Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-11-17
THE TARIFF CONVENTION.

industry, regaining our lost place IN the
carrying trade, discussing the advisable
" ity of an early and progressive reduc-
ss ton of the internal revenue taxes OF the
General Government, and the discussion
"of the means to naturalize new indus
"triez upon our soil" This is suffi-
GENTLY ambitious programme. 1t Is, IN
fact, so extensive that we are sure the Con-
vention will not be able to do it justice.
Who the projectors of the meeting are
does not appear very clearly. An or
ganization calling itself ''The Indus
90 trial League of America seems to
have something to do with it, but precisely
what the Industrial League of America
represents we do not know. The names OF
the officers appointed are not familiar, nor
does any public man beside Rufus Bullock,
Ex-Governor of Georgia, seem to be pres
ent. The general purpose of the Conven-
tion appears to be the advocacy of such
changes in the internal revenue taxes as
will operate to render any reduction of the
protective tariff impracticable. The object
aimed at is one which will no doubt meet
the approval of Protectionists, and the
methods proposed for restoring the national
mercantile marine are entirely worthy of
Protectionist craftsmanship. The Protec-
tionists having driven American merchant
vessels from the ocean, and having reduced
the ship. building interest to Insignificant
proportions, now propose to counteract the
mischief they have done by forcing the
people to put their hands in their pockets
and pay large bonuses in order to encour-
age ship building again.
Perhaps the ship-builders would not OBJ
iect to this plan, though even they ought
to have sense enough to see that it is a
clumsy and ineffective attempt to do arti-
icially, and at extravagant cost to the
country, what would not require to be
done at all if the tariff restrictions and the
navigation laws were removed. In the ab-
sence of these paralyzing agencies our flag
would quickly enough regain its former
supremacy on the seas, but the Protection
lists, having crippled our mercantile marine,
now propose that the country shall buy
artificial legs for it in order to restore the
healthful condition which their folly and
blindness has impaired. Whatever pros
perity the country has enjoyed thus far
has been obtained in spite of Protection,
not because Of it. A country of enormous
resources, and but partially settled, pos.
sesses vitality and vigor enough to with
stand very heavy burdens, but assuredly it
does not progress the faster for being
handicapped. Protection to native indus
try is merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Il is taxing the masses heavily in order
that industries not sufficiently vigorous to
stand by themselves may be propped up.
The stale pretense that the masses are
compensated by the establishment of these
industries is false. In state of absolute
freedom from tariff restraints and bandages
those industries would be developed which
were capable of self-support that is,
those industries which were most needed.
The presence of necessity for protection
proves that the industry requiring such
propping has been prematurely introduced,
and therefore that it can only be main
tanned at an extravagant outlay. If left
to competition it would sink, and that is
precisely what it should be allowed to do.
Then capital would only be invested in
paying enterprises, and the result would
be great economy of time and production
and money.
The absurdity of the subsidy hypothe-
sis is SO patent that its advocates have
never yet succeeded in making case
which did not halt larentably. At the
present moment the tariff has driven capi-
tai out of ship building and ship owning.
It has found its way into investments
which pay. It would not have been thus
diverted but for the tariff and navigation
laws; but having been diverted IL cannot
now be turned back into the old channels
without loss to the country, unless the bar
have nothing to gain from the Fictitious
resurrection of its carrying trade through
the employment of bounties and subsidies.
When it is necessary to pay men to invest,
the fact is proof positive that the invest
ment is not healthy or desirable one. In
all such cases protection robs the producer
of part of his profits in order to bolster
up occupations which have either been
broken down by the system which is en-
ployed to sustain them artifcially. or which
are not wanted in the existing state of
trade and manufacture. One of the most
egregious fallacies of Protection is the be-
lief that country necessarily gains some
thing by building up new industries. Such
gain can only be had when there exists
real and sufficient demand to support a
new industry. In all other cases the at
tempt results in the diversion of capital
! from paying to losing investments, and to
conceal this fact the tariff is resorted to.
The Tariff Convention promises to dono
more than revamp the old Protectionist
sophistries and delusions. It proposes
neither more nor less than that the people
should be made to pay for the revival of
extinct industries. This involves dis
tinct and most impudent imposition upon
the American producer, He is asked to
accept the ridiculous doctrine that it is to
his interest to support industries for which
no demand exists, and that it is better for
him to allow himself to be robbed of half
his earnings than to favor the dreadful
heresy of buying in the cheapest market,
and paying no more for anything than it is
worth. The New England manufacturers
have rung the changes on this creed for a
long while, and have had their own way,
| bnt there are indications that the great
West is waking up to the wrong which has
been done it all these years, and when it
gets its eyes fairly opened the Protection
| lists will be made to realize that their day