Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-01-28
The COnntrr and ProtectiOn.


his crops are produced he is
forced into competition with the
markets of the world. Again,
the consumer, of whatever class, is
forced, through protection, TO pay the
manufacturer extortionate prices for his
clothing, his blankets and many other
articles of prime and absolute necessity,
and in this way is made to contribute of
his oft-times scant and hard learned means
to assist in swelling the Golfers of priv
1leged class of fortunes favOrites. So it
is that the masses throughout the country
are required by protection to pay tribute
to monopoly-in order that favored few
may prosper.
But bad as this is, it is not all the evil
and injustice resulting from protection.
The many are not only taxed in this
way for the benefit of the few, but they
are, in addition, taxed for the benefit of
the government. Protection, it is con-
ceded, cuts off foreign importations.
Foreign importation being thus cut off,
the result is that the government Is, in
turn, cut out of revenue from customs
duties. Yet the government must pay
its enormous debt and meet its other
obligations, and revenue must be raised.
Since, therefore, it cannot be raised
through customs, it must be raised from
tine people by direct or indirect taxation,
and so it is that protection lays a double
burden upon the masses. They are
taxed, first to swell the wealth of a
privileged class, and again to make up
to the government the deficiency in
revenue caused through the workings
of tariff for protection with revenue
only as an incident.
We lay it down, therefore, as an
axiom, that a protective tariff is an i'm
position on the tax-paying masses of
any country, and that it is not only unjust
and oppressive on the many for the
benefit of the few, but that its tendency
is to create and foster privileged classes
and monOpolies. We cannot better
illustrate these propositions than by
quoting the figures recently given by
Mr.. Thomas G. Shearman in an argu-
ment before the Revenue Reform Club,
| of Brooklyn, New York, and which we
obtain from the columns of our Macon
contemporary itself in its issue of
Wednesday morning last. Says Mr.
Sherman:
= Gas the Federal taxes
were $500, 600, 900, the local taxes $780,.
| 600 600, the merchants commission on
taxes 800. 900, 900, and the extra costs
/ of goods caused by the protective side
of the system $3.50. 600, 600, made a total
burden of over 81, 500, 000, 900 annually,
almost all of which was borne by the
people according to their incomes. Men
like Gould and Vanderbilt were taxed
less than , per cent on their annual saw
ings, the wealthiest citizens of Brooklyn
were taxed S per cent, the average sue
cessful man Of business 20 per cent, and
the great mass of labOring men so per
cent. If it were not for this system of
| indirect taxation, combined with prOtec
1
| 1900. coo persons who live by their
daily labor in this country would save ev-
| ery year over s., 400, 900, 900, while all the
more prosperous classes combined could
| only save about $3.50, 900, 900; so that if
taxes did not interfere, the labor
| ing classes as a whole would in
twenty years be worth $11 900, OOO, 900
| more ;han the upper classes. But taxa.
/ 4 a srFo r,-sf of hot
| the upper classes used the slightest
| economy they would in the next twenty
years be worth $4,000, 900, 900 more than
! all the labOring classes combined, while
| 100. 900 men at the top would be richer
| than all the rest of the people in the
United States combined. In other words,
an Ubiquitous and thieving protective
/ tariff rObs the poor to make few ia
vOred rich men richer. If this tariff tax
/ upon. the poor were imposed directly
upon them, so that they could plainly
| see the robbery going under a high
/ tariff. the common people would rise in
/ forcible revolt against such Infamous
extOrtion and it would be worth mans
life TO be a tax gatherer. But the iron
hand of the tax gatherer is concealed,
under the velvet glove of an import
duty, and the common people, while
| they feel the gripes of poverty, fail to
| lay the blame where it is deserved.
Our contemporary insisted that we
should give it figures. We are glad to
accommodate it, and feel under obliga-
tions to it for having furnished us in its
own columns such telling figures as the
| above against its own theory.
But perhaps these figures may not be
sufficient for our Macon prOtectionist, so
to make assurance double sure, we will
give others. Our contemporary may
rashly pronounce Mr.. Sherman an igno-
ramus and lunatic, and, notwihstand-
ing thai it itself gave his utterances pub
licity, declare that he knows nothing of
what he speaks. Surely, however, it
cannot discredit statistics furnished offici-
ally from the Federal capital, by the di
rect authority of the United States
Government, and compiled by an
United States official especially
appointed for that purpose. In work
entitled Labor in Europe and America
"a special report on the rates of wages,
cost Of subsistence and condition of the
working classes in Great Britain, Ger
many, France, Belgium and other coun-
tries of Europe; also in the United States
and British America compiled by Ed
ward Young, Phi. D. Chief of the United
States Bureau of Statistics, and issued
from the government printing Office in
Washington in 1875, we find the follow
ing statistics to show the difference exist
ing between the cost of clothing in free
trade Great Britain and the protected
United States. Says Mr.. Young:
Good business suits made to order
of good and fashionable material cost
from SIS to Cos, the lowest prices of
similar quality in New York, ready
made, being $2S to $50. Suits of fine
blue cloth SOS Cd. (S19 96) which it is
believed could not be obtained anywhere
in the United States for $40. Fine black
cloth dress vests los, dress trousers of
Io-4 L of