The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-02-11
"Protcetton.''

AQlStlnSulSDeu writer mas remarked TIA
in Europe one would think that government;
had been made first and men afterwards
But the satirist, who was an American, was
not as safe as he imagined against the re-
tort, that his observation was not less appl
cable to the United States than 10 the King
doms of the Cid World. Personal govern
ment is relic OF feudalism no doubt; but
what else is the policy ofprotection? Caesar
ism is an priori theory; but what else is
Greeleyism? The village must not be sub
sidized by the ancient castle, venerable will
gray towers and immortal memories Of grace
and valor; why, then, should it bring trib
ute to the modern factory dominating the
la1iscape with vulgar pretension and smoky
chimneys and Gathering cranks and wheels
Everybody knows the patent answer te
such questions. We have been oracularly
informed, and that with daily iteration, that
manufactures are the wealth of country,
and that the protection of the manufacturers
will enrich every other class in the commu,
nifty; but really there is not shadow OF diff.
ference between what Mr.. Clay named the
american policy" and the political absur,
dities of Vienna and Russia. No State is
wholly free where there is one class to which
all others must contribute-wherein there is
a ruling and pensioned lobby, whether impe,
rial, aristocratical, or industrial-wherein
property has no safeguard against ukases,
beds of justice, councils of ten, corn laws
and tariffs Of protection. The name OF the
privileged class by which he is plundered is
matter OF comparatively small concern to
the producer Of values; as to the farmer, it
makes little difference whether his crop was
destroyed by an army Of crawling caterpil-
lars or winged locusts, or as to the shepherd,
it is of small consequence whether his flock
has been decimated by foul vultures or
swooping eagles.
The manufacturer has no more right to
protection from the government than the
planter or the merchant. But each class has
an equal right to protection if that is the
policy of the government-an equal right to
exemption from taxation, if any one is ex-
empted "Fair play and no favor!" is as
good maxim in the arena of politics, as in
that where some stout athlete grapples with
his fellow.
The immense wealth that great manufac-
turing firms and wealthy individuals are
heaping up, any one can see; but perhaps
few are informed in regard to the small num-
ber of those who derive benefit from the
partial legislation of Congress for the
protection of this interest. What is repre-
sented as benefit to the country is q bounty
to the few. The Tribune has manipulated
the statistics in such way as to exaggerate
both the proportion OF population engaged
in manufactures and the amount of public
wealth they create
After laborious computation, Sir Morton
Peto-a competent authority-iinds that up
wards of seven-eightlls Of the entire popula-
ton Of the United States are engaged in az
ricultural pursuits, or in the various profess
sions and trades materially dependent there
upon. What can be more unreasonable and
unjust than to take the seven-eighths for the
support of the one-eighth-lo levy upon the
pockets Of every seven men IN a community
for the purpose of filing the purse Of every
eighth man? The injustice of the discrimi-
nation would be the same were the numbers
reversed and the one man made tributary to
the seven. But IN it's present form, protec-
ton is general wrong-it puts the vast
majority OF the people at disadvantage be-
fore the law.
Again, the value Of interest seeking pro-
lection has been exaggerated, by adding the
worth of the gross material to that OF the
manufactured product Thus to the leather
manufactures is cunningly added the value
of the hides and to the boot and shoe man
ufactures the value of the leather. To print
ing is added the value of the paper con-
sumed, to the products Of saw-mills the
value of thelogs. Tc woollen goods is added
the value of the wool, and to clothing the
value of the woollen goods. And to cap the
climax, the amount produced by manufac-
lures is swollen by contributing to it what
ever our fisheries capture from the sea! By
such pitiable devices the policy OF protection
has been imposed upon the popular credulity
as essential to the prosperity OF the republic.
The manufacturers, who are men OF intlu-
ence, sagacity, social standing and wealth,
have succeeded in producing the conviction
that they are ''the people," and that unless
they were sustained by class legislation the
country would be ruined.
In view of the facts we have adduced, we
ask for q reconsideration OF the proverb, that
figures won't lie. 1t is true only in cases
where the interest OF the accountant does
not require that they should bear false wit
ness
The South Carolina Institute.