The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1851-08-21

The mort duty OF tax having been doubled the tobacco
njsnier has been compelled to pay the augmented ex-
psnsss OF Inc importation Tie shape Of increased
priess and the protective tariff instead OF being sys-
lem foreign labor and capital concealed
and circuous system OF taxation the home agrcu-
turist for the benefit OF the home manufacturer His
economy has been the in each year, and his
been the each year but it's exchangeale value
for other commodities is materially diminished by the
protective system, in raising the price of the commodities
to be purchased for his The enhanced price oil
such commodities is thus bounty TO the home manafac.
ture and tax TO the tobacco planter as the one is en-
abled TO SELL and the other is compelled 10 buy al such
increased prices Whenever an import duty dimnishes
the amount of merchandise commodities which bale
OF cotton or hogshead OF tobacco can purchase such duty
is tax on the bale OF cotton hogshead OF tobacco
and the injury to the planter Just as great by increasing
the prices Of what he buy by sinking the price
of his tobacco, or other agricultural products.
In further illustration Of the effect OF protective duties
on protected articles wherever manufactured, and that
such duties fall the in the shape OF increased
prices let suppose that the tobacco planter instead Of
selling home ships his tobacco to Great Britain and
strict computation OF every expense IN It's cultva,
ton, insurance, and transportation. finds the minimum
price, exclusive of the duty at which he can SELL win
out going the verge of embarrassment is fifteen cents
pound On appearing in the British ports, he IS com
PEELED 10 pay import duty OF about seventy cents
pound and as The duty T. nearly nve mrs ans yaus o.
ing TO il the seventy cents import duty, and to sell at
eighty cents pound The tobacco planter. on ef
fecng sale at this price to avoid has
not paid the duty but it has fallen with accumulated
weight on the British in the shape OF prices IN
creased from fifteen cents to eghtyue cents per pound
planter in British ports precisely the OF the British
manufacturer in American ports. Import duties fall on
the consumer and their operation s the same whether
levied for protection But let us carry on the
example selected to its ultimate consequences Let US
suppose what frequently in practice, that The TO-
bacco planter having sold his cargo OF tobacco IN British
ports purchases supplies for his family embracing every
necessary and convenience at rates current IN Great
Britain, and with the costs OF insurance and freight
to our ports, such rates are twenty-five per cent
under prices in the United States owing 10 the cheap
ness of labor and superiority of British skill and ma
chinery. In transporting these supplies through our
ports. their transit home under the system OF pro,
eclve duties encourage and build up, premaurely and
by artificial MEANS manufacturing establishments al
home, the tobacco planter is compelled to pay at the Gus
tom house import duties amounting TO twenty hye per
cent. on his supplies, which places them level with
the prices of our manufactures The low prices OF
the British merchandise, under the operation OF The pro-
ec've or rather punderng system suddenly sip IRON
his hands, and pass away like the flying shadow OF
summers cloud He finds himself subjected TO an lnevl-
table Of twenty five per cent every article OF con-
sumption, whether OF convenience or necessity from the
wagon the needle and from superne broadcoths
10 The coarsest cotton shirt Protection has cost him
twenty per ad vaorem in increased prices
his supplies and the more a
cuurst puI :hases supplies for his consumption OF
the manufacturer in foregn ports, or OF the American
merchant who imports them for sale, or OF the Amer-
manufacturer, whose prices advance part pdssu with
the standard OF foreign prices increased ny duties be
is equally subjected TO indirect and annual tax to fos
Ter our manufactures incorporating Itself IN the price, and
constitutinga leading ingredient In IT,
By the absolute exclusion OF specific manufactures
says Jean Baplsie Say profound and enlightened
writer on political economy, "a government establishes
monopoly in favor OF the home producers OF these art
ces and in prejudice OF the home consumers that is TO
say, those classes Of the nation which produce them,
being entitled 10 their exclusive sale, can raise their
prices above the natural while the home
being unable to purchase elsewhere. compelled 10 pay
for them unnaurally dear. II the articles be not wholly
prohibited but merely saddled with an import duty the
home producers then increase their prices by the
amount OF the duty and the consumer Will have 10 pay
the difference For example, if import duty OF franc
per dozen he laid upon eahenware plates worth francs
per dozen the importer whatever country he may be-
long to- must charge the consumer francs; and The
home manufacturer OF that commodity is enabled to ask
francs pei dozen OF his customers for plates OF the
same quality which he could not do without The inter
venon of the duty because the could get the
article for francs thus premium TO The whoie en-
tent of The duty gwen TO the home MANUFACTURER ous OF
the consumers pocket"
The profound and phosopbc author of the Wealth of
Nations lays il down fundamental and ndispuiable
axiom of political economy, that when agricultural
nation Expresses, either by high duties prohibitions,
the trade OF foreign nations, II necessarily hurts It's own
interest in two different ways First by raising the price
of all foreign goods and all sorts of manufactures
cessay sinks the real value Of the surplus produce OF its
land, with which, or, what comes the thing,
with the price OF which, 1t purchases those foreign goods
and manufactures Secondly, by giving sort OF monop
oily of the home maketslo its own merchants, arlhcers
and manufacturers, il raises the rate OF mercantile and
manufacturing profit in proportion to that OF agricultural
profit This policy, therefore, discourages agn-
culture in two different ways first, by sinking the real
paiue of its produce ard thereby iooerng The rate of its
profit; and, secondly, By raising the rate of profit all
other empioynsns Agriculture rendered less advan-
tageous and trade and manufactures advantageous,
than they would otherwise be"
Mr. Jefferson says that the general government, under
the power to regulate commerce. has assumed indeh.
nely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and
calls ulaon to take the earnings OF one oil these
branches of industry and that the most depressed too,
and put them into the pockets OF the Other the most
hourishing OF all" 1.-The general prostraion OF the
farming business, under euss for the support Of
eiwes &c, with the caamtous fluctuations of value IN
paper medium, haze kept agriculture in state Of ob
jeet depression"
In his justly celebrated speech agains, the tariff OF
1924, Mr. Webster, too, points out with per-
spcnty and force the operation OF the protective system
the general interests oil the country, by
ton OF prices On the single article OF IRON, he estimated
the protective tax levied upon the country that in
the shape OF increased prices by duty OF &22 so per ton
as equivalent i,on hundred and ttctny FIVE
thousand dollars per annun. Our population and
occasion OF delivering this speech he held the following
pointed and impressive language; Il know IL would be
very easy promote manufactures Mt least for time,
but probably only for short lime, II might act in dis.
regard of other interests. We could cause a sudden
transfer of capital and violent change in The pursuits
of men We could exceedingly benefit classes by
these means But wbat then becomes Of the interest OF
oihesl II is nothing 10 say that they may, II they
choose con buy the foreign article; the
The prce ~ augmented: that they may the do
nestle article; The pr,ce Of hof also augmented Nor
they supply themselves by the substitution OF their
own fabric How can the agriculturist make his
ironi To begin with the article Of
IRON Our whole annual consumption OF this article
IL supposed by the chairman OF The committee To be
As 900 or $4,000 tons Let suppose the latter. The