Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-07-02
For the Kennebec Journal.
The Tariff.


American, with all his depth Of love
for his country and her institutions,
is by nature and education q parti-
zan. Therefore shall not be liable to the
charge Of unpatriotism and lack of inter-
est in the welfare of the nation, if choose
to discuss this subject from position which,
whatever may be the decision of the future
in regard to it, in the present condition Of
our politics will necessitate the consideration
Of some strictly party issues.
And yet, it il with the feeling that stand
upon something more than party platform.
when I attempt to defend policy which has
been the distinctive one Of the greatest re-
public Of modern history, during the most
of the years of it, unexampled Development
and prosperity, which has been advocat' in
the past by such men - Washington. Jeffer-
son, Webster, Clay, and Greeley, and which
has for its present defenders statesmen to
whose worth and ability succeeding genera
tons will pay the tribute due, but whom we
of the present cannot fully appreciate, blind
ed a. we are by the bitterness of partizan
prejudice.
In the early history Of the American colo
MES, every manufacturing interest was dis
couraged and hampered by laws framed to
favor only the British manufacturer and
merchant, 80 that the few manufactures we
had, prior to the separation from the mother
country, were primitive and limited in char
acter. and confined principally to the north
ern and eastern colonies.
IL L.
commended to Congress the establishment
of protective tariff, believing that it would
not only encourage manufactures, but also
give home market for the agricultural pro-
ducts of the country. But the attention of
our Legislators and the people at large, was
80 occupied with other matters, that not I'M
til 1924 was bill for tariff, especially for
protection, passed by Congress. The neces-
sity of this measure was no doubt made
more apparent by the panic of 1924. which
was caused. to no inconsiderable extent, by
the excessive importation of foreign goods.
From that time to the present. the tariff
levied has, for the most part been one for
protection and not for revenue simply though
it has occasionally been so reduced that. in
certain directions at least. the benefits (?) of
free trade have been realized. For example :
In 1s47 tariff for revenue only was estab
Iished, and in ten years came the greatest
financial crash the country has ever known;
would not claim that these financial dis
turbances were wholly due to the revenue
tariff, but that to quite an extent they can
be traced to the mischievous results Of free
trade.
But as in an article of this length we shall
he able only to refer to the history of the
tariff in the United States, let us proceed at
once to a consideration of some of the rea-
sons why it has been, and will be. wise and
necessary for our government to pursue in
general policy of protection. The first
and most important object Of protective
tariff is supposed to be that Of fostering our
manufacturing interests; and without ex-
pressing any opinion ~ to whether there are
not other results attained which are of equal
importance, we will first give our attention
to this.
Previous to the passage of the tariff act Of
1924 our manufactures were Of bnt compar-
atively little importance because Of the I'M
fair competition of foreign rivals. especially
the British. And let us briefly notice why
the manufacturers of Great Britain can pro-
duce certain kinds Of goods at lower cost
than can the manufacturer of our own coun-
try the reasons given will also apply in most
particulars to the other great manufacturing
nations of Europe.
Certain classes of raw material, especially
iron and coal. are very abundant, the mines
thoroughly developed and situated near the
manufacturing centers; then the whole coun-
try Is traversed by a complete network Of
railroads, rendering the cost of transporta-
ton exceeding low. While in the United
States the great mines of coal, iron, an6
other minerals are for the most part remote
from the more important manufactures
where they are consumed; and our railroads
are both less numerous than those of England
and also having been but recently built, mus,
receive higher rates of freight than roads
that have paid for their cost and been giving
q fair dividend besides for many years.
What raw material England does lack she
can well afford to import free of duty; but
our own country has ample resources for al
most every branch of manufacturing and
though it may at first cost something to de.
velop these resources, vet in the end it will
pay much better to do so than to carry out
the ruinous policy of always importing, either
in a crude or manufactured state. what we
have in abundance within our own borders
Capital is much more abundant in Great
Britain than here. and therefore business car
he conducted to better advantage, greater
risks incurred. and greater losses sustained
The rates Of interest gre also much lower
averaging three per cent, while in the United
States the average is over six per cent.
Great Britain. the proud ''mistress of the
seas" after having built up her manufactur-
ing interests BY rigid course of protection.
has for years virtually controlled the markets
of the world. and therefore. the once despised
colonies across the water have had every
where to compete with a rival already estab-
lished. The principle governing the English
diplomatists in this matter is well illustrated
bv the following remarks by Lord Brougham !:
England can afford to incur loss for the pur-
pose of destroying foreign manufactures in
their infancy" But, pelAaps. the greatest of
all advantages which the British manufactur-
er has over the American, and one that will
probably exist into the remote future, is that
Of cheap labor. Whatever politicians may say
to the contrary, the stern, unanswerable ar
gument Of statistics proves that the laborers
of England and other European countries are
not more than half so well paid for the same
kind of work as the laborers of America.
Now there will always be certain classes Of
manufactured goods, tile cost Of which is pro-
portionate to the cost of the work; and there
fore. even IL in time we can overcome the
other disadvantages, that of the comparative
cost of labor will still remain. But il may be
said that the necessity for the protection of
our manufactures has ceased, since we can
al r.