The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-02-13

: If the Question is asked: who shall
begin this work of reciprocal re0ucuonF Il
is answered by the fact that England has al
ready abated her duties upon most Of our
exports. She has repealed the duty n11on
cotton. and greatly reduced the duty upol
our bread-stuffs, provisions and other erti-
cles and her present bad harvest, if accom-
panied by a reduction of our tariff, would
lead to the repeal or her corn laws, and the
unrestricted admission at all times of our
Agricultural products inc mapHfacturlnR
interest opposes reciprocal free trade with
foreign nations, it opposes the lOlI fereln
treaty, and It is feared that no other treaty
producing reciprocal reduction OF our own
and foreign tariffs viii receive Its support
FURTHER OBJECTIONS TO PROTECTION.
l. 1t is not the business of Government
70 attempt the redistribution OF the rewards
Of industry. It is not the duty OF law makers
in CONGRESS or in States to see that any set OF
men are making money. When an industry
is depressed in the FicissItudeS o1 hnthIs III
is not legitimate for those engaged IN II 70
ask Congress to tax their nelghoors 10y -, LnelI
relief. Congress can not be made justly 70
enforce contributions from all the people 10
maintain few of them in any branch OF DusS
mess.
3. Protection is struggle of selfishness.
each interest or combination of interests,
to quote from Prof Perry, of Williams Col
lege (who is acknowledged as the veteran
head of political esonemists IN America
s-endeayorS to get itself protected, and that
the rest shall not be protested. The wooden
men, for example, are anxious for high
however, do not see why they are not as
mitch entitled to protection as the WOODEN
manufacturers. 1t would be difficult Tor
anybody to see why they are not entitled to
| it. Which then shall get the better OF the
Ways and Means. 1t is a question OF lobpaesr
| of influence, of indirect or direct bribery.
5. Protection is wasteful way 20 reach
/ the end proposed by it, 1t is claimed 10 De
needful to encourage weak branches of bust
ness. Let us siiBp9se for the argument
sake, what would be folly in reality to con
eede, that il is desirable f5F the public to en-
courage a presently improbable business
How can it most cheaply and certainly 10
! this? Clearly by Offering direct bounty on
all that is produced, thus letting the puDho
know what il gets for what it gives.
/ HAT ILLUSTRATION BY PROF. PERRY.
| 1t is impossible at present to manufacture
hats, but the public thinks it desirable to in
| troduee the manufacture at the expense OF
the people. Very well. Let the Government
offer TO nav outright from the public chest
made in the country. The bounty would be
paid only so far aS the manufacture - car
| ried OH. This stimulus would be explicit, all
would be open and above board. Everybody
| could see what was DONE and what it was
done for. This would be demOnstrably the
cheapest and most certain way to encourage
hat making. For suppose on the other hand
the protective method be adopted and a
duty of $500 piece be laid on foreign hats
| to encourage home manufacture, every con-
sumner now pays an extra $500 for his hat,
but there is no assurance that anybody villa
go into hat making. Nobody is pledged to do
it. 1t will depend on the comparative pros
poets of making money in that or other
| business. whether that business is con-
tinued or developed under the bounty.
Suppose, however, that the home mar
ket is one half supplied by the
home production, and one-half by the foreign
| article, enhanced two dollars in price by
| the duty. Suppose the market takes two
million hats. Then four million dollars
are paid by consumers 10 encourage nat
lEiTacr han
courage it to the same extent unless the
duty be so high as to keep out the foreign
money paid by the people for hats that does
not encourage hat making. This shows the
wastefulneSs of protection.
PROTECTION PROMISES.
The plea of the protectiOnist is to start
and encourage new industries. 1t promises
| a near time when they will be strong ana
walk alone. That time never comes. The
most highly protected industry in the United
States to-day started" in Massachusetts
| more than two hundred years ago. Linen
| wooden and cotton cloth was remuneratiVely
manufactured in 1884 ut ROwley in Massa~
chusettS In 1876 "aS good iron was manu-
featured in America as any III SPAN, ana
yet to-day we are told that protection Is
needed for these very manufactures, and
that in a little while they will be able to COM
pete with the world. But two hundred years
| is long time to have waited on any infant;
! and the promise made now that, undcr pro
lection for a few years more, it will attain
| such robust proportions as to command the
markets of the world, taxes ordinary cred
ulity.
FACTS.
| England i'll 1912 abandoned in substance,
| the doctrine Of protection, and seven years
| later abolished main feature, till then
maintained in the discrimination in favor
of her own ships. Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor
of the English ExchequeF in 1856 said !:
THERE'S one domestic feature which wish
was in our power effectually to exhibit to
the Governments and inhabitants OF foreign
countries. They know by statistics which
are open to the world, the immense eNteh.
| SiOnS which our commerce has attained
under and by virtue of freedom of trade
and the great advancement that has happily
been achieved in the condition of the
people. but they do not know what it has
change, what time, what struggles, what in
terruptions to the general work of legisa-
| ton; what animOSitieS and divisions among
the general classes that make up the NatlOnS
what shocks to our established mode Of con-
Quoting the Government of the country; ;
| what fears and risks, at some period OF pub
lie commissions. These are the fine and pen
atty we paid for long adherence to folly
| We paid this fine and penalty upon return
| ing to the path of wisdom which. too late, No
wished we had never left 1T is not easy TO
calculate its amount, but il il could be OK
! actly reckoned, and fully exposed to the eyes
II of other Nations, our juniors in trade, 1t
might supply them with timely warning
against initiating our former errors, ana
with the best encouragement to the adOp-
ton, before thcy become entangled in the Gre
alton of artificial interests, of our recent
| and better example.
THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT,
in the case of The Loan Association VS.. City
of Topeka, Goth Wallace, page $50, speaking
| of the power to tax, says that it can as
| readily be employed against one class OF in
| diYiduals and in favor of another, so as to
ruin the one class and give unlimited wealth
| and prosperity to the other, If there is no linn
itatiOn, of the uses for which the power may
| be exercised. TO lay with one hand the
| power Of the Government on the property Of
the citizen, and with the other to bestow u
| upon favored Individuals; to aid private err
| terprises and build up private fortunes, is
| none the less robbery because it is done
| under the forms of law and is called taxa
ton. This is not legislation; j Is, decree
| under legislative forms We have es-
| tabished We think, beyond cavil, that there
| can be no lawful tax which is not laid for
| public purpose" And so deliberate an ut
| terance as that. from the highest judicial
tribunal of America, is enough to, at least,
| cause the citizen who advocates taxing all Of
| us for the purpose of enrching few OF US,
| by means of tariff for protection. 10 enquire
where and how he may acquire the rlght he
| endeavors to establish.
MR.. RANDALIis BALANCE OF TRADE THEORY.
| Mr.. Randall declares "a Nation thatimports
| more than it exports is on the road to bank
| ruptcy;" but Great Britain has been doing
that very thing for thirty years, and it is the
! very thing every Nation must do IN order TO
| grow rich. In plain farmer talk. ii we don't
| whole, as the result of all our trading, VIC
shall certainly grow poor On that point Mr.
Randall is not only wrong, but dramatically
wrong, the truth is exactly the opposite.
INTERNAL RRvENUE TAXES.
Mr.. Randall hugs in the fact that our sys>
| TEN of internal taxes rs also derived from
England, and ought therefore, TO be odious
! enough for immediate repeal. He exalts the
| superior favor of untaXcd whisky. and for
| gets to mention the popular blessing which
would follow, by reduced rates of transPor
/ tation, if railroad iron came in with q tax OF
| it only for the public purpose Of revenue
| He depicts the luxury of chewing unta1ee
| tobabco, but forgets tho comforts which
would come TO American homes from I'M
| taxed woollen blankets, and linen and cotton
| fabrics. With free whisky, in bottles tariff
/ taxed ito protect certain glass manufac
/ turers) seYenty-three per cent. ad Yalorem,
| he thinks the country safe; but with free
| lumber imported in untaXed ships this coun-
| try would bo ruined. He therefore iDveighs
! against our internal revenue taxes, and crics
! aloud for their repeal.
WE MUST KEEP THE INTERNAL REVENUE TAX
| essentially as it is for two reasons: First,
| whisky and tobacco arc among the very best
| things to tax for revenue purposes, and,
! second, we shall want the present internal
revenue taxes as an excise so SOON as ever
| we get TO purely revenue tariff. Tea and
coffee and whisky and tobacco viii be tho
I chief items in purely revenue tariff; and as