The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1877-12-20
REVENUE AND rnsrEcruor.

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REVENUE AND pDorECrIOn.
Absolute protection is absolute pro-
hibition. Absolute protection is. there.
fore. the destruction of revenue. A
tariff so high AS to shut off allimporta-
ton is a tariff squarely opposed to all
revenue. The principle of protection
is at war with revenue, To give rev.
enue something must come in. To
give much revenue, something, or
rather a good many things, must come
in pretty freely. To get the largest
revenue. we must abandon the policy
of protection entirely.
1t is beginning to be spprehended
that the petting OF our industries. at
this period our history, is a luxury
which, IS great, impoverished people,
we cannot afford. We have learned,
at least, that protection cannot keep
industries alive when the market for
their products is insufficient, and that
we are paying much more than we
ought to pay for goods, while tho man
who produces them is not benefited.
Some of our industries. which have
been utterly overshadowed by pro-
lection, have died out. An illustra-
ton of the working Of protection, in
increasing the cost of goods to the peo.
pie, can be found in almost everything
we wear. A silk hat, for instance,
which ought to cost, at its best. no
more than five dollars, now costs eight.
The duty of sixty per cent. on the
plush and other silk employed makes
the silk hat luxury, and nobody is
benefited. We pay three dollars more
for the hat than we ought to pay the
halter himself docs not at all increase
his profits, while he finds his business
cut down to its lowest mark compati-
BILE with continued existence. for only
rich people will buy silk hats at that
price. A low tariff on the materials
say a tariff of twenty per cent-would
increase the revenue, and SO cheaper
the hat that everybody could afford to
buy it, aud thus set the manufacturers
at work. Forty millions of people,
with every man and woman among the
number heavily taxed to keep alive
our woOlen industries. while their
gates arc shut down aud their work
men unemployed, do not form q very
editying, spectacle. The people have
petted the manufacturers good many
years. They have submitted to taxa
ton for this purpose that none but 3
prosperous people could stand. Now
it seems 10 US that it is time for the
people to take care of Themselves
time for the fostering mother to push
the birds out of the meet.
We have butt wall around us-a
wall of protection. Our manufactures
are lying still because they have no
market. They can get no market out
side, for, with raw material taxed, as
they are in many instances, they can
not compete in the markets of the
world. Again, they can get NO mar
kets outside, because what those mar
kets hvae to give US in exchange is
shut out by protection Trade is q
game of give and take and we cannot
shut out the products of other nations
if we hope to sell them our own. We
ask for no free trade that will be in
consistent with q tariff that will give
us the largest revenue; but it seems to
us that the policy of taxing the people
of the United States for the protection
of industries that have become bank
rupt under tho policy, or have ceased
to find sufficient market at home, is
about played out.-[From Dr. Hol-
lands Topics of the Time: Scribner
for December.