Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-03-15
The Tariff.
BY HENRY wATTFRsoN.

any thoughtful person. It's aims ma
be visionary; the motives of its leade.
may be good or they may be ill; it
methods may be violent; but it is fac
from which the country cannot escape
and the most serious fact of the time
1t presents itself to us as it has neve
presented itself before in the annals O
government, for under our system q
universal suffrage and free election
each citizen Is sovereign. The vot
of the humblest workman can kill tn,
vrte If the richest capitalist, and th
day may not be distant when tber,
will he united organization, Thorough
discipline, and y determined purpos,
among the workmen to commit th,
homicide,
What is the matter with them:
What is their complaint? What de
they want? They have, and have fol
twenty-five years had, all the protec
| ton which the most eXacting friend o
subsidy could desire. They are assured
| 10y the protectlonists that they are bet
ter paid and better off than their com
rades IN any part of the world, anC
measurably this is true. and for reas-
ons, as | have attempted to show Other
| than high import duties. Their most
conspicuous leader, Mr.. Henry George
from whom [ have already quoted-a
man of commanding Intellectual gifts,
at once fearless and winning in his
public approaches-has stated their
case, with great Particularly, both in
| his writings and in his speeches. Too
great consequences cannot be attached
to these. He has lately written and
published book entitled Protection
or Free Trade, which purports to be
Sc, of ~ 10,
with special regard to the interests OF
labor" and is dedicated "to the men,
ory of those ilIustrious Frenchmen of a
century ago, Quesnay, Turgot, Mira
beau, CondorceJ, Dupont, and their
fellows, who, in the night of despotism,
foresaw the coming day" He devotes
two-thirds of this book to an exposure
of the fallacies of protection. He re-
guires but single chapter to dismiss
the free-trader, who is content to stop
with the abolition of the tariff. whilst
the contempt he he's for the mere adj
vOcate of "a tariff for revenue only" is
expressed in a scorn so disdainful that
it is almost silent. "American revenue
reformers,n says Mr.. George, "delude
themselves if they imagine that pro-
lection can ever be overtl.rown in the
United States on the lines of the Cob
den Club. The day for that has pass
ed." He then proceeds to develop his
theory of free land, which he tells US
will alone satisfy the claims and fulfil
the hopes of the work-people, whose
advocate and leader he is recognized to
be.
Are there not in this portent and a
moral? Considering the evil fruits of
protection, and the vast, unyielding
nf a q hp6
under it, Mr.. George first sets himself
the task of overthrowing its influence
upon the minds of his followers. Hav-
ing completed this, he next shows them
the insufficiency of free trade. Finally
he advances theory of free land rent
al, which he develops with mathemat-
ical precision and logical accuracy, but
which, for all its appeal to the imagin-
ation of the landless classes, is dream
possible of realization only through a
bloody revolution. What is his text?
The robbery of protection. What is
his complaint? The inadequacy of free
trade. But if proteetionism had not
established in its theory of paternal
government the right Of the workman
to claim that which the capitalist has
received, where would Mr. George find
warrant for his argument?
Thus we see. in spite Of the extrem-
ism of their superficial differences, a
present bond of union and cooperation
between the party ofprotection and the
party of free laud, on which the pro-
tectionists rely to ms Ike breach in the
party of revenue reform wide enough
| for them to pass through to victory.
Beneath the surface there is an affin-
| ity still closer and more real, which has
| been admirably stated by the Hon.
John G. Carlisle, Speaker ofthe nation
al House of Representatives, from
whom quote the following:
"It is not by any means singular that a
strong feeling of sympathy should exist be-
| tween those who want paternal govern
ment and those who want no government
| between those who want the government to
do everything and those who want it to do
nothing. While one faction advocates gov
ernmentaf interference in all the affairs of
| the people, another faction opposes govern
mental interference for any purpose, even to
| preserve the peace and protect the rights OF
properly; and yet their reasoning, i'll the
abstract, is substantially the same, and If
| followed to its logical conclusion would pro-
| duce substantially the same result The
| man who believes that it is the right and
| duty of the government to take the earnings
| of one citizen, by taxation or otherwise, and
| give them to another, differs very little from
| the man who denies the right of property
| altogether. If the government may right
| fully compel you by law to give any part of
| the proceeds of your labor or your skill to
another man, why may it not, with equal
right, compel you to give him your horse or
| your land! The fact that this IS done indl-
rectly, and under the gulse of taxation, does
| not in the slightest degree affect the question
! of right or wrong inv Olved in the transaction,
but it greatly increases the danger to the
| PEOPLE, because they are less likely to detect
| and resist the spoliation when it is commit
| ted thl ough this insidous process. 1t is not
| the manner in which you are despoiled, but
| the fact that you are despoled, that constl-
| tutes The wrong. And if the government
may rightfuly collect money by taXatlon ana
| then donate 1t as Il bounty or subsidy to in
dividuais or corporations engaged in partlc-
| ular industries or particular commercial en-
terprise. in order TO make their private
| business profitable, why may 1t not also col
| lect it and distribute it among particular
classes of the people in order TO equaiize
| their fortunes, and thus accomplish all that
| Socialism and Communism are demanding!
| The allyocat IS of taXatlon for the purpose of
| increasing the profits of one individual at
| the expense of another, the advocates of
| bounties and subsidies, and the advocates of
paternal government generally, cannot halt
| in the middle of their arguments and refuse
| to recognize the legitimate and inevitable
| results of their own doctrines. They must
know-and they do knoW-that when they
| have proved their own right, by the use of
! the power of the government or otherwise,
to take the money or property of others and
| appropriate it to themselves. they have also
| proved the right of all others ta take their
/ money and property in the same Way; and
thus the right OF private ownership is made
TO depend entirely upon the numerical
| strength of the two sides. There is so little
difference in principle and in practical results
| between Daternaf government and mob gov
ernment that it is not worth while to express