Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-12-04
Some of the FalIacies of Protection.


1t is the great boast of the advocates of
a protective tariff that such a system
creates home market, and that the pro-
fits derived by those who direct mechani-
cal industries are retained in the country,
and in one way or another are ultimately
shared in by those who are taxed to fur
nish them. The latter proposition is SUI
premely absurd. The consumer furnish
es the government with whatever revenue
is derived from a protective system. But
in paying duty levied for protection
and revenue combined he pays an amount
which is added TO the simple revenue
duty, the very imposition of which actu-
ally depriYes the government of much Of
what it would receive were the duty levied
with view only to revenue. Moreover,
if the consumer buys an article Of Ameri-
can manufacture the government gets no
return, but the purchaser pays a price for
it enhanced in proportion to the duty laid
upon like article manufactured
abroad. The profits, be they great or
small, that inure to the manufacturer
are his Own-nOt the governments nor the
peOple's-and can be invested at his pleas
ure.
Wages of protected operatives are by
no means propOrtlOned to the employers
profits. just at present the regulation of
the pay of employees is decidedly arbitra-
ry. When the stock is small and the de-
mand large operatives are kept busy and
are reasonably compensated. But the
employers by combining can get up
corner" so to speak, in any special
industry, and by waiting till the surplus
stock is worked off, bring about a fresh
demand. In such periods of stoppage the
workingman is idle, and, unless he is
exceptionally provident, is brought to
penury and want. Wages are regulated
by sliding scale, but often the scale stops
at the last notch and does not move till
| it suits the pleasure of the ''barons."
The proposition that protection creates
a home market is Observation-Disclosures as
the axiom that heat begets fire. Heat is
a useful agency, but it can manifest itself
| to an uncomfortable degree. Protection
| is good for those it protects; but it is by
no means agreeable to those that defray
| its cost. Logical protection is purely and
| simply prohibition of foreign imports. 1t
| carries with it direct taxation, and de-
mands bOunties instead of import duties.
| Protection creates home market just as
an exOrbitant license gives the one man
| who pays it the control of the
| commodity whose sale it permits.
| But while it does this, it cannot create
| demand, and without a profitable, sus-
| tanned demand the home market is an in
| jury instead of a benefit.
If home market, whose prices are regU-
| lated by enactments and which can be
| glutted by reason Of those very enactments,
| is of any special benefit to the consumer, be
he operative or farmer, it has not yet
| been made clear. The prices of the
| farmers products are not artificially ell
HANGED. Given fair harvests, and those
prices remain steady for long periods.
| The operative himself is tribute payer
| To his employer. He pays his share of the
manufacturers profits just as the farmer
does, and is relatively worse off when
/ prices are high than when they are fairly
low.
The aim of protective duties is to arti-
| ficially stimulate production. Its tenden-
| cy is ever toward over production. The
most disastrous panic that ever afflicted
| the American people was brought about
largely by the workings of the Morrill, tar
| i'll. Such a tariff deludes the working
man. He is employed at what he deems
good compensation, but is always adding
| TO the burden which will fall upon his
shoulders when the much Wanted home
market is glutted.
! View the protective system as we may, it
has no warrant of justice. But in plain
| English, it is little better than HubbelPs
demand for voluntary" contributions, if
such demand were legalized 1t is spolia-
ton under permission of law. 1t is I'M
american, undemOcratic and utterly in
| defensible. The Constitution cOntem-
plates no duties save for revenue.