The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-27
SENATOR JOHNSTON AND THE TARIFF.

SENATOR JOHNSTON AND THE TARIFF.
We have received printed copy of the
speech of Hon. John w. Johnston, of this
State, made in the Senate of the United
States, March 2lst, 1872, on the subject of
the revision of the tariff. The speech is
one of no small ability, viewed simply as
an intellectual effort, but one which we are
constrained to believe does not represent,
and should not represent, the views and
opinions of the people Of Virginia. The
Senator starts off with the declaration that
he is opposed to the whole protective sys-
TEN, and in favor of free trade. But as |
the millennium of free trade is not likely to
come this year, the Senator assures us that
he will be content in getting as near
to it as possible. How near he
seeks to get to it, may be inferred from
some of the propositions he lays down as
governing his own action on the tariff ques-
ton. One of these propositions, and the
one on which he hinges his main argument,
is, that the tariff protects nobody but the
manufacturer himself. at is simply the
man." says Senator Johnston, "whose
capital is employed in converting the raw
material into the manufactured article that
gets the benefit of the duty. His employees,
and every other man, woman and child in
the community suffers the loss for the
benefit of this one man. While it protects
him, II injuries the farmer, the planter, the
teacher, the mechanic, the Larger, the doctor,
the merchant, the laborr, and erery other
class ofths community" =
Now, let us see how these plausible plat
itudes are sustained by facts of an incontro-
vertble character. If what the honorable
Senator asserts is true, then every manu-
featuring community ought, relatively, to
suffer the most from this loss of the many
for the benefit of the few. Richmond, one
of the most thriving manufacturing cities
of the South, ought to feel depression in
every other interest than that of the manu-
facturer himself The Tredegar Iron
Works, whose interests are largely fostered
by protection, ought to impoverish, to
greater or less degree, not only every one
of the two thousand hands employed there
in, but every man, woman and child IN
Richmond. For when the Senator uses the
word "injure," he means injury in strictly
financial sense. The protection accorded
the Tredegar Works "injures" every class
of the community, except only the owners
of that establishment, those turning out its
manufactured products. This is the free
trade truism, culled from the glitterine
generalities of the economical school o.
professors to which Senator Johnston be
longs.
And what is true of Richmond ought tt
be still more visibly true of the great STATE
of Pennsylvania, whose iron and other man
ufacturing interests are now so largely fos
tered by these impoverishing tariffs, laid Il
enrich the few at the expense of the many
The thousands and tens of thousands EN-
ployed in the mining, mechanic, and man
ufacturing arts of that state, as well as tn
hundreds of thousands employed in 1T
other diversified fields of industry, ough
to suffer distress just in the ratio in which
the protected manufacturer is benefited by
the tariff. The people of that state, there
fore, ought to be SO visibly depressed-st
stark poor and impoverished in all their in
dustries, pursuits and avocations-that tn
free-traders should everywhere be able t.
point to them as an example of warning t.
every other state in the Union.
This, we insist, is what should be the re
suit, if the free-trade argument of Senator
Johnston is good for anything-is, in fact
anything else than an inextricable tangle o
ideas, chasing up a possible redictio al
abswdum. There must be fallacy some
where, either in the argument, or the prac
teal working of free-trade principles. Sucf
tangle of perverted ideas and disorderl.
principles may serve very well in pulling
down Babylon, but they would never d.
for building up Jerusalem.
England presents, according to Senate
Johnston, a happier predicament. She ha
accepted free-trade as an absolute eco
nomic principle-as the groundwork for
complete cosmopolitsnism in trade. TIL
abstract freedom conceded to all branche
of domestic industry throughout the King
dom, ought to result in an equal distribu
ton Of wealth among all classes. But tn
principle proves mockery and delusio
even there. The skilled labor of England
flying from the pernicious effect of free
trade, and seeking remunerative employ
ment under tariff restrictions here.
England is struggling for supremacy i
industry and trade. She is seeking t