The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-12-23
ROCK ISLAND ( MERCER co.. r. r.
Friday. Dec. nssr IS, 1881.
PROTECTED MANUFACTURES.

| According to the protectionist's theory
there are two classes of industries in this
country; those which pay and those which
do not, now the protectionist claims that
/ legislation should be enacted which will
/ make this second class, which does not of
itself pay, profitable; hence to accomplish
this purpose a high tariff is established
This state Of things the protectionist would
tell you is one highly conducive to the
prosperity of the country. But is this so?
These two classes are; on the one hand
Agriculture and large number of manu-
features, commercial interests and all
trades not connected with the manufac-
lures which are naturally Improbable,
importing and exporting interests, in short
the large and important Industries of the
country; of the second class are a few man
ufactures. The line can further be drawn
as a sectional one, for it is safe to assert
that there are no industries in the West
that need protection.
Now if these industries, not of them
selves profitable, are to be carried on sue
cessfully they must be bolstered up by
outside aid in the shape of gratuities and
subsidies, and a tax of some sort voted
to support them; and this IS the effect of
protection. But where does this tax come
from2 From the foreigner? No; it is paid
at home and the industries that are able to
walk alone, particularly agriculture, have
to pay it. What money is there brought
i,,fr hf, Nv IL
the country benefited, if the money of the
many is taken to aid industries which the |
advocates acknowledge are helpless with
out it? If man is carrying on a losing |
business but has a friend who is backing |
him up with his capital. without taking |
anything in the way of obligations it is all
well enough for the business man, who is
making a living from the arrangement, |
but it is difficult TO figure out how |
the hacker is making any profit out of the
transaction. The people who are taxed to
support and keep alive improbable indus
tries, stand in the exact relation of the
man who furnishes the money, and the
protected manufacturer alone benefits.
But the protectionist takes an
other bent and says it is
not ourselves we are speaking for it is
our laborers who would be the sufferers if
you took away our high tariff. In the first
place if the tariff was taken off the manu-
featured products it would also be taken
off the raw material AS it is now not only
the manufacturer of steel rails is protected
but also the manufacturer of steel which
the first manufacturer uses to make his
rails and so on down to the first product
of the mines. If the rail manufacturer
could buy his steel cheaper he could make
his rails cheaper and still pay his laborers
the same wages and make the same profit;
this is shown by the statistics of manufact'1
urer- The manufacturer would have us
believe that the wages are his principal
bin of expense but in truth it is the small
est; the statistics above referred to show
that in 1870
The wages paid were. - 775,5s4, 343
Cost of material LASS, AT, s42
Product ..-..4. 4, 232. 325, AZ
DR. that the wages We're only about one
seventh of the amount OF the product.
Again under our present arrangement :
he prices of everything we
Use except beef, pork and grain
5 from fifty to one hundred, and fifty per
,ent higher under protective tariff than
t is without it, and the western farmer,
aboring or business man, has to pay this
ldded cost of living without any returning {
,enefit in getting more than his products.
n Canada one dollar viii buy as much /