Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-18

the American operative has no foundation IN
fact. and as an argument possesses no value.
The other pretense, that a change in the
tariff would "close our manufactures,
is equally false. The Protectionists
themselves have never claimed that
their system ought to be maintained in per.
manence. They have asserted that it was
only justi6able for the purpose of es-
tablishing struggling industries, and ttey
have admitted that when those industries
were established they ought to stand alone.
To say that American manufactures cannot
exist without Protection is to say that
Americans are deficient in energy, enter
prise, judgment, and capital. The fact is
that the tariff actually hinders the pro-
gress of our manufactures, and SO keeps
them in leading strings, by shutting them
out from foreign markets. Mr. Blaines
pamphlet showed conclusively that Amer
lean manufactures are virtually excluded
even from the countries which lie at our
very doors, and that England, with her
freedom of trade, has stepped in and taken
nearly the entire business of Brazil, Vene-
zuela, Uruguay, the Argentine Republic,
the United States of Colombia. Chile and
Peru, Mexico, the Sandwich Islands, Japan
and China.
II we had free trade all these markets
would be open to us, and while our manu-
factures would increase immensely, the
demand for skilled labor would be SO great
that no diminution of wages need be
feared. But as fact our operatives could
well afford to have their wages reduced
twenty per cent if the tariff were removed,
for in that case they could buy forty to
fifty per cent. more than at present with
their money, and therefore they would
still be twenty to thirty per cent. better
off than now. Free trade would mean an
immense stimulus to commerce, however
and all talk of its mischievous effects upon
manufacturing is based upon ignorance or
worse. But after all these are only side
issues. The main consideration is that a
policy which makes living nearly twice as
costly as it need be, to nine-tenths of the
country, for no saner purpose than to
bolster up one-tenth, is fatuous and absurd
as well as iniquitous. It is only necessary
to argue out the theory of Protection to its
legitimate end to see how irrational it is.
For it must be taken as an initial principle
that ii Protection is right, all classes are
equally entitled to it. But if it were pos
sible to protect all classes equally, the
result would be that no class would be
protected at all. Everybody would be
taxed for the support of his neighbor, and
in the end nobody would be whit better
off than at the beginning. This would be
Protection fully and equitably carried out.
In that case it would nullify ITSELF But
since the system can only be applied par
TALLY, it follows that its effects are inequi-
table that is to say, that it Injuries some
to benefit others.
Complete Protection then is impossible
and were it possible would be utterly
futile. Any other degree of Protection is
inequitabIe, and it is only the inequitable
kind which is practicable. And it is the
great class of producers which is the vic.
tim in this country. Those who produce
staples which cannot be protected have to
bear the chief burden of the imposts
watch are levied in the name of "Protec-
q" tion to home industry" Take the single
case of steel rails in illustration. These
rails have cost the railway companies
double what they could have been bought
for abroad. Who pays this bill Not the
corporations, assuredly, but the people,
who travel and ship their produce on the
railways. The workingmen who are
assured that Protection is in their special
interest have to pay two and three prices
for all they wear and use because of this
system. The manufacturers, who are in
theory being built up" by the system,
find themselves excluded from every
foreign market by it. Free trade would
enable them to make large proportion
of their profits abroad but because they
are confined to the home market they
must have larger profits, and the American
people are taxed to make up to them for
the injury which this preposterous system
produces.
The truth is that even if half century
ago some excuse may have existed for Pro-
lection, it is at present q monstrous an
omaly. Moreover, the rapid increase OF
population has made it impossible to Sc
cure even this false form of protection
s We in few parts. Away from New
England protection is needed against New
England, not against Old England. In
the West it is the competition of the East
that hinders the growth Of manufactures,
not any fear of foreign competition.
The New England manufacturers are thus
being supported at the expense of all
oiher parts of the country, and to their
m nifess injury. Protection in short is
the costliest, clumsiest, most inequitable
system ever devised by the combined greed
and stupidity of mankind. 1t is system
which full-grown nation ought to be
ashamed of, with its unmanly and hypocri;.
ical pretense of weakness and instability,
and its irrational and suicidal methods of
relief. 1t does not protect, either. 1t re-
stricts the very industries it was intended
to help. It cripples them, and then it
compels those who are not crippled to pay
for their subsistence. We must not boast
overmuch OF our enlightenment and pro-
gress SO long as we cling to this melan
choly relic of barbarism.
THE DEBATE ON The PENSION BILL.
Senator Voorhees, must be accorded some
praise for the audacity of his position on
the Pension Arrears bill. but not SO much
can be said for his judgment. A sweep
ing denial of the truth of the charges
which have been made against the measure
cannot serve the turn of its defend.
r. = or..