Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1888-10-25
TARIFF talk FOE mEx VINO woRR
Some Reasons why Our People
Ought TO Prosper.

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Some Reasons why Our People
Ought 90 Prosper.
The following is the twenty-fourth con-
tribution of Worker to tariff talks in
the New York Times:
Those who dsrive large profits from the
high prices which taxes on imports en-
allie them to get from the consumers or
the country often claim that our national
prosperity Is due TO the tariff. They say
that while this tariff has been in effect
since the war, the industries Of the eoun
try have grown very much and great
deal of wealth has been accumulated.
TheyAlso say that our workingmen re-
ceiye higher wages than those OF other
counttiessnd are ia every way better of.
They refer to the large amounts Of money
deposited in the savings banks in manu-
featuring states rs one of the evidences
Of this. II all they claim inregard to the
prosperity of the people and the well.paid
and comfortable condition Of our work
ingmen were entirely true, their reason
ing would not DO sound. To say that
because one thing follows or accom- paniss
another 1t must be caused by it is the
shallowest hind OF false reasoning. II is
ithO Nuhbg p1Dhuoo VIZ bhfC
grown and prospeied since the waste and
destruction Of the civil war aud the as
cumulation Of o great public debt which
we bave to pay with interest, therefore
our prosperity ia due to those terrible
calamiIies.
From the principles Of trade and taxa
tion which were laid down in the early
part OF these talks" and which no
rational person can deny, it is very hard
TO see how taxes upon things produced o,
bought and sold, which have to be paid
ont OF the products of labor, and how
restrictions upon trade can possibly pro-
mote the prosperity of people, though
we have seen how they may change tbs
application Of capital and labor and the
distribution Of their products so ss to
build up certain industries at the ex-
/ pense of others. We have admitted that
ss national policy this may be q good
thing to do for time, for the sake Of
having variety OF industries and OF pro-
duction, ard being commercially more
1 independent Of other nations. But when
this article has been fairly achieved pro-
tection should DO maintained only SO for
az 1t can be shown shat it is still neces-
ssty in order to sustain some of these in
dustries. Before accepting taxes as a
cause Of prosperity we ought to inquire
whether there are not other thinge more
likely TO be the cause Of it.
We all know that this ia great coun-
try. II has vast extent Of land rot get
wholly occupied, much of which is very
fertile and very i.tle Of which has had
its strength exhausted by long cultivation.
We have great variety Of climate
adapted to all manner of natural produc-
tons, We have forests OF timber and
qusrties of stone and mineral deposits of
great richness and variety. We have a
vast coast liae with innumerabIe good
harhors and great system of lakes and
rivers, affording mesns Of Communication
aud We have hnilt up o network of
railroads containing nearly half the rail
road mileage Of the world. With this
great continent, this variety OF natural re-
sources and advantages, which have been
used for comparatively nhost time, our
population amounts on ths aver
ags to only nbout 25 persons TO the
square mile even in the region east Of the
Mississippi river, while for the whole
country not counting Alaska, it is con.
siderably less than 20 persons. England
is an old country and has about 400 per.
SONS to the square mile, while for ths
whole united Kingdom the number in
1871 was 265. Belgium has over 46t
persons to the square mile. Germany
and Italy over zoo, and Austria nearly 81
many, while certain separate states, like
Saxony, for instance, have over 400.
Besides, we have free government
and institutions and social conditions that
were intended to give an equal chance to
oil. We do not have to support great
monarohical and aristooratic system,
which costs much and produces nothing
and which restricts the action and oppor
tunities of the people by hard social and
political conditions. Every man has ths
prospect of rising and lettering his con
dition by industry and energy. We do moi
have to pay for great armies and arma
ments, which take hundreds Of thousands
of men from productive employments
and make them costly consumers, and
which absorb large amount from the
production of labor. Oar people as q
whole are supposed TO be more intelligent
and better educated than those OF other
countries, aud this, with the fact that
they have better chances and greater in
oentives TO effort, makes them moro skill
full, industrious, and energetic than Other
people. At Last that is what we claim Of
one of the results of our free institutions
and it certainly ought to be so.
Now with this great country, with III
vast natural resources and advantages, its
institutions,a nd its active and intelligent
paople, the labor Of each man sureiy
ought to produce more for and be worth
more, and he ought to get more for IL,
than is possible ia old and more crowded
countries, with reprensiye conditions and
traditions. Do not these circumstances
afford reason enough why this country
should be prosperous, why it should
build up its industries rapidly, why
wealth should accumulate and men po
decay, why labor should be well paid
and comfortable When we think Of il, il
seems as though our people, eept CHILLY
those who do the work which is tbs
source of all production OF wealth, oueht
to be better off thAn they are. Thert
ought not to be so many cases of poverty
and distress, 80 many strikes and lock
outs and labor troubles, which, by thu
way, are almost always in the "protected'
industries. It is not quite possible tina
this system OF taxation, which s.imu
lates here and represses there, which
draws from the mass of the people ant
bestows upon special interests, really
interferes with prosperity, making it les
general and widely distributed than i
wonld otherwise be? May it not put TOT
much OF that national wealth which SEEM
so great in the statistics into the hands o
few men, and leave too little of il to tn,
people at large, and especially to thos
who do the actual bard work Of produc
: ing the wealth
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