Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-09-01
WHAT SHUTS US OUT.

In the United States we can manufact-
ure with our present shops and foundries
and factories more than we can sell. If
we had customers we could double the
number of our shops and ~foundries and
factories. The want of buyers for our
manufactures is not only leaving what we
can manufacture unsold, but it is pre-
venting US from having as great a number
of them as we 6re capable of producing.
What the country loses from want of
ability to sell all we can produce, and
from having a mere moiety of the manu-
features we are capable of operating, is
immense. That loss is a part of what
we pay in support of the high tariff sys-
TEN. 1t is said that high tariff keeps up
high wages, but as the manufactures we
have cannot be fully employed, and as
other manufactures we are capable of OPP
Grating cannot be built because other ma
tons can uudersell us on account of our
high tariff, a vast number of men that
want employment are deprived of the
work they otherwise might have. There
are therefore large numbers of men de-
prived of work by the high tariff. Deduct
what these men lose by the high tariff
from what some other, it is claimed, gain
xtra by that tariff, and where, On the
average, are the high wages? To get
good pay when working, but to be de-
of steady work, does not give an
.versge OF high wages. There is another
thing-the high-tafif advocates plead
hat because wages are high the tariff
must be high. This is high tariff logic.
First, there must be a high tariff to keep
up wages; then, because wages are kept
up, there must be a high tariff. Logi-
clans call this reasoning in a circle
first the snake must eat his tail because
he has teeth, then he must have teeth
because he has to eat his tail. The high
tariff makes raw material high; the CON
sequence is the article made of the taxed
raw material is high-priced. As high
tariff is claimed to support high wages,
how does making the raw material dear
compensate, when the product comes to
the market, for the increase of price
caused by high wages? If the butter in
one scale is heavier than the weight in
the other, putting in a loafo f bread with
the butter will not make the two scales
balance. How, then, a putting a heavy
tax on raw material counterfeit the effects
of high wages when a manufactured arti-
Gle is put on the worlds markets?
We want 10 extend our trade, especially
in South America. To do so we must
compete with European manufacturers,
but if our high wages prevent our man
u~facturers competing with Europe, does
the addition OF a tax on the raw material
we manufacture into merchandise ena-
bic us to compete? Another question is:
If we can nearly compete in the foreign
market In many instances, with a tax on
the raw material, could we not compete
altogether in those instances if the tax
we're removed2 If so, then high tariff
in such cases does not raise wages in the
cases concerned; it stops wages altogether.
The truth is, most of the talk about high
wages is deceptive. When the quality
and the quantity of the work an Ameri-
can workman does in a given time is
compared with what a European work
man does in the same time. the Ameri-
C has been paid no higher than the
LSIropean. 1t is not, as a rule, high
wages, but high tariff, hat shuts US out
firm the South American and other mar
kets,