The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-02
THE TARIFF DISCUSSED.
A Plain, COmmOn-Sense Explanation Of the
Benefits of Protection.

to the tariff. He said:
A tariff is a toll collected Of foreigners who
bring commodities from abroad to sell in our
markets. Our customhouses are simply so
many toll-gates at which foreign manufacturers
and importers are compelled to stop ana pay q
certain specified sum per yard, pound or ton,
called a specific duty, sometimes q speclhed per
cent. on the value, called an ad valorem duty or
tariff. There were doubtless many incidental
evils connected with our protective system, as
there are with all human plans and contrivances-
Mans works are all imperfect Even the weather,
which is Gods work, is complained of more than
the tariff. If one sits down to study our system
of transportation by rail, he will think of many
incidental but unavoidable evils connected with
it. Engines blow up, bridges break down. trains
fly the track and roll down em~bankments; by
these accidents hundreds of lives and thousands
of dollars worth of property are annually
destroyed; yet nobody had proposed
to abolish transportation by rail on account of
the incidental evils connected with the system.
The real question to be solved is, is the tariff, or
protective policy, as a whole, beneficial to the
countty2 Will the country prosper more with
it, or without itl The speaker then showed by
citations of numerous and wel-authenticated
facts that the constant tendency of a high tariff
was to cheaper many commodities OF general
use, and at the same time to keep up the wages
of labor. Every new mill and every new factory
made an additional demand for educated, high
priced labor and hence made wages higher.
Every new mill and every new factory afforded
an additional source of supply, and hence made
manufactured articles cheaper. The law OF sup
ply and demand governed the price of every
thing. The more demands there are for labor.
the higher wages will be. The more commodi-
ties we make the cheaper they will become. A
few years ago salt was selling at $3.50 per barrel;
under the constant stimulus of twenty years
protection it has gone down to $l.l0 per barrel
At the same time the salt industry
has been SO extended as to af-
ford labor at good wages to thousands
of people who would, in the absence of this
great industry, have been forced into idleness
and want S0 with snoar Hinder the Rnnub-
Ecan policy of protection to our sugar industry
the price of sugar had constantly gone down., till
1T is now cheaper than it has ever been in the
history of the country. Sugar that sold in 1858
at twelve and a-half cents a pound is now selling
at seven cents per pound 1t has been the uni
form and constant rule that a tariff on any
commodity of foreign production, which We can
make here, has made the commodity cheaper.
THE TARIFF AND MANUFACTURES.
But our Democratic friends say, if this is so,
how does the tariff benefit our manufacturers
How are those who make a commodity for sale
benefited by having its market price reducedl
The question Is put in such a way as to mislead
the unthinking. When we say the tariff lessons
prices, we mean, of course, the exorbitant prices at
which we were compelled to purchase a giveu
commodity of foreigners before we made it in
this country; and when we say that the tariff
keeps up prices, we mean the prices at which
foreigners sell when they try to smother manu-
featuring enterprises in the country by selling
commodities for a time for less than it costs to
n1h llyON h1O4b nC11 OACGR 4dOOls 4nA0 10 ia
plain enough to one who wishes to understand it.
Let me illustrate the point, however, so that all
who are not willfully blind may see it. England
and other foreign countries have one element
that enables them to make cheap goods, which
we do not have, cannot get, and ought not to
have if we could get it-that is, cheap labor.
We cannot, therefore, carry on manufacturing
IN this country in competition with these for
ee-n countries without protection. Without pro-
lection they could and would break down and
ruinreyery manufacturing enterprise in America
which completes with them, or compel our labor
ers to'worka at foreign wages. When foreigners
supply us with a class of commodities which we
do not make, they designate the price at which
we must buyof them; and, meeting with no conpe-
ttion here, they naturally enough sell to us at
the most exorbitant prices. A very few years
ago England was shipping us what is called en-
caustic tiling for floors, for which we paid $I25
per square foot. We made no en-
caustic tiling in America Congress put a high
duty on the article, and afew capitalists con
cluded to try their fortunesin the business here
There is now a large mandatory at Indianap-
oils which IS selling encaustic tiling for 40 cents
per square foot, and it is of better quality than
any we ever got from England at $1.25 per
square foot, Now the tariff on this tiling en-
abled us to start and maintain the manufacture
of it here, and it kept England from selling her
thing so low as to break down the American
works. The manufacturers here compelled Eng
land to put down her price to reasonable figures,
and at the same time the tariff enabled our man
ufacturers to sell az such prices as would yield
them a fair profit, because the English manu-
~facturer could not pay the tariff and undersell
them without greater loss than they could bear.
Now what was accomplished by the tariff in this
easel First, the price of encaustic tiling was
reduced from 81. 25 per square foot to 40 cents
per square foot. Second, the American capital
list was enabled to start and maintain the enter
prise in American, and third, a new demand was
made for educated American labor at high
wages. And these are just the benefits of a
protective tariff in every instance where we start
a new industry here.
The history of the Bessemer steel business
affords another most forcible and striking illus
tration OF the point in question. Before we
commenced the manufacture of Bessemer steel
rails, only a few years ago, England sold us steel
rails as high, believe, as $l6o per ton. Now
we have steel rails made in abundance in this
country at less than $50 per ton. know it is
said the tariff did not produce this result. Mr..
Everett 2. Wheeler, of New York. who appeared
before the Tariff Commission in 1882, as the
advocate of the New York Free-trade League,
claimed that the reduction was due to the expi-
ration of the period of Mr.. Bessemer's patent
right, and to improved machinery and improved
methods of manufacture. But the royalty
charged by Mr.. Bessemer for the use of
his patent was only $3.50 per ton,
and as to the improved machinery and improved
methods, they were of American origin, and owe
their very existence to the tariff policy of the
United States, which started the manufacture of
BessemeP steel raids in this country.
THE SUGAR INTEREST.
Mr.. Kennedy discussed at length the ~propoai-
ton OF the Democratic party to reduce the duty
on sugar. Nothing. he said, could be more dis
astrous to a large number Of capitalists and
laborers than a reduction of the tariff on sugar
at this time. And besides, a tariff that would
discourage the production of sugar in this coun-
try would be sure to result in higher prices for
sugar than prevail at the present time. Sugar
making in this country was virtually obliterated
by the civil war, and we had to depend almost
exclusively on foreign countries for our supplies
Of sugar for several years after the suppression
of the rebellion. and sugar remained high; but
u.ider the stimulus of our present tariff rates;
which were adopted soon after the close of the
war, and some local bounties offered for the pro
dtction Of sorghum sngnr. the snghr indnstrr of