The Sunday herald. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1866-1887, 1882-12-31
Nv ANTYpRoTECTYrE TlRIFE

There is no delusion more difficult to COM
hat than the delusion that our present tariff
is framed the interest orrrotec,ion to home
industry. Only students Of the tarfl sched-
ules understand that in iunumerable cases
It is distinctly anti-proteotive What this
means can best he made clear by illustration.
Raw materials of all kinds are subjected to
duties which are often prohibitive. Yet
cheap materials are the base OF all healthy
manufactures Take the case of the printing
industry. Duties are laid on white paper,
upon wood pulp, and even upon rags, also
upon type and printing materials Of all kinds.
Netthe printing industry is one OF a thousand
times more Importance than that of the max
ing of paper or types, employing thousand
hands where paper or type making employs
one, and it is besides the means of diTusing
intelligence, so that to tax its materials is
not only anti-protectiye, but is the imposing
Of tax upon educational facilities Yet in
laying a duty upon paper and type the
greater industry is taxed and crippled for
the benefit of the lesser This is what we
mean by an anti protective tariff.
Iron and unmanufactured steel are further
examples of the same vicious misapplication
of the commendable idea of protecting Ameri-
can labor against foreign competition. Iron
and steel lie at the very foundation of in
Iiaa rrntaptin,, nFt tal lo, ,roVIl al
to cheaper these essentials. When they
are taxed a thousand industries more gen
orally diflused and employing more labor
must suffer proportonately.
The Tariff Commission have fallen into
the pits which iobbers are always preparing
for Legislators, in their proposition to double
the duty on tin plates. We do not manu-
faoture this article to any extent in this
country. We imported of these plates in
1881 no less than 400,0O0000 pounds,
valued at Sl5, ,OOO, 600. They are only used
directly for roofing and similar purposes,
and 10y far the larger part are consumed as
raw material for numerous, varied, and
thriving American manufactures, the final
products of which in many cases are eX-
ported. The cans for our canned goods
trade, one of the very first rank and yearly
growing in importance, are made out of these
plates. To double the cost of cans would
kill our export trade in canned goods, and
put grieyous burden upon all makers and
buyers Of cooking utensils, oil cans, and
tn-ware of all kinds. Thus it is seriously
proposed to tax, and perhaps destroy, i'm
mense and widely diifused industries, in Or
der to let one or two firms try the expert
ment of producing the material upon which
they exist.
The copper duty and many others belong
in this same category of anti-protective.
Crude copper in various forms enters into
numerous industries, and were it placed on
the free list our manufacturers could profit
ably produce many articles for export which
they cannot now produce while paying more
for copper than their English competitors.
But the most odious feature of this sham
protective policy is that it tends 10 the crea.
tion of mOnopolies and of great fortunes.
without any corresponding benefit to the
people at large. The curse OF the present
tariff is that monopolies, like those of the
pulp grinders, paper makers, the Bes-
semer-Steel Association, the salt manufac-
turers, and frction-m atch makers, and
John Roach are always in the lobbies Of
Congress. Unfortunately dihused industries,
in which there is genuine competition, are
practically voiceless; they have no head, and
often no direct influence with Legislators
hence the very industries which ought to be
fostered by protection, if any such thing a
protection be really practicable, are over
looked, and are generally taxed and crippled
for the benefit of some monopoist, or associ
alton of monopolists, engaged in the produc
ton of raw material.