The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1884-06-19
High Tariff.

wealth of our Government. But who
pays the amount of the supposed In
come? If it were not paid by our
people, foreigners would keep their
goods at home. That pretense is more
than delusion practiced upon the
unthinking masses. Remove oppres-
siye tax, and we would receive mil
lions of dollars worth of the necessa-
ries of life for scarcely over one-half
of their present value, and pay for
them by return cargoes from the
product of our soil, now almost worth
less for the lack of foreign SALE
Cheaper purchases and dearer sales
would bring us almost inestimable
wealth. Consider in addition the
cost of hundreds of Custom Houses
and an army of collectors, made nee
essary by tax on trade, and he who
still thinks high tariff source of in
come to the country must be blind
to reason.
They tell us it increases the pay of
laborers m manufacturing Cities
Were that assertion true it would be
an acknowledgement of discrimina-
ton in favor of minority of laborers,
at the expense of the great majority
of laboring consumers of the country.
But their assertion is in fact false
Laborers do not receive the benefits
of this indirect bounty. 1t is reaped
by capitalists who go to Europe and
squander the princely fortunes they
have sucked, as vampires, from the
veins of their country's commerce.
They tell us it protects home in
dustry, and that name might help
recommend it to American ears. They
call this tax on trade protective
Tariff" The protection of what?-
The protection Of small industry at
the expense of larger one. The
protection of the interests of few
manufacturers at the expense of
country's traffic. By this protection
importation is discouraged. By lack
of importation vessels are kept from
our shores. By lack of vessels to
convey away our surplus produce,
producers are impoverished; and af-
ter impoverishment they are called
upon,to pay double the value of a
manufactured article simply to graft
fy the ayarice of an American capital
ist, or the within of his deluded tool
in our national assembly; and yet such
legislators pretend to be puzzled to
death at the decline of our merchant
They tell us that it gives employ
ment to thousands of poor people
They ignore the fact so forcibly
alleged by Nh. Adam Smith in his
"Wealth of Nations, that the mer-
camille stock of every country natur-
ally seeks the employment most adj
vantageous to that country. Were
no particular industry fostered by our
Government, that labor would seek
more productive fields. And new
fields would not be wanting. Com
merce being free ships bringing i'm
ports would crowd our harbors.-|
These ships would require cargoes in
return, and where now there are en-
ployed thousands of laborers there
would be fields for tens of thousands. !
Demand for exports would increase,
and where there is the greatest de-
mand there would be the best pay
The result would be more labor and
better pay.
They tell us it fosters independence.
There is an appearance of truth in
that assertion. But it is the indie
pendence of Algiers, and not the in
of Amsterdam; the indie
pendence Of Turkey, and not the
independence of Holland; the indie
pendence of China, and not the indie |
pence of England. If we would have