Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-04-22
About Free Raw Material.

Textile Record, Philadelphia:
The position of the protectionists of thi,
country, with respect to the matter of free raw
materials is, simply stated, this: All materials
used in the arts should come in free of duty
! when thev are not produced or producible a
home. And the theory upon which this PROPOSE
tion is based is far applied in actual practice
that, not produced here, do now come in with.
out payment of duty. The theory itself has it:
justification in the following considerations
Any material which We can produce at home
as, for example, wool, should be produced
here, to help US to escape dependence upoI
foreign countries, to permit us to diversity oul
own industries, to keep here the profits upon
the traffic in the commodity, and so to increase
our national wealth, and to assure US that the
natural supply will not be cut off by such q
catastrophe as a war with foreign power, per-
haps with every nation which has supplied us
with the material. These consideration will
appear to have much force if We will remember
that diversity of employment is one of the first
essentials to the prosperity of population;
that it is as important for nation to retain all
profits upon its transactions AS it is for a priy-
ate firm to do so that to have domestic re-
sources equal to any demand, is to have ability
TO conduct war to successful conclusion,
and that strong domestic competition is the
one thing that will always tend to keep down
the price of imported commodities. If We had
no domestic wool, our manufacturers would
have to pay for wool prices far in excess of
those which they now do pay.
1t is, furthermore, to be considered that
those persons are demonstrably mistaken who
suppose that removal of duties upon sO-called
raw materials would place us upon footing of
equality with European nations in the worlds
markets. We now have free the most impor-
tant staple used in taxtile manufactures
namely, cotton. We have it at our very doors,
and our mills, as rule, can buy it cheaper than
it can be bought by any other mills on earth,
outside of India; and yet England can make
cotton and sell them in China and South Amer
lea at rates our manufacturers can rarley reach.
We ought, if the advocates of free raw mater
ieals argue soundly, to command the Gotten
cloth trade of the world; but that we do not
it is a fact which will admit of no
denial.
1t is clear, therefore, that customs duties
upon raw materials are not always the obstacle
to our commercial Supremacy outside of our
own country, and that something else is. There
can he no difiulty, We imagine, in determining
the true nature of the obstacle it is the greater
cost of labor in the United States. The rea-
son why England beats US in this particular
trade, and in other trades, is that she pays less
to her laboring people than we pay for specific
amount of work. If we are to hope to surpass
her in this general traffic, we have got to cut
down our wages to her level, or to lower level,
and to do this first, before we NEEDLE with the
duties upon materials. The objections to such
a policy are very strong. The first reduction of
course will not be the last. England mill own
ers can reduce wages quite as rapidly as We
can, and if we enter into open competition with
them for their trade, that is what they will do,
and then we will have to make another cut.
The prospect opened up by contemplation of
such business of rivalry is one which no
American can observe with feelings of salts
faction. If there is anything that this country
does not want, it is that the millions of our
laboring people shall be reduced to such state
that they cannot live decently; and, as these
millions all have votes, it is perfectly safe to
say that any policy which clearly promised SO
to humiliate them would be reversed at the
poles before it obtained any great headway..
The fact is, the value of export trade for our
manufacturers is much overrated. 1t is not
great enough to warrant any serious sacrifice.
Of course, it is worth while for US to try to sell
our goods wherever there is buyer; but it
should be the cardinal principle in our policy
that to control eur own market absolutely is a
far better thing for all of us than to grab ac-
casionally small share of certain foreign
markets. We have the best market in the world.
There is none that consumes so much; there
is none whese so many people are so prosper
Gus; there is none that requires so much of the
best things, and there is none that is growing
so rapidly in population. There is not man.
utacturing nation in Europe which would not
go to any extremity 10 obtain free access to it;
and that free access we have. The tariff is the
instrument that keeps them out and secures us
in the enjoyment of our exclusive priviles.
That tariff imposes some duties on raw mater
ials, but those very duties do their part in
making this great market wat it is.