Weekly North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1858, 1851-10-15
WHIG ABSTRACTIONS.

wHIG .ABsTRACT1ONs.
The author of the following we do not know. W.
6nd it 1" going the rounds s" without credit. 1t pre-
sents. in an amusing light, the many absurdties o.
| the " protective " theory:
Abstractiyn First. Government by enactng a
protective tariff may enrich the manufacturers with.
out impairing the means of the rest of the commu.
nifty.
Corollary. The will ola legislature creates wealth
therefore man has outwtted his maker, and need no
longer earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.
Second. The best way to enrich nation is to COM
pei the people to follow occupations for which they
neither fitted by skill, capital soil climate.
Corollary. 1t is cheaper to make sugar from beets,
and oranges in hot houses, than to buy these
tcles from the West Indies.
Third. A protective tariff benefits the nation by
diverting industry into new and more profitable chan
Corollary. Government is the best Judge of what
pursuit in life each individual is fitted for, and should
control men in the choice of their professions trades
and occupations.
Fourth. If other nations lay heavy duties on our
exports, can avoid the i'll effects of those duties
by placing equally heavy duties imports for those
nations.
of all acceptation, to bite off your to spite
your face.''
Cor. 2nd. If you have to sell at cheap rates, you
may remedy the evil by buying at dear rates.
Fifth. If you exclude the manufactures of the
rest of the world from a home market, and give a
monopoly to a few domestic manufactures, you will
encourage competition, and reduce prices.
Cor. Monopoly begets competition, and dminishes
prices.
Sirth. The manufacturers ask for protective tar
if, because will reduce the prices of their manu.
features.
Cor. The largest profits made by selling at the
lowest prices.
Seventh. (This is the pons assinorum of whig po-
litical economy. first demonstrated by Mr.. Ciay.\
In the absence of protective tariff, the manufac-
turers sell few goods at loss-under such tariff
they sell great many goods at still lower prices
hence, though they lose each article, yet the
frequency and magnitude of the loss make the bus-
ness profitable.
Cor. Small pecuniary losses are ruinous, but large
losses make mems fortunes.
Eighth. The tariff is voluntary tax because il
man chooses not to salt iron clothes,
bot live like Nebuchadnezzar, or the wild boy of
Hanover, he will pay part OF it whilst he lives
and may even avoid it in dying, if he will put stones
in his pockets and drown himself, (there being no
duty on and water as there is on hemp, pistols
and powder,) and he might thus too dispense with
coffin, and shroud and hearse, and avoid the post
mortem taxes of the sheriff.
Cor. All acts are voluntary when the penalty for
dsobedience is merely death, because a man may
choose rather to die than to obey.
Ninth. The manufacturers will give the farmers
the foreign demand and produces glut in the home
market.
Cor. LIST. Guts are the causes of high prices,
! and when supply exceeds demand, prices always
rise.
Cor. I'd. When you wish to get high price for
an article, put yourself in the power of the purchas
er. He is sure to pay high price, when he finds
he can fix his own price.
Tenth. The tariff imposes the heaviest duties OR
the articles consumed chiefly by the poor, and thus
throws the burden of the tax the rich.
Cor. Mesmerism is true, at least in politics,
since the rich alone feel the blows inflicted on the
poor.
Eleventh. The foreign producer pays the duties
under tariff. and thus the government derives its
support from abroad.
Cor. lst. National debt and high taxes are great
blessings, because foreigners pay them for US and we
receive the payments.
Cor, 2nd. 1t is folly to repudiate, whilst by tar
iff you can compel foreign creditors to pay them
selves.
Itueb7h. horizontal tariff is partial and protec
tive to manufacturers, therefore it is right TO dscrim
mate in their favor and render the tariff still more
partial and protective.
Cor. When necessity ccmpels US to do sligh
injustice, we diminish the wrong by perpelrating
| gross injustice.
Thirteenth. The protective tariff of 1928 was
bill of abominatons This discriminating tariff o
l842 differs from it in name only, and is just ant
salutary law.
Cor. rose ,uon't smell as sweet by any othe
name.
Fourteenth Competition amongst manufacturers il
greatest under protective tariff, because it excludes
foreign competition.
Cor. A part is greater than the whole.
So much for the protective tariff policy. 1t is al
intricate subject but science has done much to un
ravel it; however, we have no doubt that the caus
of recovering above represented is suited to all me
ridians, and will satisfy every man who has his coun
try's good really a, heart.