Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-14
How Protection Works in France.

The retirement of Gambetta from the
French administration has suspended
for the time the negotiation between
England and France concerning treaty
of reciprocal trade. At first the French
were disposed to listen to no argument
on the subject; the clamor for protection
was not only made by the manufacturers,
but was Joined by that of a portion of
the agrlculturists who were alarmed at
the importatiOns of breadstuffs from
America. The French Parliament was.
moreover, largely made up of the repre-
sentatives Of the manufacturers and Of
the city population, while the producers
and exporters were in the country,
and were not politicians nor the
leaders of Parliamentary combina
tiOns. But the French Ministry could
not exclude the suggestions of fact and
reason, and before Gambetta retired the
reciprocity treaty, which was strongly
commended by him to his successor,
was in a fair way towards completion
The discussion has produced a great
change of opinion in France; the intole-
rant dogmatism of protection has re-
ceived a check, and public opinion has
been greatly enlightened.
Il is seen that protection is likely to
produce the same results in France that
it has in America France is a manufac-
turing country, having a large surplus
of goods 10 sell. This surplus she must
find foreign market for in competition
with England. England is a large GUS
toner of hers. and her duty On French
goods is nominal She in turn exports to
France certain goods, chiefly wooden,
cotton, and iron, which enter into COM
petition with French manufactures.
To adopt protection in France is to
repeat in that country the destructive
policy which has been adopted in this
country. In the United States we have
placed a high protective duty on all com
peting merchandise imported from other
nations Goods which in the absence of
this protective duty might be sold ia this
country for 800, now with the duty
cannot be sold for less than $3.50. This
enables the domestic manufacturer tom
crease the price of his goods on the con-
sumner to $3.50, The incidental charges
of importation still leaving him
an additional margin beyond the
protected line. His first advantage is.
that he is enabled to demand $3.50 to
5000 for merchandise which. in the
absence of the protective duty, be would
have to sell for 800 and ocean freight;
and secondly, he has the control of the
entire home market. But protection has
to him its evil consequences. In a gene
raj advance of prices of fifty cents on
the dollar, the protected manufacturer,
in the increased price of labor, and in
the items Of expenditure made by
him in the production of his
goods. has to pay the penalty of ex-
cessive protection. His goods cost him
extra to produce nearly as much as the
protection enables him to add to his sell
ing price. This is the first penalty.
The second is the addition of 30 per
cent to the price paid by the consumers
of the country on all they have to buy.
The wages or income of the people who
consume the goods are limited; the sum
of each admits of no expansion, and the
price of all they consume being increased
one third, they have the means only to
purchase one half to two thirds as much
as they would have in the Absence of
ultra protection. Home consumption
being reduced, production is reduced in
like proportion, and either wages or the
number employed must fall off accord
ingly.
France being a manufacturing coun-
try, and having a large surplus of goods
TO sell, discovers that she cannot fud a
market where she once sold goods at
800 in competition with England for
the same goods which she cannot now
sell for less than $3.50 or $3.50. All
these markets are now closed to her pro
auctions. The hitherto large surplus of
manufactures, which she exported and
sold at profit, now remains at home.
The home market being gOrged by the
Oversupply, and reduced by the high
prices, there is nothing to do for France
but TO close portion of her mills and
factories, and industrial establishments,
and, abandoning all trade with foreign
nations, cOnfine her labor and her CAPT
tai to the limited production for the
local markets. This is the inevitable
result of protection in France. In the
meantime Belgium and England have
succeeded to the foreign trade of France
Their principal competitor in that trade
has committed suicide They have all
the world in which to sell their products
except the United States and France,
who have voluntarily abandoned the
export of manufactures.
The levy of a protective duty by France
and by the United States on manufac-
tured goods is equivalent 10 the levy of
an export duty on their own manufac-
lures, and the world, unwilling to pay
that export duty, let's the French and
American manufactures severely alone.
This direct effect of protection on
manufactures in this country is notorious.
OF the exports of the United States over
80 per cent. are of non-protected COM
modities The United States has aban-
doned the markets of the world for the
delusion of protection. Instead of being
the workshop of the globe, her fifty
three millions of people are taxed and
plundered for few patent right, pro-
tecied monOpolists; instead of having a
manufacturing population as numerous
and as prosperous as those engaged in
non protected labor, there is a beggsrly
1900 900, made up largely of women and
children of tender age, working eighty
hours each per week at miserable wages,
which wages are largely consumed to pay
the tax of protection.
This country has no equal in all that
is needed 10 be great manufacturing
country. We have all the raw material at
our doors We have unrivaled and cheap
transportation; we have, as no other PEG.
pie have, an immense surplus of cheap