Litchfield enquirer., 1881-10-13
A Free Trader.

The Berkshire Courier gives a brief re- sume of the address delivered to the Housa- tonic Society at Great Burlington, Mass, on Sept Both, by Professor Perry, of Williams College Like most independent students of political economy, Mir. Perry is free trader, and we give the following extract from his address s'}'R 'AD "
 My errand to you this morning is to ask you to look into the nature of a Protective Tariff and see how such an institution bears on the welfare of the farmer. Tariffs are of two kinds. One is revenue tariff~ That is good kind. The object of such tariff is to raise funds for the government. Every dollar. of such taxation goes into the national treasn6 ry. The otherkind of tariff is what is known as protective tariff, and this is different thing altogether It is not framed as scheme for securing revenue, it may not accomplish that at all. A protective tariff tax is laid ex., pressly Co rGise ne price of some honse commodss ay. At present the people of the United, States pay on the average four times as much in protective taxes as the government receives in customs revenue. n8sfss,gS
 Until 1879 a revenue tariff waslevied on tea and coffee. In that year the revenue from this source was $19, COG, 900, and it could be !. easily made to amount to $25, ,O00,OOO. Tax on these two commodities have decided ad. vantages. They do not affect the price of any. thing else. Every dollar goes to the govern. ment and not one into the pockets of monop. olists. But in 1872 Mir. Kelley of Philadel. phia, great protectiOnist (most of the fore. most advocates of this system belong ib Penn. sylvania, which is much more a protectonist state than Massachusetts, though we have some protectionists among us) MT. Kelley sought to abolish, and succeeded iu abolshing. the duty on tea and coffee. For what pur < pose To give the people, he said, free breakfast table! But, in reality, what In reality to keep up high duties on iron and steel, on woolens and cottens and paper. on everything, in fact, that enters into tools. or shelter, or clothing or transportation. To preserve these the taxes on tea and coffee were abolished, and in consequence of these the people pay far more in enhanced prices than the government gets in revenue.
 Now let us look little closer at protection to see what it is let us examine little more 2. fully into the nature of it. Almost any illus. tration will serve OUT purpose. We will take the case of steel rails. There used to be a tax of 4O per cent. on all imported steel rails This is tax that every man in the country nelps to pay Perhaps you do not quite see how, but not one of you has come here by rail this morning. not a farmer of you can send pound of freight to Pitlsheld or to the sound or anywhere else without helping to pay Tor the cost of the rails, including the tax which increases the cost. This tax was laid ln Tact Tor the very purpose of increasing the cost of all rails made in this country It was not expected that the government would get much Of anything by it. Ou the contrary il was laid that the Bessemer steel companies might Keep out the foreign products by the l0n0rtntiuO 0f Whiah ID the rali men were not satisfied with the 40 be, cent. duty So they went before the co.ntl,it tee or Ways aud Means with a confidential communication lan1 open communication would not have answered, they did not want you and me to see il, asking adutyef two cents apound or $44 80 a ton. Did they expect inc treasury would realize anything by that duty Not bit of it. They said, We are in DOS, session Of the means and appliances to roll all the rails needed in this country" They didn', want any foreign rails to come here They wanted to make them all themselves, and so they asked congress to raise the prices S44. 30 a ton. sl - Here then you see the nature of protection. 7 The oo1ect of a protective tax is neUer to get money Tor the national treasury, but otscags to artinciaily raise the price of some scotnn,oditv here at home. It is scheme by which q few men reach long arm. the arm of the govern. ment, into every mans pocket and gather up the driblets from the many to pour them il one huge mass into the pockets of the few. As l said before no one escapes For instance we are som to have a new railroad to Will. hamstown, extending the Housatonic railroad system. The protective tax will enter into the price nf every ton of rails that will be iaid, and every man that makes use of the road will have to help pay it.
 put tue committee of Ways and Means did not dare grant the request for two cents . pound tax. They knew the country would not tolerate it. So they made it one cent q pound. .or $2S aton. and this rate has been in force since 1872. Aud with what results i? |