Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-13
ppv1s1ox THE TARIFF.

One of the greatest needs of the United
States is a thorough revision of the tariff; It
is no tinkerinR and patching up that Is
wanted, bat a complete methodlzlDg and
harmonizing the whole system. Financial
matters have received the attention of coz
gress; it is now time that the business wants
of the country should be attended to. The
present tariff was adopted entirely with
view to war purposes; We now require new
tariff adapted to the wants of trade. calcu-
lated to extend our commerce, give more
employment to our people, open up an ex-
tensive foreign market for our goods, ard
restore our shipbuilding interests TO their
former importance. There Is a feeling aris-
ing throughout the country on this subject
that cannot remain long disregarded. The
loss of our prestige on the ocean, owing to
the protection system, is a matter of great
concern to those who remember the superior
ity our country, not very long ago, enjoyed
in maritime affairs. A strong desire has
arisen to extend our exporting trade, for
which, we have of late discovered. we possess
facilities we ourselves had scarcely expected.
Our genius for invention and the superiority
of our manufactures in tools, agricultural
implements, sewing machines, and even IN
cotton fabrics, demonstrates that with
proper tariff one that will help, not hinder
trade, we can rival the FIRST manufacturing
nations in the world. The salt duty is a case
that illustrates the injustice and evil of ''pro-
tecting" special interests, at the cost of per-
sons who obtain their livelihood from other
interests. The dairy people make butter and
cheese, and export them largely, and their
products amount to over a million dollars
year, and employs twenty times more people
than the salt manufacture. The amount of
salt used in the dairy processes is very large,
and it must be of the very best quality. On
account Of a duty of more than one hundred
per cent. laid upon foreign salt, for the bene-
fit of a few manufacturers in the United
States, all this salt costs more than double
what it would do without the duty. This
enhancement of the price of salt does not 60
into the pockets of the workmen who are
employed In the salt business; they are
paid no more generously than workmen
who are employed in trades not upheld arti-
fcially by special and prohibitive taxation.
The profit goes into the hands OF few mo-
nopolists, who are preserved by the protec-
tive system from that competition which is
the life of trade. When the dairyman sells
his products he has to charge higher than if
salt were fair price, and every purchaser of
butter and cheese has to pay higher; he does
not only pay for his pound of butter, but
over and above that he pays tribute to the
salt monopolIst But this Is not all. When
the dairyman exports his product he has to
sell against makers in other countries where
no salt tribute is extorted, and this puts him
to disadvantage where his country's laws
ought to afford him every facility. Now
comes the question-in fairness aud good poll
icy, ought the salt interest, which is compar-
atively small, or the more extensive dairy in
terest, to have its welfare most consulted by
our legislators2 But when we add to the
dairy interest the vast pork interest, which
uses a vast amount of SALT and other inter
ests equally interested in this salt
question, and add also the cousump-
ton Of salt by every household
an the Union-what can We think of the JUS
tiee, common sense and sound policy involved
IN the salt tax? But this tax is ouly one of
many protection taxes that thus stands in
the way of the interests of commerce; that
on sugar and others could be shown to be
equally impolitic and equally injurious
to our commerce. Such is the case
wherever this false system of monopoly
protection exists. In France, for in
stance, there are just fourteen refners of
petroleum, they are protected" by a duty of
twenty francs on every ffty-6ve gallons, and
this tax every household in France must pay
for the advantage of these fourteen monop-
OLsts. No, this cannot go on. This system
that has driven oar shipping from the seas,
which has handed over to Great Britain the
Carrying trade of the world, so that that
country monopolizes the trade on the coasts
Of the Gull of Mexico and the Caribbean sea,
which lie, as it were, at Our own door-this
system, this vampire bood-sucker of our
trade must be done away. When the |
farmer comes to the city to sell and buy, be |
disposes of his pork or his cotton to those |
who will give the most for it, and when he |
buys hat he buys it of those who will sell it |
TO him for the least money. A nation, if 1t |
would act with common sense, must do the |
same-that is, il must buy iobere Il can buy |
cheapest, and sell where it can sell dearest
|