New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-02-18
PROTECTION AND LABOR.

Ohio, (who says he has long been our read
er and admirer,) writes requesting us to solve
for him this problem:
"You tell us that II a Protective Tariff were esab.
lshed the manufacturer would be able 70 obtain bet
ter price and sale for his abrcs the farmer for his pro.
ducts and the lsborer for his time and labor. Each
then would receive more for that which be might have 20
dispose OF and would have TO give Tor that which
be might need. In other words, the came amount OF
money would obtain lees farm pro1ucts, les labor, and
less smount Of fsbncs The effect would be general
depreciation 0! the value Of currency aud what would
be gsinedF
We'll, neighbour Let US try to answer
you cOncisely, as this 10 about the fifteen hun
bred and snty-eighth time that We have an
swered this very question::
Oily Jones, a farmer, lives in Illinois, where
he grows Wheat for living, selling thousand
bushels year for about sixty cents bushel.
Sandy Jenkins lives in England and makes
Crockery, which Is exchanged for Mr. Jones's
Wheat aforesaid. But before said Wheat
reaches said Jones, duty free, it has passed
through dozen hands, paid wagoning, railway
carriage, freight on the Lakes, then down our
Canals, over the Atlantic and transportation
inland, so that il costs jenkins every cent Of
double the money that Jones receives for it.
So, on the other hand Jenkins's crockery
comes To Jones through quite as many hands,
and is charged to him at least double what Jen-
lins gets for It,
Our propositions 10 levy such duty on the
importation of Crockery as will oyerbear
the natural gravitation OF Manufactures and
their Capitalization at the point where Capital
is abundant, Labor relatively cheap. aud where
! years of prosperous manufacturing activity
have concentrated the great bulk Of the orders
| for Crockery from all parts of the world
These are heavy odds, and wiz be likely long
to keep down all attempts at rivalry on the
part of countries crcumstapced like ours.
But put on fifty per cent. duty, aud make it
Jenkins's (or some ones) interest TO establish
the erockery manufacture near Jones, and
now the latter will for time pay nominally
more for his Crockery, but will receive so
much more for his Wheat that his apparent
loss by the change will be substantial gain.
And so with other producc0.
But how can they all gain by the change
Effected II one gains, why must not another
lose = asks in substance Ohio.-Wby, Sir, they
all gain by the ssring Of The 1nprodnetire labor
formerly consumed in trade and transportation,
Formerly every bushel Of grain consumed by
jenkins had cost as much 10 transportation
and mercantile charges as in its original pro-
duction and so every nearly with the crock
cry by the timeit had been sold TO Jones
This large aggregate of unproduetive labor
ard effort has been saved by placing the two
producers SO near each other that their wheat
and erockery may be exchanged at cost. OF
FIVE to ten per cent, instead Of fifty TO hun
dred
How soon shall We be required to answer
Ohio's question again At all events We
trust that he who asks will not pretend TO have
been long our reader and .lmirer. That is too
bad.