The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1865-11-23
PROTECTION vs.. FREE TRADE.
Letters 10 American Voters.
NUMBER ".
NUMBER ".

Letters 10 American Voters.
NUMBER ".
In discussing the policy of the encourage
ment of home industry, there is one con
o.! ...!or. "L;ch should ever be kept III
mind venture to lay it down as an AK
ION, that a non manufacturing nation can
not be highly and pc, msamen1y prosperous
nation. Where the power OF production is
not increased by the use Of machinery,
people cannot advance rapidly in wealth. |
In some branches Of labor, this power ls
thus increased ten fold to a hundred fold. If
any number of persons. with the aid OF ma |
chiuery, can produce ten or twenty times as
much value AZ without it, it il clear that
nation which does not avail itself of this ad |
vantage, must ue dependent for necessarles
upon other nations, and poor because thus
dependent iet where is the nation which |
mas bult up IN extensive and powerful man
utlctur,ng interest without the aid OF
protective Legislation
But such legislation, to be highly effect
ua must be permanent Men are reluctant
to hazard large Investments in an under
taking which may be defeated at any time
by vacillating government j policy, or, in
the language Of Mr. Madison, ''if the laws
be repealed or revised before they are pro
mulged, or undergo such incessant changes
that no man who knows what the law is to-
day,can guess what will be to morrow The
want OF confidence in the public councils"
he says clamps every useful undertaking,
the success and profit of which may depend
upon continuance Of existing arrange
ments." E-*
| hak for 60 nj 10
himself out for the encouragement of any
| particular cultivation or establishment
when he can have 10 assurance that his
preparatory labors and advances will not
render him a victim to an inconstant gov
lernment p
Equally essential to national prosperity is
the dtUe' ifcGtiOR Of tabor. There is among
men in every community a great diversity
of talents and dispositions. Some are natu-
rally adapted to one pursuit, some to anoth-
err. Hence results of human exertion may
be immensely increased by diversifying its
objects. Each individual can then fiud his
| proper element, and serve the community
with most effect. By this increase of the
objects of labor, the aggregate amount OF
the products OF labor is vastly augmented,
and commerce is extended. AS a general
rule, the greater the variety Of the produc-
tons of country, the more numerous will
} be its customers If merchants as class
should depend upon the sale of one or at
most, very few articles OF merchandise
they would soon fluid their business non
SUI porting one; aud they would be obliged
to abandon it, or Increase the number aud
variety of the different articles Of consump
ton. No less necessary is it for nation tt
multiply the variety of its products to at
tract the greatest number of customers from
y abroad. And let it never be forgotten, thai
it is the true policy of nation to procure
its supplies of foreign goods wholly in ex
change for its own products instead Of pay
ing in specie the large balances of excessive
importdtious. 1t is believed no nation car
long do the latter without involving itsc
in pecunialy disaster
observed somewhat recently, an est
mate of the revenue from customs, during
the present year, at the rate of importatious
during the first half of the year, making it
if | mistake not, little less than 1920 000.-
000 Desirable as it is to replcnish oul
treasury, | regard this as by no means
favorable sign of the times." Unless this
profuse influx of foreign goods be speedily
checked the people will soon find that il
would have been far better to pay at least
one half the amount of this revenue in di
rect taxes. For some five or six years prior
to the crash ot 1857 oar imports and the
revenue from customs were about double
the amount u ~hat they We're under the
tariff act of 1912; but SO far as this, in tile
view Of soIae of our statesmen from being
the index If d sound and favorable state of
things, that they looked for such an event
az actually occurred Two or three years
before MIR Sew Yard, then in the Senate, pre-
dlcted tie fcvu!sion of 1857 fixing the time
Of IT'S occurrence III the very year III which
1t took place Ia this however, he exhibit
ted no extraordinary sagacity. 1t was the
natural and necessary effect of the cause
which existed at the tiae Of the prediction
We have an enormous public debt; de
sire most sincerely its rapid extiuguishment
1t would lose half its terror to me if | were
assured OF AN adequate, steady protective
policy for the next twenty years. | await
with great anxiety the action If Congress at
its erlsuiug session. Duties, to be adequate
y protective, need to be higher than they
have been at any former period, to the
amount at least, of the internal taxes upon
the various kinds of business laid for the
purpose of revenue
Let the Government discharge its duty to
the country; let the development of our al
most lillnitalie resources be properly Ell
outraged, and the burden of the public debt
will he com. aratively light. On the other
band, let us adopt the ''iet alone" poIicy,nr
the British Free Trade system the sys-
tenn recommended to us by British states
M oto 81.
us such as we have never experienced
The intelligent reader need not he told
that by british Free Trade" do not mean
the policy pursued by that country, but
that which her statesmen commend to other
countries. to deter them from adopting her
own. In every tariff debate in our Congress
the opponents Of protection cite these British
Opinions manufactured for tie OCCASION as
evidence that public sentiment in Great
britain IS changing i'll favor of removing the
restrictions of trade. The mohceS which
lihpeI the uttelance of these opinions the
reader viii readily perceive from the follow
n'g tact, An Inquiry was instituted 10y
PaI Ilalnent relative to the amount If British
goods consumed in other countries The
commission ported that. on an average,
each nhabitant of Prussia used seUen cents
wortl, OF British goods annually; each Rus
Sian Ffaeen cents worth; each Dane seventeen.
cents worth, eacn Frenchman trsnty Genus
worth, whilst each iubabitant of the United
States used f0Dr d0itarS aud taro cents ac0ria!
is 1t strange that an effort should be made
to dIssrade us from the adoption of a policy
that would subject Great Britain to the loss
OF such customer E?
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PithOle News.