Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-08-24
THE TARIFF, NO. Nv.
WRITTEN FOR THE LEDGER

The prOtectlOnlStS tell us that we
are prosperous under protective laws,
and that our wonderful Prosperity is
due wholly to the policy pursued by
the government with reference to
protective legislation. Such is the
wonderful prosperity of this country,
growing out of its natural resources,
and a variety of adventurous circum-
stances which so often come in to rec
tify our errors that it has occasioned
the saying ''there is a special provi-
dence in favor of drunken men, in
fants and the United States"
So great is our prosperity that in
spite of laws that Cypress and paral-
we foreign trade, that trans
fers one mans just earnings
without a consideration for
them into the hands of another,
that people are inclined to regard talk
on the subject as wearisome, and in
general care for none of these things.
Our nation at present is like a strong
young man who has inherited a mag
nificent physical constitution and fan
cies that he a indulge in stimulants
and violate all laws of health with i'm
punity; but every such violation will
in time be attended with its peculiar
appropriate punishment, and the
young nan before he has reached the
prime of his life finds himself a phys
ical wreck. Tina natural laws of trade
will no more suffer fragrant violation
without visiting just retribution upon
the heads of such violators than will
the laws of health.
The protectionist says we arc
prosperous. We answer yes; but
how much more prosperous might we
have been without your legal restrie-
tons, and how long will this prosperity
continue? There are about 1000 ar
ticles-the~ necessities oflife-on which
the government lays a duty on the
importation thereof of from 10 to 100
per cent. The list includes WOODEN,
cotton, linen, silk goods, iron
and steel, and leather manu-
features, earthenware and crock
cry, tin plates and ware,
hemp and jute fabrics and window
glass, without the use of which we
can not dress, eat. build houses to
live in or pursue any department of the
different industries. The average du-
ty paid on these necessities is AZ pei
cent, but we will call it 40. The i'm
yort duties on foreign wooden goods
ranges according to quality from 50
to ~ per cent. /; on steel and iron 80
to so per cent. Now what do these
figures mean? The average on wool.
en- goods is &c per cent, hence every
time the consumer buys one dollars
worth of WOODEN goods he pays for ii
one dollar and sixty-six cents, or fol
every twelve dollars worth of wooden
and worsted goods bought he pays
twenty dollars.
And so on for every six dollars
worth of cotton andlinen goods bought
he pays nine dollars. When the Can.
madam farmer sells only the mare to
buy the winter clothing for his family
the farmer across the line in Ohio OF
Michigan has for the same amount OF
clothing for a family of the same size
to sell not only the mare but the colt.
These figures NEAR that the railroads
of the United States are constructed
of iron 80 dear that the foreign manu-
facturer Of iron can afford to pay from
80 to 80 per cent. import duties fol
the admission of their goods into the
states and still get a profit; that a 10.
comotiue that costs $4,000 in the
United States costs from $4,000 to
So, 200 In Mexico; that a mile of rail
road that costs $25 900 in the United
States costs only from $4,000 tc
$4,000 in Mexico; and that as the
road here costs more than its rea
qalue the railway companies are com.
PEELED to charge the producer of agri-
cultural products a proportionately
excessive rate for the conveyance Of
his produce to market.
And that all this burden is borne
indirectly by that portion of the peo'
pie of this country engaged in agricul
tural pursuits.
Now, 1t is not a sufficient tC
say that the cost of transportation or
the railroads is fixed by law, for the
rates of passage and transportation Of
freight are fixed by the legislatures
with reference to the cost of the rail
roads. 1t has been ascertained will
tolerable certainty that there are about
ten million families in the United
States, and that each family on al
average spends annually about 500
for the necessities placed on the dutl
able list. But if this duty was remov
ed each family would get the same
goods for SAB or would save eacl
year $57; while to the 10, 1000, 900
families would be a saving which
makes in the aggregate $50, 600, 900.
These losses are so mingled up il
small doses that paying thirty cent.
instead of twenty for a knife, fifty
cents for this or that article instead o.
thirty, that they pass by unnoticed
and the fact is we cannot realize oul
losses until we calculate the aggregate
result. $50, OoO, 900 annually pait