Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1886-08-20
Protection and High Prices.

upon tHt ameTlCdu consumer AT ali, OUT
only upon the foreign manufacturer. 1t is
claimed, preposterously enough, that the
tariff duties, instead of increasing prices
of the article to the American consumer,
actually decreases it. 1t Is claimed that
the competition which grows up under
the protective system operates to decrease
instead of increasing the price of the pro-
tected commodities. AS proof of this ex-
travagant assertion its apologists are ac-
customed to point to the fact that many OF
the protected articles are much lower in
price now than they were when the tariff
was first levied upon them. We have
heard this extraordinary contention aG-
vanced more than once on the floors of
Congress; and an article stoutly maintain
ing the same extravagant proposition re-
Gently appeared in a protectionist journal
in Ohio.
If indeed protection accomplished the
extraordinary purpose thus attributed to
it, and while making the foreign manu-
facturer pay the taxes necessary for the
support of our Federal government, at the
same time reduced the price of the pro-
tscted commodities to our home consum-
ers, then in very truth it would be great
blessing, and any American citizen, out
side of the manufacturing classes, who did
not favor the protective policy to the full.
est extent would be a fool without hope Of
redemption. But the home manufacturers
might be pardoned if from motives of self
interest they opposed system which,
while shutting off foreign competition, at
the same time fostered a home competi-
tition which would be more formidable
and injurious to their interests.
But the fact is, as everybody knows,
that the American manufacturers are a
unit in demanding a continuance of the
protective system. And not only have
they formed syndieates and raised large
amounts of money to enable the Republi-
cans to keep themselves in power and the
protective system in operation; but these
manufacturers have felt constrained to
coerce their employees. under pain of in
slant discharge, to vote the Republican
ticket in the interest of protection. 1t is
possible, however, that these manufactur-
ers have been prompted to these extraor-
dinary exertions in the interest of true
philanthropy and in order to keep the
prices Of their manufactures down for the
benefit of the American consumers If
this be true they certainly deserve very
great credit
While it is really fact susceptible of
easy proof, that nearly all articles of dom
estic manufacture which are covered by
the list of the protective tariff sell at lower
prices now than when he tariff was frs,
imposed, yet the politician who adduces
this fact as proof that the protective pol
icy has been the cause of this effect mus
be either fool himself or must imagine
tina, the fool-killer has not been among his
audience for many years. five look about
the world at the great reduction in the
cost of manufactured goods in the past
quarter of a century, which has steadily
kept pace with Improvements in mauufac-
turing machinery, this reduction being in
and other foreign manufacturing
always far ahead of this coun-
try; We will see at a glance that prices
have been reduced, not by the protective
tariff but in spite of it. The best practi-
cal refutation of this absurd contention is
found in the fact, which is we'll establish
ed, that the American manufacturers of
hardware have two price lists by which
they sell the same articles in the United
States and in Mexico. The prices in
Mexico are from 25 to 35 per cent lower
than they are in the United States, for the
reason that in Mexico they compete with
English manufacturers, while in this coun-
try where English competition is shut off
by the tariff, they can and do charge a
great deal more for their goods. And
yet these same goods, it is true, are lower
in this country now than they were twenty
five years ago.
A glance will show the inconsistency OF
this fallacy with the other leading conten-
tion Of the protectionists-that the tariff
protects the American laborer from COM
petetion with the pauper labor of Europe
If protection really made prices lower in
this country than ia free trade countries,
then, as a natural consequence, the Amer
lean manufacturer must pay lower wages
in order to do business at = profit. But
in their eagerness to keep the incubus of
q protective tariff fastened on the Ameri-
can people, the protsctionists are like un-
to the traditional drowning man who
caught at straws.
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