The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-11-25

shape for a more intelligent SuperYi-
sion.
Without protective tariff, says IN
exchange, American industry can never
hope to send her products to foreign
countries and compete with the foreign
producer in his own market. What
has protective tariff to do with giving
America any share in the industrial
trade Of people outside her own boun-
diaries? Protective tariff is for the
specific purpose Of giving American
industry a chance in the home market.
When she can compete in foreign
markets with the foreign producer. all
the aid that can be rendered such an
industry by protection has ceased.
There is Just one way Of as
sisting the American manufac-
furer to a share in the trade Of the
world. 1t is to grant premiums upon
exports. Let Uncle Sam pay the ex-
porter of American-made goods sum
sufficient to counterbalance the natural
cheapness reproduction in Europe, and
the expense of transportation, and
American manufactures will begin to
have a ready sale the world over.
Economically considered, there is 10
difference between this mode and the
protective tariff system. If the OBJ
ject is to encourage American manu-
facture, this will do it. 1t will, to be
sure, tax the people to pay premiums.
Net any more so than protective tariff.
The proceeds go III each case to prop
up institutions that otherwise could
not stand, and to pay small profit to
the capital invested. 1t would give an
unhealthy and unnatural stimulus to
our manufactures, and draw from
the, naturally, more profitable employ
ments connected with agriculture.
True; but does not protective tariff do
just this Let US see how 1t would oper.
ate in a given instance. We manufac-
ture our own locks (protection); but,
except in few cases where the Ameri-
can article is superior in point Of me-
chanical ingenuity of construction,
England supplies the rest of the world.
She can do it cheaper than we can.
The American manufacturer makes a
lock, the actual cost Of production be-
ing 75c. The English manufacturer
can make one precisely like it for soc.
Uncle Sam steps in and Ito encourage
manufacturer offers premium Of 2ec.
for the expectation Of such locks. If
the cost of transportation is one cent
per lock, the American manufacturer
would have an exactly equal chance in
the foreign market. He could sell his
lock to France, Germany, to England
herself, for % cents less than actual
cost of production. But this would be
ruinous policy. Who can doubt it I
Every premium paid would come out
Of the pocket of the taxpayer without
any returns. 1t would be robbery.
To furnish our machine shops with
black walnut floors and mahogany win.
dow castings, with silk belts, and en-
gines Of gold, could not be more waste
full. What is the case under protec.
tive tariff? tits the same. The tariff
of 25e. on tho imported article raises
its price from SOC. to 75c. The cost OF
transportation makes another cent; alb.
solute cost in this country Tee. The
American producer has still the control
Instead Of q revenue coming to the
government, the English article is shut
out entirely. Every lock bought means
soc. for its natural worth and csc. to
the manufacturer in America. What
matter to him how it comes, or to the
purchaser whittier it goes one way or
the other? The consumer Is out just
20 cents for every lock manufactured
in this country. OF this 25 cents all is
spent in the cost Of producing the arti-
Gle and the extra cost is unnecessary,
because it can be produced cheaper
elsewhere; not because other countries
have greater facilities for manufac-
turing them, but because the United
States has other employments for labor
that are naturally more profitable.
The labor that is required to make a
lock can produce bushel of wheat,
and while the lock sells for Use. by
protection, the bushel of wheat sells
for 75c. without il. While our facili-
ties for manufacture are great. cheap
ness of good farming land, our admir-
able climate, and the large areas Of pro-
ductive soil are constant demand for
labor, and make it higher than in other
countries. This labor employed for
manufacturing makes the cost Of pro-
duction too high for successful COM
petition with the foreign producer. If
tariffs were gradually lowered, labor
would inevitably gravitate to the west,
where it can be proftably employed.
If such changes should lead to over pro.
duction, and the prices of farm products
fall, the result would be that in time
the cost of living would be so reduced.
manufactured articles by the removal
of protective duties, provisions by rea-
son of over production, that our manu-
facturers would be able to employ labor
at wages that would make manufacture
ing profitable without protection.
From this moment q healthy growth
would commence. Lowering of wages
does not imply any oppression of labor.
A man works for the goods he gets, the
articles he uses on his person and In