The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-02-08
THE TARIFF.
Not "For Revenue Only" But
Also for Protection and
Development.
An Able and Thoughtful Paper by
Senator George +. Edmunds,
Of Vermont.
[Erom Harper's Maya .ino.

the benefit OF any privileged class what
ever. These systems of legislation have,
it is believed, always been put in operation
for the general development Of the re-
sources and the encouragement of the in
dustries of the countries that have resorted
to them, whatever in some instances may
have been the mOtiUe, as distinguished
from the purpose and effect. of such laws.
The one instance of Great Britain may be
taken as fair example of all, although
from q protective tariff country she has
come in the course Of two centuries to q
very large degree to be a so-called free
trade country.
When her system of protection began she
was Gas our own country is now in a large
degree rural country, with mines enough
and fields enough, and in general with
every other resource sufficient to feed and
find employment for the whole of her
population; and it was her policy 10 pro-
vide by her customs and navigation laws
, that every one of her natural resources and
all of her inhabitants should find Develop
ment, labor,a and with due thrift an increase
of wealth. The only differences in sit
uation among her people were purely inter-
nal and conventional, or were the natural
ones that must exist in all countries until
we have anarchy and chaos; that is to say,
one person might be the owner of land,
another the owner Of a mine, and the third
of a water power, and fourth merchant,
and a fifth feudal lord, and so on. If all
these could be induced by legislation to
supply each other with the necessaries and
Dcomforts of life without resorting to for
eign aid, which must be paid for, it was
thought certain that the general average of
wealth and development must necessarily
increase, and with it the individual pros
perity of all her people, SO far as individ-
ual prosperity could depend upon industry,
economy, and thrift. There was nothing
in her general system of customs and nav
igation that favored one class of her people
at the expense Of another, for the laws ap-
piled equally to them all, until in respect
of her colonies she adopted another and
fatal policy. Her laws commercial were
not calculated to build up, nor did they
build up or tend to build up, an aristocracy
either of land, power, Or money in favor
of one body Of her people as against an
other. The aristocracy of land, as it may
be called, was not consequence OF this
system. but it existed before it, and it is
clear that it would have continued to ex.
list to much larger degree than it does
now had it not been for the very system of
protection she SO early adopted and so long
continued, and that she has now, with the
same purpose of protecting and advancing
her interests, partly abolished. With the
increase of her general wealth, distributed
among great number of persons, came
the distribution of her lands into the hands
of greatly increased number of people;
and just in proportion as the general diff
fusion of wealth increased the independ-
-ence of her middle and lower classes in
creased also, and the domination of the
great land holders diminished in the same
proportion.
Through the long period of her protec-
( tive system for production, manufacture,
:, trade, and navigation, it will not be dis
puted by any one that, in spite of the
enormous waste both of life and treasure
in wars, her wealth as nation, the devel-
opment of all her natural resources, the
improvement of the condition of all classes
of her people, and her population, in
creased enormously, so that in later and
still recent days her condition. as it re-
spected the necessity or even desirability Of
continuing the strictness of her customs
and navigation laws, has passed away. She
had already become the mistress of the
world in manufactures and commerce, and
almost so in arms. She had, however,
from this very growth, become unable
either to feed or clothe her now over
abundant population from the products of
her own soil, aud SO, as it was thought, a
partial free trade became as naturally
her proper policy for the con-
tinued prosperity of her people
as protection had been before under en-
tirely different conditions, and of course
she would then more strongly desire, and
could with more plausibility advocate, the
abolishing of customs and navigation laws
by other countries whose markets her peo-
pie wished to employ for the sale of their
productions, we'll understanding the error
of the idea that seems to be advanced in
Mr.. Watterson's article, that it is the con-
sumer who bears the whole burden OF i'm
post duties, and well understanding the
fact that, at the very least, n very heavy
proportion of such imposts is borne by the
foreign producer or manufacturer. This
, last named fact appears to be entirely
overlooked by those who advocate great re-
auctions of customs duties as benefit to
the consumer, and as relief OF the con-
sinner from taxation.
: If the profits of the foreign manufact-
urer or producer are essentially diminished
by customs duties, and are essentially in
creased by the diminution or abolition
thereof, then, SO far the money obtained
from them is not by taxation of our own
people, but by taxation of the foreigner;
and il the surplus revenues are to be re-
duced by the abolition or reduction of the
customs duties, SO far they are reduced,
not for the benefit Of our own people, but
to the benefit of people Of other countries
who are the exporters of goods to our mar
kets. This is well illustrated by our ex-
perience in the abolition of the duties
upon tea and coffee in the year 1872. Be-
fore this abolition there had come into the
Treasury many millions of dollars year
as duties from these two articles lin 1901
: there were over twenty-five millions),
neither Of which was produced in the
United States, and SO it was supposed
that these articles would be cheapened
to the consumers, and that no injury
could be done to any domestic
interest by their abolition. And
this was partly true, 80 far as its direct eff
feet was concerned, but there ceased to