The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-30


The first Congress after the organization of
the Federal government of the United States
by act declared that it was necessary for the
support of the government and the en-
couragement and protection of manufactures
that duties be laid on goods wares and
merchandise imported" With the exception
OF brief period of approximate free trade,
this policy has prevailed ever since. Alex
ander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury,
in elaborate ignorance" as our free-trade
friends would call it, in 1870 fully compre-
hended the philosophy of the adjustment of
our foreign intercourse in its relation to our
development and coming civilization. In
his very remarkable report to Congress he
maintained the Importance of the protective
policy, among other reasons, on the ground
that it would not only enable us to compete
in the development OF our varied resources,
but that it would afford greater scope of
usefulness for the diversity of talents and
disposition which discriminate men from
each other, and more ample field for en-
terprise." There is a world of sound philos-
ophy in that utterance. Looking at the sub
sequent development of our industrial tai
ent, and comparing our present social and
industrial condition with that which pre-
Il
Hamilton understood the Importance of cul-
tivating the diversity of talents with which
men are endowed in order to make great
nation, and realized fully the odds against
us under free trade in competing with coun-
tries whose organic system enslaVed labor
During the last session of Congress, in the
debates on protection, member pointed to
tariff protection of European countries
and asked, If protection made
labor more remunerative, as was
claimed in this country, why it did not do it
elsewhere? In European countries the rea-
son lies far deeper than protection edicts,
and it is remarkable stupidity which would
PROFOUND such query Tariff laws in this
country alone do not make higher wages.
But tariff laws added to the ballot our free
landed system and unabridged human rights
do make wages higher. Tariff laws do not
make our constrained prison labor higher
than forty cents per day, but when this labor
is set free it commands the higher wages
under protection. Confer natural rights
now withheld, and give them our electoral
and landed systems and free education and
with its protection policy, the laborer of
Italy and any other country would soon
command decent wages. But where, in a
population of over 27,0000 00 but 400, 900
have the franchise in any form, as in Italy,
with other disabilities, it should not be ex-
pected, and is not, that protection edicts
would raise wages, though in such countries
they do inure tosmanufacturers' profits.
The policy of Great Britain on the protec-
ton question is one Of selfish convenience
1t makes great pretension as free-trade ma
ton, and many persons in this country, who
are misled by highlands free-trade sophistry,
suppose that England really is what it pro
fesses to be. But. for the fiscal year ending
March 81, 1882, Great Britain, under her
tariff laws, collected revenues from imports
on the following articles, and the sums named
in dollars: