The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-01-01

f frequent changes, to suit the manufacturing In
) terests, up to the present time.
ALI nations, so far as we can learn from history
have protected their industries until they became
well established. Such protection IN infancy is
natural. Manufactures in q nation do not spring
into existence at once. First In a nation comes
agriculture, next commerce., and then manuIac-
lures. The beginning is weak, and the progress
is slow and easily impeded. Look along our
streets as you pass, and you will see a box or cask
set here and there along the edge of the side
walks. There is a seed planted in the ground,
and it must be protected until 1T comes up. Alter
the seed sends up a young shoot, ana IL mas
grown up above the box, the first protection is
removed, and a post is set by the shoot TO hold it
up until it can stand alone. BY and by its roots
take hold of the soil, it grows up to be a tree, the
post is taken away, and the tree sends out Its
branches in defiance of the storms, and stands a
column of strength, giving protection IN turn to
man. So with manufactures. One of the first
cares of wise rulers in 81 nations has always been
to assist their industries until they could stand
alone and help themselves. When tine United
States Senate in 1921 put high protective duties
on cotton and wooden goods TO aid her young
manufacturing interests, England the same year
reduced the duties 10 cents per pound on wool to
aid her manufactures and mmerce.
We need protection now while we are young
as a nation. When we become well established,
we shall not require protection. When we can
produce ten times as much as we can consume !;
when we shall be obliged to seek a market In
every part of the world to sell our manufactures !;
when we can buy 150,O 900 900 pounds of cotton
for, say $40, 900 600, and can sell it again, after
our laborers have worked it over with our home
made machinery, for 800, 900 900, as England
has done, and is doing, then perhaps we can pro-
claim s free trade and try to cajole our pur-
chasers into buying our productions without
charging us any duties and we will, perhaps,
return the favor by charging them from 33 to 90
per cent. duties on sugar, and about 500 per
cent. on tobacco, as England and the United
States are charging us at present. Putting the
question on the ground of an equal exchange, we
should put duties on imports in selfdefense.
Why was the reel procity treaty, lately attempted
by US with the United States, not ratified at
Washington? Simply because the United States
Government did not see the benefit of throwing
away so much revenue. AS matters now stand,
we are paying TO the United States about $780,
900 a year for the privilege of selling our sugars
in their market, and we get about $50, 900 of it
back again in duties on American goods. Let the
exchange be made equal, and see how quick the
objections will disappear about the ratification of
the treaty of reciprocity.
We are sending year by year out of this coun-
try over $500 900 to buy things that we are
prepared to make here, and as much as 500, 900
OF that money is lost yearly, beyond recovery to
this country. 1t is paid for labor in foreign lands,
instead of being paid to our laborers here. This
estimate is probably far below the exact amount ;
but let even 800, 900 be saved yearly in our COM
MUMMY anu we would soon see the SOOu ELECTS
arising from it. At the same time our young
men and young women would be acquiring indus
trious habits, and skill in labor, they would be
getting the means of procuring homes, and rem
dering them in a degree comfortable. There are
hundreds who are now idling away their time,
and who, like all idle persons, are more or less in
mischief. who would, if our manufactures were
encouraged, be earning an honest and respectable
living. 5I. 49,.
Although 800 600 a year may seem to be a
small sum to save, yet il would soon tell on the
prosperity of this community. 1t would increase
in amount as our skilled labor increased, until
our streams, that are now in many places running
idly to the sea, by forsaken villages, with here
and there a few men and women lying lazily on
the banks, would be turning the ever busy wheels
Of factories. Instead of the present unbroken
silence, save the murmer of the running waters,
we should hear the hum and clank of machinery,
and see men and women coming at the sonnd OF
the factory bells to pass the days in remuneratlve
labor, and teaching their children habits of indus
try. 100000 a year thus saved would build and
fund an hospital on each OF the islands OF the
group in ten years it would build and fund a col
lege on each of the large islands. |
There is another source of outgO by this unequal
regulation of duties. Our planters make sugar,
but they cannot drink it, nor wear it, or work
with it. fla planter wishes California wines. or
American boots, or machinery, and wishes to ex-
change sugar for them, he must pay Il high tax
on the exchange. Suppose he wants SIC, 900
worth Of American products, he must send about
$4,000 worth of sugar to pay for them, or, in
other words, he must pay abont 60 per cent. for
the privilege of purchasing his goods in the
American market. The same inequality of trade
is against us in England, and almost all the rest
of the world. OF course the planter takes very
good care that as little as possible of this enor-
lneus tax on our labor comes out Of his pocket
consequently be can only afford to pay very low
wages for his labor. There is where. the Unequal
ity and injustice finally lights, The poor
Hawaiian must suffer the loss, and the result to
him is hopeless toll and endless poverty. What
we want is to remedy this tax on our labor, and
give the Hawaiian a chance to stand, up and be
an independent citizen. Give the Hawaiian la
borer a chance to earn enough to feed and clothe
his family, and provide something for old age.
All We ask is free trade as it applies to us here IN
this country. 10 not protect our industries,
under the existing circumstances, is about as I'M
wise as it would be for an army to 60 to battle
with only their naked bodies and bare hands
against an army of trained soldiers with all the
p pl iances of war.
Some things require more protection than
others. Each particular impost must be justified,
or not, by the considerations which induce it, or
tie consequences which flow from it. American
manufactures were in a great state of activity at
t e close of the war of 1915, but within three
years thereafter they were entirely ruined by the
rivalry of England. Protection came to their
relief, and they again revived and prospered, and
in a few years were able to rival their old antag-
onist in many productions in foreign markets.
England can very we'll afford to take the duties
off of most things. She is well established. She
has immense machinery doing the labor of 20,-
900 600 of men, and an army of skilled laborers
to direct it's movements and assists in working it.
Until very recently, she could manufacture and
sell for less than any other nation could sell to
her, and her best policy was to set an example of
trade, hoping that neighboring nations would
reciprocate. Other nations have failed to see it
in that light. Belgium is now sending manu-
articles to England for less than English
prices, and the manufacturers are clamorous for
protection against Belgium. The working people
of England, in some Of her late mass meetings,
passed the following resolution "That the
principle of free trade should be based on an
equality of international exchanges, but other
nations not having adopted the principle, it has
become injurious 10 England, and is the cause of
the present depression of trade, the want of
employment, and the increase of pauperism.