The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-08
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT PROFESSIONALISM EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
'PROTECTION" WITH IT'S BEST FOOT
FORWARD
Fnonl Me N. Y. World.


easily accessible productions already IN the
book-market he would not eXpend super
Auous labor in writing his new treatise on
GEnolitical economy" There are five such
publications offered for sale at the IJ{bUHG
office. varying in bulk and price from pom
derous work in three volumes at ten dollars,
down to n thin pamphlet at ten cents-an as
sortment adapted to the intelligence, leisure,
and means of every class of readers. Unless
Mr. Greeley has new arguments, or can set
forth the old ones with more persuasive
ability, there is no reason why he should add
to the number of existing publications.
He, therefore, cannot complain-on
the contrary, he must consider him
self complimented - if multiplication
lists regard his work not merely
as the latest, but as the most skilful, cogent,
and formidable defense of protection which
has vet appeared. If his reasoning is demo-
lshed, and the cause eXplodes in the hands of
its foremost advocate, there is small encourage
ment for other champions to come into the
field We are therefore pleased to see the
numerous testimonials to his pre-eminent
competency which Mr.. Greeley appends to his
second chapter. True, they may seem little
superhuous in the same columns which contain
the applauded treatise, since arguments of re-
markable strength and clearness might be pre-
sumed to attest their own merits; but the in
dorsements paraded by the Tribune have at
least the advantage of precluding the minor
protectionist journals that make them from
saying, after Mr.. Greeley is refuted that
strong cause broke down in the hands of a
weak advocate.
In his second chapter, Mr.. Greeley makes
quite formal statement and explanation of
the principle of protection as he would practi-
cally apply it. The germ of his whole treatise
is here exhibited with so much elaboration
and care that we copy the entire passage
We assure our readers that this long extract
is not the ironical forgery of a free trader in
tended to turn protective tariffs into derision,
but the serious exposition of the leading
champion of protection, faithfully copied from
the Tribune of Saturday, with no other change
than printing few lines in a different kind
of type:-
'Now let me show, without reference to ex-
listing interests, wherein and why would apply
the principle OF protection.
''Tea is grown almost wholly in China, Japan
India; and wherever grown at all, in ATTITUDES
and climates whereof parallels are found in our
own country. And we have already ascertained
10y experiment that the tea-plant germinates
fOurishes, and natures in upper South Carolina
and in East Tennessee. 1t should have been
tested long since at n hundred different points
throughout the Union but there is no room for
rational doubt that as large an area of this re-
public as of China will produce tea abundantly
and continuously, under proper cultivation.
'tNow it Is inevitable that, so long as the tea
drank by our people shall continue to be grown
in China and Japan, the consumers here will
pay (quite apart from and above any tax or duty
imposed on its importation by our Government
three to six times as much for their tea as the
Chinese growers receive for it. The Old HysOn
for which our drinkers pay in the average full
dollar (specie) per pound over and above the
tax which goes into our Federal Treasury has
doubtless been bought of the grower for twenty
to thirty cents per pound; the residue of the cost
to the consumer Qess taxi being made up of the
Hto md nha of hn arin oIarc aud
fOrwarders, agents and brokers, through whose
hands it has passed on its way from the interior
of China to the interior of the United States.
II want to save the millions on millions thus
annually eXpended-I believe uselessly, waste
fully expended. want to divide them between
the grower and consumer of tea or to secure
them to him where the same person shall be
both grower and consumer / believe that to
pursue this policy is to increase the reward of
labor generally, and especially of American
labor. Instead of one million persons growing
tea in China, one million more mining gold and
silver in Nevada to pay for that tea, and other
three or four millions employed as merchants,
factors, shippers, navigators, canal boatmen,
brokers, etc. etc. etc, in transmitting the tea
from the grower to the consumer, exchanging
his product for the gold and silver wherewth
the Chinese are mainly paid, and forwarding
that gold and silver Cor some equivalenD to the
tea-grower would have two millions of our
own people growing tea, two millions more pro-
ducing the various staples and fabrics that our
reduce the whole number required to effect the
necessary exchanges to one million, and save
the gold and silver to reinforce our now dis
honored currency and pay off our enormous debt.
'Now protest that, in maturing and aVowing
this conviction, have been nowise lmpelled by
contempt or hate of the Chinese-of their pa
ganism, their polygamy, their pigtails, or their
reputed fondness for stewed puppies. Whatever
there may be of evil or of good in their pecu-
liarties lies entirely outside of the range of my
economic conceptions and impulses. Nor have
l been swayed by any special addiction to tea or
to tea-growing, nor by any desire to enrich pre-
sent or prospective tea-growers, much less to
endow them with n monopoly, gaintul to them
but baleful to all others. | have no peculiar
affection for them-no desire to promote theiI
interest otherwise than as it is identified with
the general good perceive and admit the pos
sibility that certain persons might, by an early
importation of tea seed. or by growing large
quantities of tea plants for sale in advance o
most others, secure to themselye
peculiar advantages; but this is an Incl
dent which | did not desire, and care not Il
obviate. do not see how those persons can b
justly reproached as monopolists, more than tn
grower OF new American grape or seeding
potato. And, if they should proceed to grow te
In advance of their neighbors, and should sci
their early crops at exceptionally high prices,
should be rather inclined to rejoice over tina
deprecate their good fortune, because l am sur
it would incite more and more to embark
American tea-growing till the profit thereC
should be reduced to an equation with that {
other departments of our national industry
Unless regard for self-interest has been elm
mated from human nature, and water mas cease
to run down hill, this consequence OF large pro
fits accruing in pursuit open TO all Is lneWu
BILE; and it is this that seek by protection
secure"
The principle of protection, as expounde
Il 10 1fsag hat