Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-08-07
How the Tariff Protects
From the Inter Ocean.

The Louisville Courier journal, no
ticlng our comments upon its non-
sequitur logic, reiterates, in different
form, its former assertion, thus:
In attempting to reply to some observa.
tons of the Courier. Journal, the Inter Ocean
candidly admits that the American people
are taxed 424 per cent. on clothes, medicine,
books, tools and hundreds of other articles
which they have to use every day, for the ex-
elusive benefit of comparatively small num-
Der OF persons who have become rich by Sc
curing legislation which imposes heavy fine
on any foreigner who attempts to send his
goods into this country at much cheaper
| figure.
We did not admit any such thing.
On the contrary, we denied it with
strong emphasis. The average rate
OF the duties levied by our tariff upon
1utiable imports in fiscal year 1878
was equal TO an ad valorem Of 423
per cent. That we said, correcting
the Courier Journals misstatement
that the average rate was AZ per
cent; but we did not say that this
tax was paid by the american people.
To have admitted this would have
been to admit falsity. Sometimes
the tax falls upon our consumers;
much oftener it falls, in whole or in
part, upon the foreign producer or
shipper.
The duty on chloroform is 81 per
pound, and Chicago drug.houses are
selling the homemade article at IS
cents per pound Is that where the
duty is added to the price and paid
by the american people? The duty
on quinine-20 per c,nt twas re
pealed by Congress on the first day
of July, and the price, both at home
and abroad, but much the most
abroad, at once advanced Was
that a case where the duty was add
ed to the price and paid by the Amer
scan people? In 1870, the duty on
pig-iron was reduced So per ton, and
the English makers of the article
| forthwith held a meeting aud in
creased their price just SO per ton.
Is that an example of the way in
which the duty is added to the price
and paid by the american people !?
In 1868, the Collectors of Customs at
Plattsburg, Oswego, Buffalo and
Cleveland four of the most impor-
tant of our interior ports of entry
officially expressing their opinions
for the information of Congress, cor
roborated one another in saying that
/ within the purvew of their daily ex,
perience it was positively certain
that the duties on grain, and, Ia fact,
on nearly all importations into their
several districts, were paid by the
Canadian producer or manufacturer,
not by the American consumer.
Were these instances of the truth of
the Courier-Joarnars position, that
the duties are always added to the
prices and paid by the american peo
pie? They are all exceptions to that
pretended rule of the invariable eff
tects of the tariff, and a multitude Of
others like them might be specified !;
consequently, we shall have only non
sequitur logic when the rule is argued
upon as rigid and uniform in it's
operations. Indeed, the Southern
members in Congress lately admitted
as much, when they advocated the
reduction of the internal revenue
taxes upon tobacco, on the ground
that those taxes came out of the
pockets of the p anters, aud did not
tall upon the consumers, as theory
said they did.
Those who insist that the price of
any article must, whether imported
or home made, be increased by the
amount of the tariff duty, are like the
Ptolemaic astronomers, who stoutly
maintained that the sun revolved
around the earth. Seeing the sun
apparently rising every day in the
east aud setting in the west, with un-
deviating regularity, they concluded
that they had the best of all evidences
the evidence of their eyes--to as.
sure them that they were right
Scientific inquiry has demonstrated
that the exact reverse is the fact. If
the free traders will, with like hon
esty and faithfulness OF investigation,
penetrate beneath the superficial in
dications about prices, as related to
import duties, they will discover that
the constant tendency of tariff pro,
lection is to lessen, not to augment,
the prices of manufactured articles.
Further says the Courier Journal !.
although protection imposes no
fine on the goods going out, when
those goods get out, they sail around
trying to find market, and finding
but a limited one." Nevertheless
protection is necessary factor in
The export problem. Without such
protection as will encourage and sus.
tain capital in making investments in
manufacturing enterprises at home
as will diversity our industry and de-
velop our resources; as will multiply
establishments in each distinct branch
of production; as will accumulate
skill, experience, labor. saving pro.
cesses and other requisite accessories,
and apply them to the cheapenlng OF
commodities, we cannot secure that
full possession of the domestic market
which must precede regular exporta-
tons. Only surpluses are exported.
There is no general tendency to ex-
port until the home demand is sat
isfed, and an excess remains 10 seek
market. Hard times may diminish
the domestic demand still, nothing
will be exported except what would
surfeit that demand, be it languid or
active. Brazil exports coffee, and
China exports tea, because each has
more than enough of its special com,
modify for the satisfaction of its own
wants. FOR this reason Great Britain
exports iron and steel products, cot.
tons, woolens, tin-plate, linens and
other articles For this reason
France exports silks and beet sugar
the United States, breadstuffs. pro
visions, tobacco aud raw cotton
Australia, wool Cuba, cane sugar
aud so on to the end of the chapter
Nothing more completely establishes
the fact that our domestic consump
ton of our domestic production O
manufactures has reached the poini
of surfeit IN many branches than tb,
strong anxiety and energetic efforts