Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-09
Who are Protected and Who Not.
Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune
The universal assertion by the persons
who are demanding more taxation and
more tariff and more protection is, that
every dollar of additional tax that is
levied by Congress on consumers has the
effect of benefting the country at large.
and especially the "laboring industry"
of the United States This story has
been so often and so brazenly asserted in
Congress and out of it by demagogues
and monopolists, by Senators and Rep
resentatives, and by statesmen of high
and low degree, that it is possible some
of them believe what they say. Just at
this time one of these statesmen who has
courted envious fame by declaring that
a tariff should always provide for
protection, and only incidentally for
revenue, has bill pending in Congress
demanding that the As per cent. duty
now imposed on steel blooms imported
by American manufacturers for making
steel rails shall be increased to 1870 per
cent. This demand is, of course, made
with the false pretense that it is for the
purpose of benetiting the country, and
especially to swell the earnings of
the wOrkingmen of the United
States. There is no more false
representation in this entire nonsense
about so-called protection than that it
substantially benefits the mass of work.
ingmen, or, even theoretically, but
very small proportion of them. There
is, in fact, no portion of the American
people which is so sadly victimized by
our excessive tariff as the people who
work with their hands for a living, and
who earn their daily bread literally by
the sweat of their brows. To show this
we invite our readers to the facts and
figures following.
The Ger sus of 1880 has not been com
pleted far enough to permit the publica-
ton of the tables showing the number of
persons employed at labor in the United
States and the number employed ct each
occupation. The census, however, of
1870 contains such table. The general
census shows that the increase of the
whole population of the United States
for the years between 1870 and 1880 av-
eraged 80 per cent. so in the absence
of the exact figures of 1880 we can
approximate with reasonable accu-
racy the number engaged in
each class of occupations in 1880
by adding 80 per cent. to the number
employed in these several classes In 1870.
Thus estimating, we present the num-
Der engaged in the several classes Of Oc-
equations in 1870 as furnished by the
census of 1870 and the same numbers
increased by 30 per cent. as the probable
number in each occupation in $780, and
these figures furnish the following result
as to the industrial population at the two
dates:
1870 1880.
Total, all occupations. &c. 1906, 923 1926 69s
Engaged in agriculture. 5,922471 1855, 2J2
In professional and per-
Sonal services, .. O.. See. 1884 793 3 AGO go
In trade and transportation. ], 1872 238 154g 909
In manufactures and min
Observation-Disclosures. 2,707,42l S,519,647
1t will be readily acknowledged and
admitted that none of the people engaged
in these occupations have any special or
direct interest in any tariff for bounty
purposes, called protection, except those
employed in manufactures, mechanical
and mining occupations. All the others,
instead of being benefited by protection
u. e, bounty taxes-are oppressed by a
remOrseless taxation which consumes or
confscates a large proportion of their
incomes and earnings by adding at least
80 per cent. to their cost of living.
But an analysis of the list of Occup0-
tons included under the general head Of
manufactures, mechanical and mining
occupations shows a larger number of
persons engaged in occupations which
are not protected or benefited by the
ultra tariff policy, or, if slightly bene-
flied, are damaged ten times as much as
they are helped by the enhanced price
of articles caused by the excessive tariff.