The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1885-12-15
The FREQ Traders and the Tariff.

The FREQ Traders and the Tariff.
: The Free Trade Conven i'm r, cpntl1
!, held at Chicago s,a ed their case rath.
strongly when they def ed protec'iv
I tariff as onntrivance tor taking b.
P force the earnings of one class and Civ
! iRg them to another Glass;" Still, thei
I definition has basis OF fact.
True, the rtvtnue officer ,es n ut pur
J sue the JEssE JAMES method of making
! the victim hold up his hands while hi.
pockets are being fed; but the force
. applied by the tariff laws. thou gh les
violent, is.not less effective. For exam
: pie, q man must p,v twenty-five dollars
for a suit of clothes which with no tariff
he would get for t~euty. Twenty dol
lars is the natural price that is. the cos'
4 Of production With g fair prof added
Now the man does not psy that extra
i've dollars voluntarily; he does it be-
cause the tariff makes him pay it; and
as the only alternative isto II withou,
clothes 10 Is hardly an evae egerstion to
say that the sum OF five dollars is taken
from his earnings by forc'.
! III the goods OF which the suit he m ade
areof domestic NJ annfacture, then the ex
'rs five dollars goes into the pocket OF the
manufacturer. AMI in that case the prop
tosi,ion OF the Free Traders Conven.
ton is es'ah'ishs'l; the "earnings of one
man have heen taken by force and given
to another" bat II the 60 IDS be irnpor-
ted the excessive Eve dollars goes into
the Treasury to support the G ,vernuent.
In this latter case it woul b. inarc Irlte
to say that the money was taken from
one man land given te another"
II the Fee Tralers had applied the
definition to a prohihitorv instead OF 8
I protective tariff 1t would have been proof
sgsinst criticism but as the number who
favor prohibitory tariff is scarcely great
er than the number who favor absolute
free trade they would have been sssall-
ing the shallow and not the substance.
Yet while the terms stalking by force
the earnings OF one class and giving
them to another" are too broad 10 be &C.
curaie as descriptive OF protective tariff
it is not 'coloring verv highly to say that
much the larger portion OF the excessive
prices paid because of import dales is
thus taken from one and given TO anoth
er.
1t Is easily within the truth to say lha,
less than one-third OF the sun lded ny
/ the tariff to the Cvst OF com nodities
goes to support The Government. and
/ that more than two-thirds is merely
transferred from the consumer to tht
MANUFACTURER. 1t must be borne in mind
that everything that man can eat, drink,
wear, or other Wis. use, whether in the
list of dutiahle articles or not, costs more
on account OF the tariff. Many OF the
necessaries OF hte are protected, which
makes the cost Of living high; this IN
turn 'mskes wages higher without max
Ing them more productive to the en-
ployer or more profitable to the la5orer.
Every implement OF Instrument wi h
which man ear work has more or less
added To- the price by the tariff, and this
makes obi satory a large amount Of cap
ital % produce the same amount OF COM
moditiss. Therefore. everything with
which either labor or capital enter ia en-
hanced in cost by the system OF custom
duties.
A farmer can't raise a bill OF beans
without something being aated 10 The
cost of production by the tariff. Tae
labor he pu's on it is higher priced, and
/ Ahe hoe which be puts on it represents q
larger capital.
But precisely the same can be ssid o.
any tariff whether protective or strictly
revenue, and Of all taxss. whether direc'
or indirect. All tariffs are evils just as
all taxes are evils; both being, within
certain limits, Necessary AMI not unmix.
ed evile, tolerated in order to prevent
much greater evils the. duty OF the
Statesman to each will be done when be
shall have reduced the evils to a miui-
mum; in other words, when he shall
Ehave made their burdens bear eqrallv
upon sii classes and as lightly Is the
welfare OF the country win permit.
But the remedy proposed by the Free
Traders Convention is rash one In
j their platform they say, EVERY protect
i've feature must al the earliest pnssi-
bic date be eradicated frou our revenue
system"
By the words "at the earliest possible
idate" the Free Traders want precisely
what they said, for in orier TO insert
these rtney struck out the word "nlti
mately," and refused to insert "practica
bile" instead of "possible"
! To cut off a mans entire leg in order
TO remove corn from his toe would b'
bad surgery, but it hears striking re
semblsnce,to this proposition. Thes
bexponents Of free trade doctrines seen
10 give little or no weight to- the fact tha
| no less than fourteen hundred commo
: sdities are directly affected by "proiect
live features;" that feer million laberer
are employed in producing these'com
modhies that thousands Of millions o
cspitsl are emploved-intheir production
that to eradicate every protective featur
from onr revenNp spstpm stat the earlies