The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-25

made because of their ability to manufacture it
more cheaply. Suppose for the sake of the
illustration, that l, 900 men were thrown out of
employment To the great portion of these
this must mean nothing more than transfer,
with but probably small loss of their labor to
other industries, simply because they are not
skilled laborers. If skilled labor were employed
to some extent, as must necessarily be the case,
manifestly it must either suffer hardship unless
it can find employment elsewhere, or if obliged
to resort abroad, the country must suffer in the
loss of citizens. But the question lies in the
balancing of individual hardship against the
general good, We do not concede, as a matter
of fact, that any great hardship has been
wrought among quinine firms or their en-
ployes. We do not believe that
any great number of men have
had their wages reduced materially, been
thrown out OF employment by the abolition of
this duty. But assume that they have; even 60
so far, if you please, as to admit that the manu-
facture of qunine has been totally driven cut of
the country even then the beneficial results are
easily demonstrated. Let US see Those who
We're unskied in labor would find employment
elsewhere, in time, all the easier because of the
very fact of the cheapening of quinine. For this
means, on small scale, additional purchasing
| power on the part of those who have reaped
the profit. If L can buy for 81 to-day what cost
me s. last year, other things being equal. it
means for me better clothing better furniture,
better living to that extent. If the quinine profit
| be distributed among druggists and physicians
Alone ii means an enlargement of business
and freer buying of the goods manufactured in
! that house. If it is divided among consumers,
| it means that every factory of this city of
| factories, will be CORRESPONDENCE strengthened,
thereby demanding additional labor. And not
only is 1t true respecting the employment Of the
quinine laborer, that this fact will increase the
| certainty of employment, but it means the in
| crease of security of employment to every
| laborer in this country, For there is no surer
law of political economy than that which forbids
nation to manufacture that which it can more
cheaply buy. And the removal or
| destruction of any mandatory which can not
be sustained except by subsidy, whether general
| or special unless in times of crisis, implies
release to other industries capable of both, and
more legitimate profit; not only additional labor,
| but additional capital.
| And what does this mean? 1t simply means to
a nation what it means to a communicable
| tional prosperity. And Just that prosperity
| which adheres to a. farmer who resorts, for ex-
| ample, to a skilled blacksmith, carpenter, or
| shoemaker for that saving of time and strength
| which he can more profitably expend upon his
| farm. To the free-trader the principle of pro-
lection looks like giving stimulants to a sick per
| son. 1t will not do as a principle of permanent
| policy, unless he is sick. But are we sick? Is
not our country able to feed herself Are we not
| rich in almost every essential element entering
| into manufactured Has not nature wonderfully
favored us by joining in spots all products enter
ing into given manufactures as in the case of the
cotton manufacture of the South2 Have we not
unbounded vitality and wealth.
| The argument formerly made, and the weight
| lest then, for professionalism it was necessary
| to establish manufactures a competing basis
long since has lost its force. To the free
| trader protection seems to work in this way: 1t
ffavors an artificial growth. Artificial growth
| constantly requires artificial assistance Such a
| state implies radical unsouudness If you in
| crease the duty ON one set OF products, thereby
| increasing the prosperity of the special manu-
| facture based on that, you smite at every other
| Take iron, for example. If you stimulate the
/ FL
/ the country with rolling mills and furnaces, per
| haps, bat you sap the power which main
| tains them, for you by so much depress
the railroad and agricultural interests. If
! the extension of the one means prosperity,
| the depression of the other means adversely;
| and adversely to them means stagnation to the
| iron trade Instead, therefore, of your conclu
| sion that thecheaper importation of goods means
/ trouble for the American mechanic l see i'll it
only the trouble arising from the reconstruction
/ of business on healthy basis. The policy of
/ protection has shut down half the iron mills in
/ the country and made possible constant gfut-
/ ting of limited market. 1t has cut up our ocean
| marine, root and branch. If it has not reduced
the wages of labor, it has made the wages of vast
( numbers possible only during given portions of
I the year. And, more than that, the iniquities
of any tariff constructed rs ours is, must
| offer so many abuses as to make
| it constantly the target of reformers, thereby
keeping business in state of alarm. The length
Of this letter forbds any reference to the proba
BILE effects of revenue tariff on wages or on for
/ eign markets; but it would not be difficult to
[ show that not only would its probable effects
wages be reducedto the minimum with maxi
mum reduction goods but that markets in vast
l. numbers from which we to-day exclude by
\ our system of projections, would be open to us.
And all this resulting ultimately in extension
of business, paralleed only by what Mr.. Glad
/ stone has shown most graphically to have hap
peued to England as, step by step, she aban-
/ doned the policy of protection for that of free
/ trade. s**
| UNION CITY, April 90. ....