The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-02-23
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON THE
FREE-TRADE HERESX.


a doubt in the minds of intelligent men.
The protection such a Tariff will afford
to our manufacturing enterprises is un-
doubtedly matter of the greatest i'm
pertance. But its absolute necessity arises
from the financial condition of the Gov
eminent. We are compelled to raise by
taxes of some kind not less than three
hundred millions of dollars year to pay
| the interest on our public DEBT and meet
J the ordinary expenses of the Government,
leaving nothing for the reduction of the
| debt. Half of this sum we now raise
| b. a direct internal tax. An equal sum
is raised from duties on foreign imports.
This latter amount Is paid in gold. and
is the only means the Government pos
sesses for paying the gold interest on its
| bonds.
The repeal of all tariff duties on for
efgn goods would not onl y enable foreign
capitalists to enter into rulnous compe
| tition with our manufacturers, but would
| deprive us of the means of paying our
| gold interest, or compel the Government
to collect this vast amount in gold by a
direct tax Oh the people. A direct tax.
nearly one half of it in gold, of$3OO, O0o,-
J 900 would be annually assessed on the
people, In the meantime, the removal
Of all protection to our manufacturing in
dustries would result in breaking down,
almost entirely, that mighty interest of
oar country, force hundreds Of thousands
of operatives into agricultural pursuits,
and by reproductions greatly lessen
the price of our corn and wheat, and di-
..4.uish to an alarming extent our means
to pay this Largely augmented tax
| One hundred and .fjiy millions of dollars
would be taken from foreign importations
and placed upon the shoulders Of our
own over burdened taxpayers, all for the
benefit of foreign manufacturers, and to
the ruin of our own, and the beggary
of tens Of thousands of American labor
ers.
1t does not seem to US that the people
of this country, and es becially the labor
ing men, will require very long time to
solye this question, whether high tariff,
which collects this hundred and fifty mill
ions Of gold annually from foreign capt.
talists, shall be continued, or whether
they will pay it from their own pockets.
In deciding the question they will not be
likely to forget that in case our man
ufacturers and laborers are protected,
new branches of industry will be built
up, labor diversified and rewarded, and
certain prosperity secured while in the
other universal prostration of manufacture
ing enterprises will be sure to follow, la Dor
will become drug. and of course wages
will decrease, and the demand for cur
agricultural products will diminish be-
cause their quantity will increase. A di-
versifed industry is absolutely necessary
to the prosperity Of the country. Moth
ing would be so disastrous to our nation
al welfare as 10 limit the pursuits of la
Dor to agricultural occupations. and few
, of the unskiiled branches of Industry
To break down our iron, cotton. and
WOODEN manufactures, as the policy Of
Free Trade would be sure to do, would
force nearly or quite half million of Ia
boreTs from manufacturing pursuits to ag-
ricultural-from consumers they would
become producers. Instead of buying
what other people raise. they would raise
all they consumed, and much for which
they would desire but find no market
There are springing up, all through
the South, cotton and other manufactur
ing establishments. They have all been
encouraged iuto life 10y our Protective
Tariff. Every one of these cotton facto
ries gives employment to large number
of u occupied men and women, and to
certain extent increases a demand for the
labor, and therefore the wages of all the
rest It also enables every planter to
command better price for his cotton, a
more ready market for his corn and pork,
and every farm product. A factory at
Jackson, Mississippi, or Knoxville, would
save the planters in the vicinity of those
| towns the expense o. Transporting their
cotton and other products to the Mississi-
pi for a market. He could find one at
his very door, saving both time and mon
ey. Enough of these manufacturing es-
Establishments to furnish a home market
for all they false would soon make the
Southern planters, large and small, the
most prosperous ard independent class of
men in the world. They have everything
to make them so. but such market.
Protection to American Industry would
surely create it. Free Trade would pre-
vent this blessing from ever being reali-
zed, and would compel them to seud
their cotton to Europe and New England,
and to abandon the production of nearly
everything else, and give little remuner-
alive employment to their laborers, a
poor and distant market for their cotton.
and very little demand for their corn. a
reliable home market for everything thai
is produced is the surest source of pros
perity any people ever have found or ever
will.
We said at tie beginning that high
Iarih Is revenue necessity. We might
have asserted with equal distinctness
that 1t Is also an iadurtial necessity. In
deed, there is an parable connection
between our revenue and our industry
| and the ca Sc NTH uhi,h ua % r,i.o l..