The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1884-05-08
Revenue Reform.
Address of the Ant;.Protective Tariff League
of Minnesota.

We print this week portion of the
address of the Anti-Protective Tariff
League of Minnesota. feeling that it
is due to our readers that they should
have the opportunity 10 study
the ideas of this very important
organization. We shall insert the re-
mainder from week to week, or rs
our space may permit.
To TIE PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA:
| Under the existing tariff laws Of
the United States the average rate of
taxation upon dntiable imports is not
| less than AZ l-2 per cent. of their
value. This tax is levied upon about
| fifteen hundred articles. 1t varies
| from ten per cent. upon diamonds 10
seventy-five per cent. upon IRON. and
eighty to one hundred and fifteen per
cent. upon wooden goods. 1t is heav-
| lest upon those things that are most
in general use, and many of which
are necessaries of life. 1t embraces
nearly everything which is essential
to the comfort. business prosperity
and existence of our people. There
is scarcely amy article which they
wear, use or consume, from the era
die to the grave. Except farm pro-
Ducts, which is not burdened by ali
increased cost of about one-half its
value by this method of Indirect tax
alton.
Originally imposed as a war meas
ure for the purpose of raising a rev.
enue for war purposes, 1t has been
maintained during the nineteen years
| xx-br hnx al Ci hu
without any material reduction in it's
rates, and long after the revenues it
produced began to form an accumu-
lating surplus in the national treas
| ury.
IL is no longer tariff for the sup
port of the government, but it is, as
it's advocates assert, n tariff for the
protection of our Infant manufac-
lures" The revenue it produces is
merely an incident to the 'protec-
ton it affords. 1t rests unon the
| theory that our strong and SeIf-Gevel-
| oped industries should create and sup
port those which are incapable of sup
porting themselves = that capital
should be diverted from remunera-
| tive enterprises and employed i'll
those which are naturally unremuner-
ative-tllat well established system
of panper industries. subsidized and
sustained by the enforced charity of
their prosperous neighbours is conduc-
i've to the public welfare-that taxa
tion is Il source of profit to those who
are taxed.
The object of such tariff is to
stimulate capitalists to invest their
means in manufacturing by the prom
ise of an abnormal profit. This stim-
nlant it supplies by taxing imported
goods so heavily that they cannot
compete with goods manufactured
here. 1t artificially increases the
selling price of the commodity upon
which it is imposed. This increase
the consumer pays-not to the govern
ment, bnt to the home manufacturer.
to him who makes and sells the arti-
Gle here as cheap as it can be made
abroad and imported into this country
under the existing tariff. 1t is essen
italy Il tax upon all consumers for tt Q
benefitof the mill-owning capitalist
alone. 1t Increases his dividends.
hut it adds nothing to the wages of
his employees. They work, and are
forced to work for whatever their
labor is worth in open market. No
tariff shields them from competition
of foreign labor-no legislation pro-
tec.s them from labor saving machin-
cry. if the prices of labor. by reason
of Il "strike' or its scarcity, rises So
high that the manufacturer can i'm
port foreign laborers ut Il profit, lie
does so. If, in the progress of lnven-
ton, he can be supplied with improv-
ed machinery by which one laborer
can do the work formerly done by
two. he puts it in and turns out the
extra laborer. 1t is for his interest
to reduce the wages of labor. to
cheaper production. lie does not di-
! vide his profits with his employees.
The subsidy which the tariff tax gives
to manufacturing is given to the mill
workers.
This system uninterruptedly main
tanned for the past quaI ter century
has borne it's legitimate fruits. Those
who first engaged in manufacturing
under protection realized enormous
profits. This invited and created
competition. Old factories were en-
larged. new ones sprang into exis-
tence. Over production was the re-
suit. Manufactured products increas-
ed in quantity until the market was
glutted: the factories could only run
at loss; they produced more than
they could sell.
The tax which excluded foreign
competition from our markets, pre-
vented us from competing in foreign
markets. 1t taxed both manufacture
ed products and raw materials out of
winch they were manufactured. If
| we were able to make an article as
cheaply as it could be made abroad.
we could not sell it as cheap, because
the material out of which it was made
cost here so per cent. more than it
cost there. Moreover, all traffic con-
sists in the exchange of productions.
Ii we do not buy of a nation it cannot
buy of us, because it has nothing but
it's products to buy with. So, when
over production came uron us we
could not barter our surplus stocks
for the surplus stocks of other ma
tions, because our custom house stool
in tile way, and taxed the goods we
purchased. The tariff upon imports
differed only in name from "a tariff
upon exports. Protection not only
walled others out, but it walled us in.
1t confined us to u home market. AMI
then overstocked the market. Then
the manufacturers 'spooled" and COM
bined, wages were "cat" and shops
''shut down" until the surplus stock
could be worked off.
Strikes followed. Workmen began
to realize that nigh wages left no sur
plus for times of aepression-that the
cost of the weeks living consumed
the price of the weeks labor. Strug-
Cling against low wages, they fouul
themselves without work, without
means of support. without hope.
Misery. violence and crime issued out
Of the protected industries. The
Molly Magnires commenced their
work. and the tramp began his wall