The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1849-12-20
For the Sentinel.
Tariff Dnlies and Protection.
No. g.

from the labor of the consumer, and given
as tribute to the domestic manufacturer
For example, the tax on imports, paid by
the people of this country, for the year
lS4S, amounted TO S3l,757,O7O. Now
supposing our domestic manufactures TO on
ly have equaled the imports Though in fact
they were much more) then we have tax
to the amount above stated levied on our
domestic manufactures, and paid by the
farm ers, mechanics and laborers of the
country to manufacturing capitalists for
what they are pleased to call protection.
And yet they protest that this is not half
enough and call loudly for the restoration
of the tariff of 1912, by which instead of
the above amount, more than one hundred
millions Of dollars would have been rob-
bed from the labor of the country, to PAM
per the inordinate avarice of few privil-
eyed capitalists.
This is called protecting American in
dustry, and we are told that without thus
wronging every other interest, to pamper
our manufactures they cannot compete
with those Of other countries.
Let us analyZe this humbug. Before
the revolutionary war, manufactures were
restricted in this country and IN many cases
actually prohibited by statutes enacted in
the parliament of England, and yet they
could, and did progress and prosper, and
from that time to the present, we may
search the history of the world in vain for
a parallel to the progress which our manu-
featuring establishments have made. Now
during all this time, there has not been
more than eight years continuance of
l., ,.l 81, %
honor with the name of protective tariff
law. The question then is, how have we
been enabled to compete with foreign labor
and at the same time, make such an unex-
ampled progress?
To this we answer, first; that we have
been an industrious and enterprising peo-
pie. Secondly, we have an inexhausta-
BILE source of mineral wealth, and climate
and soil in every way fitted for the exer-
else of our industry, and lastly, we have
every species of material necessary for
manufacturing, without having to purchase
it abroad, as other nations have to do; and
with these advantages, no nation on the
face of the earth can compete with US no
matter what other advantages they may
have.
Ah! but then ''the pa,tper labor of Eu-
rope" here is the mighty bugbear. We
are told that the dense population of Eu-
rope, makes labor so much cheaper there
| than it is here; and with the same breath
we are told that we must have high pro-
tective tariff, or we will have nothing for
our numerous laborers to do. In other
words, we must have a high protective
tariff to create laborers, to do our work,
and we must also have high protective
tariff, 10 create work, or we will have
nothing for our laborers to do. Here is
a fiat and most ludicrous contradiction,
the premises Of which in neither case is
| true.
If European manufacturers with their
laborers to work, they must feed them, or
they will not be able to work, and this is
all that our American employers do, or
ever intend to do, and if we compare the
ruddy cheeks and robust appearance of
the European laborers who come to this
country, with toilworn skeletons of some
of our native laborers, we will be led 20
believe that the former have had vastly
the the advantage. II farmer throws a
quantity of food TO his pigs, or his poultry
more than they are able to consume he
very naturally considers the overplus was
ted, and precisely the same is the case
with an American manufacturer, if he hap
pens to give his laborer more than he can
eat and ware, he looks upon it as wasted
from the principle cherished by all capital
lists, that a man who has no capital ough
r not to clear any thing.
Now the Europeans have to purchase a
5 great part of the food for their laborers, a
the present from the United States. How
then can they feed their laborers cheaper
than we can ours! 1t would bother Hen
? ry Clay himself to answer this question
| This matter will be treated Of at length in
l future number.
5 All who have paid any attention to the
$ progress of this country, must have OBJ
: served, that men who have engaged in thu
| manufacturing business with capital suf
fcient to sustain them, have accumulated
wealth in degree far exceeding tha
gained by any other industrial pursuit.
Men who thus engage, particularly in th'
iron business soon monopolize all the lands
around them. Their possessions spreaC
f like wild-fre, and in few years they are
, surrounded by an enslaved tenantry, simi
lar to the fehdal lords of Europe, who's,
: extravaganza, and empty pomposity they
, try to initiate with the most mean and sla
wish servility. This they can do withou
, any protection at all, and yet they have the
grave affrontery to tell us that they canno
!, carry on business, or give employment to
laborers, without tariff to tax labor at tn
rate of 70 or loo per cent, for their espi-