Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-03-03
DESTROYING OUR MANUFAo.
TURES."
BROOKLYN. February z. 1883.

i
TURES."
BROOKLYN, February z, 1888.
| EDITOR INTELLIaENcER:-
every argument in favor of the existing
system Of taxing people who use man.
ufacturss. miscalled protection" will
be found to depend upon the assump.
tion that free trade would "shut up our
factories" and "dsstroy our manufac-
tures." No argument to prove this as
sumption 10 thought necessary: 1t is
taken 20 . matter of course. The or.
dtnsry proectionist has no more doubt
that, but for the enormous taxes levied
upon imported metals. cotton, wooden,
sud other Manufactured goods ,Eu 2 and
aloie would send US more than We
could consume, than the lnquisition
mad, 10 the time OF Calico. that the sun
moved round The earth. Consequently,
he invariably takes 1t for granted, as
. thing E..sich nobody ever did dispute
or evsr cSuia, 4. ~ the rerovalor even
redsction OF these tsxss would Instant
~ compel our domestic iatories TO
shut up.
Aud yet there IL no more foui ldation
for this creed of the protectioniset than
there was for the creed Of the lnqnts ISL
tion. Tho total abolitIou OF all proteSe.. ?.
tive taxes, or indeed of the entire
tariff system. would not shut up half
% many factories in the United Statss
~ it would open. And although il
would lead to . larger development
Of some branches Of manufacture
which are now neglected, aud thus
draw away some workmen from infe-
rior grades of work which are now
given preference by our tariff, it
would not even close - many Of the
latter class of factories ~ are closed by
the violent fluctuations to which the
protective" system gives rise. Man.
ufacturing would be more prosperous
under absolute free trade than it ever
has been or can be under protection.
This is proved by great number OF
facts, OF which only few can be
given in the short space of this article.
The census OF 1880 shows that the
manufactures Of tho United States were
worth. in that year, $780, .OOO, 900
Our entire Importation OF foreign man.
ufactures, for the same year. although
much larger than usaal, amounted to
the value of only $500. 600, 900. Even
if We add so per cent. for duties and
freig hit, that would only make the value
Of ths foreign goods used here $50
millions. against 5,400 millions oi
domestic goods: thus showing that
only ons-thirteeuth of all the manufac.
tures used here came from abro d
These came almest exclusively from
England, France, Belgium aud Ger.
many, aud chiefly from England.
Now. in average years, each ol
those countries exports to other coun.
tries more than ten times as much as it
sends to the United States. For
several years before 1880. they sent
| only one.f fifteenth of their exports tc
Us. In 1880 they sent about one-eighth
and this sudden increase raised price,
with them SO greatly that they could
not supply half our demands. Thei,
total exports of all things, TO all coun'
tries. in 1880, amounted to on ly
about 5000 millions. If, therefore
they had poured all the things which
they produced upon US. abandoning
commerce with all the rest OF the
world, they could not have supplied vi
with halt the things that We need and
where would prices have gone to undel
such circumstances The whole idea
10 absurd. 1t would be impossible iol
all Europe TO spare US $50 millions
worth Of manufactured goods withir
the next twelve months If our Who'll,
tariff were abolished tomorrow. This
would not be enough to supply tn,
place Of one-tenth of our mauufac'
lures, because we now take 800 mil
lions worth from Europe, and ye
need oil the factories that we have.
Again, We import scarcely anything
from Europe In All entirely finished
state. At least nine-tenths Of all man
ufactured articles that We take iron
Europe consis: Of goods to be made III
by Manufacturers here. European
Manufacturers do not and cannot max
our clothes, furniture and other sup
plies for actual use, to any great ex
tent. Ii our manufactures stopped
the importations would stop at once
European manufacturers sell almos
exclusively TO manu- facturers here, O.
far as they sell to America al all. Pot
terry is almost the only important e1
ceptiou to this rule; and that Is only
trifinE item. The official report is
1881 shows that less than SIC. 900 ,OO
worth Of goods ready for use were i'm
ported from Europe iuoluding books
but not liquors and ciEars), being. q
already stated, less than one.seventl
OF the imported manufacturer, and les
than ons-sixtesnth of all the imports
1t il therefore impossible that fre
trade should shut up our manufactur
ing establishments, because those ar
practically the only customers for for
eign manufacturers.
Aud from this fact 1t will be seel
what folly it il to "protect" our manu-
fsoturss by taxing the very thing
which they need a. materials for man
ufacture. Materials cost 60 to 20 pc
cent. of the whole outlay of American
manufacturers. Manufacturers ant
mechanics import nine-tenths of all tn
} foreign manufactures which come int,
the cOnntrv and vat thipk IL uoooo,,r,