Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-17
A PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
what n Country Exchange Thinks
About 1t.
Madison Yeoman.

Madison Yeoman.
A protective tariff is an unmitigated
swindle. 1t is cunuingly devised trick
to make the poor pay money for the
benefit of the rich. The articles that are
subject to the duty under protective tar
if are, nine times out of ten, manufactured
articles to the manufacturers rich cor
porations. The persons who buy are the
people at large, and the direct and i'm
mediate effect of the tariff is to make the
articles sell higher, so that the
manufacturers can make more money.
The intention of the tariff is
to raise prices, and that is
always the inevitable result. 1t is a dis
elimination by the government against
the poor and in favor of the rich. Take
iron, for example, Every nail, every
wedding hoe, every pair of shovel aud
tODgs, every plowsbare in Madison
county pays duty-an import duty
which about doubles the cost to the
farmer Who gets the benefit? The rich
corporation who manufacture iron. Who
pays the tax? The poor farmer who
buys the wedding hoe. Iron is essen
tally the metal of the poor The
rich man eats his dinner with his
silver fork, which is imported free
at least the silver is; the poor
man eats his with his iron fork, the tax
on which nearly doubles its cost, if not
quite You man run through the entire
list of dutiable articles, and with one or
two exceptions, they are manufactured
articles, or if raw material, it is raw ma
terial not produced in this country, or
incapable of use until manufactured.
The whole scheme and idea of a protec-
tective tariff is to build up manufac-
lures. Its friends never stop to
think that they are building
up manufactures at the
expense of everybody else, and especially
the farmer. Take Georgia, for example.
Where there is one dollar invested in
manufactures in Georgia, there are hun
dreds invested in agriculture, and every
time you pass law TO protect the man
utacturer, you do so at the expense of
the farmer. Why? Because the farmer
buys the manufactured article, and your
tariff makes him pay more for it than he
ought.
With the exception of rice and one or
two other unlmportantsitems, there is
nothing in the tariff that helps the
farmer. Why don't the friends of pro-
tective tariff protect the farmer some
tOO2 The raw material as produced by
the farmer is left to fight its battles with
the foreign supply, but the moment the
manufacturer touches it and changes it
into a manufactured article, the govern
ment puts a duty on it, and be turns
around and sells it to the farmer with
the duty added.
Of course a protective tariff has en-
riched New England and Pennsylvania,
but the reason is they had a market in
the South and West for their goods, and
they grew rich at the expense of the
South and West. If they had been
compelled to sell their goods at home,
they would never have called for tariff.
Our Georgia manufacturers do sell and
will continue to sell their goods to Geor-
gia farmers and others, and to protect
them would be class legislation in its
worst form.
They say that we must initiate New
England and build up manufactures in
Georgia. We would Ike to see manu-
featuring enterprises thrive and prosper
in Georgia, but we do not want to see 1t
done at the expense of Others Let those
who invest in them build them up. The
farmer carries a bale of cotton to the
factory door and sells it. There is moth
ing that helps him to get a good price.
The manufacturer takes it and makes it
up, and then sells it back to the farmer,
and puts on the tax, which the farmer
has to pay. This is the way they want
to build up manufactures 1t is not
right, and no amount of figuring or ar
guing can make it right.
There is another thing: You cannot
have an Interstate tariff, and the Geor-
gia manufacturer must at last compete
with the New Highlander. The truth is,
the Georgia manufacturer does not need
a tariff, but the New Highlander does.
Take off the tariff and the Georgia fac
tories will beat the New Englanders' in
their own markets AS between our
factories and the New Highlander, the
tariff is hurting ours
But, they say, if you take off the i'm
port duties the Federal tax gatherers will
come right down on our people. Sup.
pose he does; he will then collect taxes
on property, not on poverty. 1t will be
Gd gdl0rem then on what a man has got,
and there will be equality in the burden.
Now the poor pay the duties and the
rich escape. If the people of this cOun-
tTy-and we mean Georgia when we say
this country-ever do wake up to a sense
of their rights, they will wipe out the
protective tariff and the men who up
hold it. And among the first to war
ought to be the Georgia manufacturers,
whose New England competitors are sus-
tanned and kent IN nv the tariff