Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-26
For the Sunday Appeal
Free Tradc-TEe Liberty OF Labor In
its Grandest Proportions.
FOURTH PAPER.


| A few years preceding the introduction of
| the tariff bill by Henry Clay in 1924, Niles's
| Register, a paper published in Baltimore, be-
| came the declared organ of the protectionsts.
| All possible arguments in favor of his get
| theory Hezeklah Niles placed in his paper,
| and much to the detriment of future pro.
| gress. Other organs and societies were in
| stituted for promoting national interests"
\ The benefits to be derived from imports
| seemed so potent, and expedient, that the
| latent injury remained unnoticed. The New
| Englanders saw that they would get rich at
! the expense of the southern States. Virginia
| and the other Atlantic States at the tune
| called it beneficial act conducive to the
prosperity of all. The doctrines of free trade
| had few advocates and fewer papers to de-
| fend the right. Adam Smith, in his Wealth
| of Nations, had shown that protection was
not only immoral, but at last inexpedient.
| and his work was attacked as the head ard
| front of the enemy. 1t was against DR..
| Smith doctrines that the Philadelphia So
| ciety ''for the promotion of domestic indus
| try addressed its arguments In 1919. Their
| weightiest point was that England had be-
come the power among nations by her .ju-
dicious imposition of heavy duties. Taking
the passage of Adam Smith ''1f foreign
| countries can supply nation with a COM
modify cheaper than they themselves can
| make them they had better buy from them
with some part of the produce of their own
country" the learned society drew the fol-
| lowing picture of the then tariff burdened
England:
ports beng free, would supply England with
superior and cheaper woolens; Russia and
Siberia with coarse linens; Sweden with iron
| and copper; Italy and China with silks; Hin
dostan with silks, cottons and muslins; South
America with leather; North America with
wheat, flour, hops, barley, rice, sailed fish,
Oh a<,ek
bred thousand wooden operatives, of the
many workers in iron and copper, of the
thousands of spinners at Manchester, the nu-
merous fishermen of Scotland? What a
widespread scene of ruin and desolation
would take place! The wealth of the coun-
try would be swept away to enrich foreign
and probably hostile nations, which might
use this fatulty on the part of the English to
make them slaves.
1 quote this lengthy argument be-
cause it contains the two cardinal
principles of the protecionists; first, that for
eign commodities flowing in are facilitating
to country; second, that gold flowing out
produces the same effect. This same argu-
meDt, used In 1919, is as frequently heard TO-
day, as then. Did all these predictions hap
pen on the abolition of tariffs in 1916? Has
England endangered her power by her fatui-
~ In 1916? Has Flanders made thirteen
hundred thousand paupers by competing in
the wool trade? On the abolition of customs
did all this widespread scene of ruin take
place? On the contrary, England has in
creased In power, bears an immense debt
without vince. beat the Russians in 1855,
and is likely to do the same again in 1873 |
The protectionists did not see that Flanders
in sending her woods, Sweden her iron, Italy |
her silks, and Hindostan her cottons, parted |
with as much as they took away; therefore an |
aggregation of products could not occur in |
one country unless they were given away |
How can scarcity and poverty prevail with |
all these commodities flowing In upon a coun- |
try? Gold is nothing but a commodity. |
England, then, In sending away gold, re- |
celVed another commodity, and In so doing |
the Philadelphia society declared she be- |
came poorer. This arises from that old fic- |
ton, balance of trade" This has influenced /
In a great measure fnanciers to call for heavy |
tariffs. To preserve the balance of trade the |
minds OF all the secretaries from Hamilton /
and Gallatin down to Sherman have been ex-
ercised. AS soon as Legislators learn that i'm
ported goods are wealth well as bullion,
then will such maxims which hold that an
inflow of imports will spread ruin, p" etc., be
cast among the rubbish ideas of antiquity.
The far-slghted Venetlans, In 1872. saw that
it were better that the products of foreign ma
tions be returned in the balances of trade
than bullion. So they placed a tariff on gold
and silver and none on foreign products.
How can a country be inundated with COM
modities In a legitimate trade? Nothing is
imported unless a country has the means to |
export an equal value, whether in bullion or
goods it makes no difference. Burke saw the
folly of restraining imports when he said:
81 take the imports from and not the i'm
ports to, foreign countries as the measure of
the advantages which we derive from them"
The short-sighted advocates of home indus
try, fearing wide spread scene of desola-
ton attempt to place all the disadvantages
possible upon commodities to this country
This may be consistent with those who hold
that gold and silver alone are wealth, but
these we cannot eat, nor build with, nor turn
into machinery, nor clothe ourselves with, |
therefore congress lets them enter duty free.
1t is often SAID that the tariffs are barriers
which prevent the United States from being
with foreign goods las if this were
not adding to our wealthy. Why, it may be
asked, is not Patagonia flooded with the wares
OF Europe? Because there is no demand for
them; because the wares are not given in
trade; because what is sent is to pay for what
is taken away; because there will be no i'm
portations until there are equal expectations.
Patagonia is not Saved" by barrier of
tariffs, but by law Of nature.
When there is a reciprocal trade between
two nations demand for the products of one
causes a shipment to that nation of the less
needed commodities to pay for what is de-
If these commodities are not
needed, then, perhaps, gold is exported to
pay for the demanded goods. Sometimes
payment is In gold, sometimes in the products
Of the country. In either case, nothing but
4 commodity is exported. This being the
case, the imports can never exceed the ex-
If trade, is bugbear which all have been
alarmed at, and In this age, when the prin-
,iples of political economy are known, ought
20 be cast aside forever