Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-21
How Protection Protects q the
South.

How Protection Protects q the
South.
A paragraph in 8 Northern protection
exchange Of recent issue states that one
of the most prominent textile manufac-
turers Of Macon recently sent samples OF
cotton yarns made by him to Mr.. John
Bright, the British apostle of free trade.
/ Confident that he could find a market for
his yarns in England, the Georgian en-
closed to Mr. Bright a price list with his
samples Much to his surprise, however,
/ the British free trader replied that Eng
/ fish manufacturers were forced to make
cheap goods for consumption in the mar
kets of the world, and therefore that the
/ prices Of the Georgia made yarns were
/ too high to enable them to be disposed
Of proftably. This incident is told with
/ great gusto by our protective contempt
rary as evidence against free trade and
| in favor of the favorite and seductive
argument of the protectiOnists, that were
the protective tariff abolished, Americas
/ cotton manufacturers would be forced
/ in competition with the cheap labor Of
Europe, to the manifest disadvantage
both of the manufacturer and the Amer
can laborer.
Unfortunately for its theory, however,
our contemporary here furnishes a
home-thrust argument against protec-
ton. 1t is simply absurd to say that in
q free fight for cotton manufacturing
supremacy, any section on the globe can
possibly undersell the South, with the
great staple growing right at her DOORS
with her unlimited water power and
other facilities for its manufacture. and
with her numerous railways and water
highways affording her easy and direct
communication with the ports Of the
world. How then can it be accounted
for that, under existing circumstances.
Great Britain is able not only to com
pete with our manufacturers, but even
to drive them out from foreign markets.
The answer is two-fold. First, our
contemporary, from which we obtain
the information upon which we base this
article, informs US that Mr.. Bright en-
closed, in reply to the Georgia manufac
turer, samples of the goods manufac-
tured in England for common consump-
ton. These were, to use the words Of
our contemporary, ''the best Of them
inferior, in every respect, TO the poorest
yarns made by the Georgia company.
Thus it seems that, through the necessi-
ties created by a protective tariff, the
mass Of European consumers are forced
to purchase very inferior articles Of cot
ton goods, and, Of course, this inferioritY
enables them to be scld at lower figures
than better classes of goods, whether of
American or foreign make, can be placed
on the market. This, however, is only
a secondary matter. The second reason
why We cannot now compete with Eu-
rope in cotton manufactures is the
unanswerable one against protection
in the South. and that is because,
through protection, We are heavily
taxed in every. direction. Our cot
ton manufacturers have to pay
artifcially high prices for their machin-
cry, while their employees, having 10
pay tribute to protected monopOlists on
nearly every article they require to make
lie comfortable or even endurable, have
to receive apparently higher wages than
! do tFeir British brethren. We say appa-
rently higher, because, while they receive
more money in actual dollars and cents,
they really are worse off than the British
workman, because the purchasing power
of the money received by the latter is far
greater than is that which is received by
the workman of America This is why
the Southern manufacturer must ask
artifcially high prices for his goods to
enable him to make a profit on them;
and it is this also which enables both
New and Old England to compete
with him. Abolish protection, there
fore, so that the manufacturer of
the South can erect and st out his
factory at 30 per cent below what it
costs him to do so at present, and so that
the labOrer, dependent on his daily earn
ings for his daily bread, can procure the
necessaries of life so per cent. cheaper
than he can at present, and the South
will at once be placed in control Of the
cotton market of the world. while the
wealth which New England has &C
cumulated from the great Southern sta
pie, will seek the South where it belongs,
and we will no longer have to play
secondary part in cotton spinning to that
remote section.
These facts will be obvious to the
most obtuse if they will only put on
their thinking caps for one single brief
moment. We cannot better conclude
than by quoting the following sensible
paragraph from the Washington Post:
Those people who think the South Is
/ likely to be welded TO a protective tariff
will do we'll to consider the % per cent.
| net earnings Of a Southern cotton mill
reported yesterday. Starting some ten
years ago, forced to pay aggravated
prices for its machinery, competing at
every step with the consolidated capital
% New England, it is yet able to day to
make the showing outlined above. So
| it is with most cotton mills now IN exist
ence at the South. In spite of the many
disadvantages of the present tariff, under
which they and all OF Us labor, their re-
turns more than justify the investment
of the capital upon which they are sup
ported. The only active competition
they do OF can have must be expected
from New and not Old England, and
that they are now able not only to hold
their own with Lowell cotton mills, but
do even better, is evidence enough that
especial protection for them is neither