price,
At first, the duty was, say, half the price of
the article; as the price declined, the duty
became equal TO the price; then il became
greater than the price then double the
price; and at length, treble; and then free
traders exclaimed in horror, What an
abominable duty! Ii is three hundred per
cent. on tie total value of the article -
What horrible profits! How the duty must
raise the pricet' when, all the while, the
duty remained the same, and its effect had
been, not to increase, but to bring down the
price 10 onc-third of what ii was---from
thirty cents down TO ten cents per yard; and
this was robbery and plumber! When the
supply of an article is not equal to the de-
mand, the immediate effect of high duty
may, for the moment, increase the price aud
profits Of its manufacture, but this very in
crease induces capital to rush into it, and
the competition and increased supply result
ing, soon brings down the price and profits
to the lowest rates, proving the truth of the
proposition, that the +" higher the duty, the
lower the price" The imposition of duty
on an article produced here, gives impulse
TO American enterprise; the machinery em-
tploycd IL It's production is studied and inn
proved; an increased supply is the natural
consequence aud increased supply, while
the demand remains the same, must always
diminish prices.
The true principle is this; and the good
sense aud experience of this nation sustains
il, that duties feried for revenue on articles
IRE cannot produce, generally increase prices;
tnhiist proteetire duties, ierief on articles tre
can and do produce, aI,cays, IN The end, d.
a.inish prices. Ii il is true that protective
duties always increase prices, refer to your
data, bring forward your statistics, array
your facts, to sustain the assertion. You
cannot; for there are no such facts. Away,
then, with ,var seuseless clamor about high
prices, robbery, plumber und OPPRESSION
The people Of Grant are tired of such fool
ish twat,le. There is not man living in
this country who does not see every where
around him, the beneficial effects of the pro-
tcctive policy;--a policy which has reduced
the price of manufactures by increasing the
supply, increased the price by increasing the
demand for agricultural products, aud in
creased the wages of labor by increasing its
employments--a policy, without which, at
this moment, all the surplus produce of the
West, would scarcely sell for shifting enough
to cover its nakcdneSS.
TRUTH.
Potosi, January 1913.
Two pEAs ~ BASS kErrLE.-Two