The Arizona sentinel., 1877-10-06
Ten Reasons for Believing in Pro
lection to American Industries.

We beg leave to suggest in the
fewest words possible some of the
facts and general principles which
should influence tariff legislation
First, That, as productive labor
is the great source Of all national
wealth, it should.be cherished and
protected against injurious foreign
competition in all its departments,
mechanical, manufacturing, and
agricultural.
Second, That, although the i'm
mediate effect of a high duty may
enhance the price of the manufac-
tured article, yet this very enhan-
cement of price, making the bust
ness profitable, will soon attract
additional capital and labor into it,
ultimately reducing the price, by
increased skill, competition and
supply of manufactured goods. To
this, end duties for protection
should be specific, never ad va
loren.
Third, That protection is the
true policy of all countries where
the wages of labor are high, and
free trade is the true policy of all
countries where the wages of la
Dor are low. Hence protection is
the true policy of this country,
where wages are higher than in
other countries; and free trade is
the policy of England and other
countries where labor and its pro-
auctions are low, because free
trade would open our ports to the
free importations of their | W
priced goods, thereby competing
cur mechanics and manufacturers
to give up the markets and quit
work, buy everything and sell
nothing, or it would bring down
the wages of labor here to the low
and degraded level OF wages
abroad.
Fourth, That our farmers and Ia
boring men are much more bene'
flied than are the manufacturers
by the exclusion of foreign goods,
from the fact that at least three
fourths of the price of foreign
goods is made up of foreign agri-
cultural products and the wages Of
foreign labor combined. For ms
lance, wool constitutes half the
value of foreign cloth, and the wa
ges of labor make most of the other
half. Iron is almost exclusively
an agricultural product, consisting
of the grass and grain consumed
by the animals, and the bread and
meat consumed, by the men en-
ployed in its manufacture. Any
practical furnacenlan will testify
that when we purchase foreign
iron we pay out money for foreign
agricultural. produce, worked up
into iron by foreign labor and sent
here for sale, leaving our own
farmers without markets, our la
Dor without employment, and our
ricn mines of coal and ore undeve-
loped, buried, and useless under
the ground.
Fifth, Assuming that one-half
the value of foreign imports is
made up of agricultural products,
raw materials, and the subsistence
of labor employed in their manu-
facture, then it is mathematically
true, and proved by the official re-
ports of the Treasury Department,
that we import annually from two
to four dollars worth of foreign
agricultural products worked UP
into goods for every dollars worth
of agricultural produce, save cot
ton, we export to all the world.
Sixth, The free-trade theory,
that "the duties are added to the
price and paid by the consumer"
may be generally true as to arti-
cles not produced or manufactured
in this country; but it is not true
of articles that we can successfully
manufacture at home, the effect
of high protective duties being tC
stimulate competition and produc'
ton, finally reducing the price by
increasing the supply, as all eXpe'
rience has proved. For instance
cottons, woolens, nails, iron of al
kinds, steel, axes, saws, and Other
cutlery, glass, chemicals, ETC., are
as everybody knows, made a
home for less thln half the price
paid formerly when imported from
a ,road, and many Of these proc
ducts are now exported to. foreign
countries.
Seventh, The most convincing
proof of the immense value Of thu
home markets and the produc
tins of American labor WheI
stimulated by home competition
and demand is furnished by The
late war, which enabled our farm
erS and manufacturers to loan t.
the Government from their sur
plus earnings hundreds of million
of dollars annually to replenisl
the treasury and save the UniOl
by furnishing money, the sinew:
Of war.
Eighth. The importers and ven
doris of foreign goods are in fac
money collectors and tax-gather
ers for foreign countries; but if WI
-, oron1c i'm