The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-06-03
ARSURDITlES OF A PROTECTIVE
TARIFF.

TARIFF.
Sound Views from Senator Vance, o
North Carolina.
AT a Tariff.Reform meeting, held il
New York recently, Senator Vance, O
North Carolina, made an address, from
which we make the subjoined pointed
and interesting extracts: a
The Senator began his speech by
quoting the words of Speed, the ser.
want of Valentine, in "The Two Gen.
tlemen of Verona" when his master
was assailed by outlaws: "N1aster,''
said he, ssbe one of them it is an hon
orable kind Of thievery." Speeds phil
losophy, the speaker said, is the basis
of protection.
Protectionists absolutely deny some
of the automatic principles of the sci
ence of quantity. They will tell you
solemnly that if the cost of an article
be 81 and a tax of fifty per cent. be
added thereto it will not make Sl.5O
the price of that article! Nay, more,
it not only does not increase the price,
but the principle of addition by some
strange alchemy becomes converted in
! to the principle of subtraction, and the
price will be below 81! daughter and
applause). Still stranger liberties are
taken with mathematics and logic.
They begin by saying that the fifty per
cent. tax on the article is necessary 10
enable them to pay the laborer who
makes it more than the foreign laborer
gets for the same work; yet they say
that the tax decreases the price by
stimulating production. Logic then
says: How can the manufacturer make
any profit and how can the laborer re-
ceive any increase of wages? While
averring that prices are reduced by do
mestic competition under the artificial |
of protection, they deny that
the competition of the world would eff !
feet the same result, and likewise iu-
crease consumption in proportion. They |
also aver that while protection increases |
the profits of the manufacturer and the |
wages of his laborer, the foreigner pays
the tariff duty and not the American |
consumer. Logic and common sense
ask, Is the foreign importer a fool !
Does he not add the tariff to the price?
If so, does not the consumer pay that |
price? And does not the American |
of tho same article put
the amount, or near it, of that duty
upon his product? If so, docs the for
eigner step in and pay that additional
price out of his own pocket, or does
the consumer of the article pay it?
[Applause.)
Again, they say that this protection
increases prices so far as to benefit la.
Dor, but decreases prices for the benefit
of the consumer; and again, increases
prices for the benefit of the agricultural
producer; and that this increase Of
Doth manufactured products and of
ood is highly beneficial to the laborer!
In short, it raises prices with one hand
md cheapens with the other, but
whether raising Or cheapening, con-
'umers, laborers and capitalists are all
alike. How protection can
Effect all these opposite and incongru-
'Ao ASoullS - SOulclu1HS InaC men VINO |
ire guided by tho ordinary rules of
ogic can not well conceive. The pro.
ectionist says he understands i'll sup
bose by some ratiocination peculiar to
he man who is pocketing the money.
Laughter and applause).
This statement, in close juxtaposi-
ion, of these contradictory assertions,
8 enough to demonstrate their incon-
eivable absurdity, and to make us as
ured of but one thing-to-wit, that -.
he manufacturers are making mon
y by it, at all events. Who, for
knows the real facts concern =
ng the American Wood Screw Compa-
y: Its products are protected eleven
ents per pound, which 1 take to be 400
er cent. 1t is said that the stock of /
lat company is worth 1000 per cent,
nd is transmitted by descent and de-
lse as precious heirloom, great care +
eing taken that its stock shall not +
ONE on the market and it's value made ii