Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-07-02

our market goods which would be sold below
the cost Of production, for ~ time, and At such
rates q woald ruin our less firmly established
manufneeuries. We cannot a4ord to make
any breach in oar line Of defences, for for
elm foe stands ready to take advantage OF
the slightest cavelessness ON our part But
il II claimed that protection Dement'S only tne
manufhcfurer, and that only ut the expense Of
the country at large.
Now this opinion is principally based, no
doubt. upon the general belief that il is al
vays the cheapest to buy where the articles
can be procured at the lowest cash price.
Now. it is an undeniable fact that with but
comparatiyely few years of protection our
manufacturing interests have become so hrm-
IL established that in q majority of cases We
cannot be undersold by foreign competitors;
nor are illustrations of the same character
wanting in other countries, for in France the
manufacture of beet sugar has been SO pro-
tected BY the government that it can be sold
to-day more cheaply than the imported arti-
Gle, free of duty, and pay an excise tax De-
sides. But admitting, for the time, that. as
rule, imported goods are cheaper IN dollars
and cents than those of home manufacture, !
will now enieavor to show that even then II
is better to protect and patronize the home
manufacturer The mercantile class is less
directly affected BY changes in the tariff than
any other, but protection is supposed BY many
TO be very detrimental to the interests OF the
apriculturist Now the farmer must exchange
the products of his farm for various manufac-
tured articles of clothing, furniture, and agri-
cultural implements; and the question is
whether it is better for him to make that ex-
change at his very door, or to pay for trans
porting his salable crops to the sea-board,
and thence to foreign lands to be exchanged,
even if by so doing the goods needed could
be obtained at a somewhat lower money
price.
Let it be remembered that the cash price
of any commodity does not always indicate
the amount of labor expended in obtaining it.
Now claim that to the farmer. the home
market has great advantage over the foreign
in being a constant one the European mar
ket is very capricious, for only the deficien-
cies of the agricultural countries there are
met BY impOrtations from America.
If the farmer uses only foreign mannfac-
lures, he lessons the home consumption of
his own products, BY lessening the number
engaged in manufacturing who must be fed
bv bread and clothed by cotton and wool
produced by him, and therefore forces him
self to export at the minimum price and i'm
port at the maximum.
Bv exporting to the extent demanded by
free trade, he must also conf1ne himself to
the few staples which alone can be exported
with profit, and would by this course soon
exhaust the soil.
The free trader claims that protection has
dest, Dyed our shipping but though it is true
that our navigation interests have declined.
it must be remembered that that decline is
to a great extent due to the injurious effects
of the civil war upon our shipping and to the
fact that, for much of the carrying trade of
the world. wooden sailing vessels have been
supplanted by iron steamships which cannot
be built as cheaply here as in England and
Scotland until our mines and facilities for
transportation are more fully developed.
Methods of navigation have changed, and
it remains with the people to adapt them
selves to the changes; but We seriously
question whether they should look to
free trade as the one great force that is to ac-
complish the desired restoration, for even if
it did afford some temporary advantage to
our sailors, ship builders and lumbermen,
would not other interests of greater impor-
lance so seriously suffer as to make it an ad
vantage too dearly bought?
1t is another plea of the free trader that in
the apportionment Of duties, discrimination
is made in favor of the rich by placing
heavier imports upon goods of the cheaper
class than upon those of higher price, which
are bought and consumed principally by the
wealthy.
But it has been necessary to protect first
and more especially, those manufactures
that could be the most easily developed; and
may due weight be given to the fact that
these same branches of industry furnish a
great amount of employment to the poorer
classes of society, and now, having been
built up by protection, are comforting addi-
tional benefit by furnishing goods of a su-
perior quality at a comparatively low cost.
As protective tariff has to do with nat
ural productions as well as manufactures,
will now call attention to a few ways in
which, in this direction also. it is beneficial
to the country.
Without question, the impost on sugar has
done much to encourage the raising of the
sugar-cane in the South, and at present gives
an impetus to the project Of manufacturing
sugar from the beet; and undoubtedly, if
proper measures were taken, including per-
haps additional protection for time, tea
might be successfully and proftably raised in
the United States, in which case we should
no longer be obliged to steep over the
grounds of our celestial neighbors.
But even in case Of those productions. the
cultivation of which will perhaps never be
practicable within the limits of our country
still claim that duty. heavier than that
demanded for revenue alone, is still neces-
sary.
For if we reduce the import duty on Rio
coffee. for example, twenty cents per pound
the exporter in Brazil will increase the price
that amount. as has been proved by actual
trial, so that it will cost the consumer in the
United States just as much as before.
The fostering of our manufacturing in
terests gives a greater diversity Of employ.
ment, and therefore causes the immigration
of skilled mechanics and cultured artizans
who would never come to this country were
its inducements confined to agriculture this
is well illustrated by the fact that during the
forty years following the revolution, the i'm
migrants to this country numbered only
100000, nearly all of whom came to engage
in agricultural pursuits; while during the
forty years following the establishment of the
first protective tariff the number increased to
four millions, q very considerable part of
whom were educated mechanics, attracted
hither by the manufacturing prosperity of the
country.
1t is because of the assured protection of
the government over every manufacturing
venture, that our people have been stimula-
ted to that inventive genius which has been
the wonder of the nineteenth century.