Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-08-02
PROTECTION soPHisTRY.

some Decisions of the Protected-The
Home-Market Theory shown Up in Its
True L;ght-Facts That Must Appeal
to Every Person of Ordinary Intelligence.
1t must be evident to the most SUI
perficial observer that the protective
tariff is not profitable to the unpro-
tected. There is nothing that protec-
ton offers to the majority of the COM
munity but home market for their
products. What this means precisely
has not been often explained, and it is
therefore far from being generally
understood. The promise of a home
market means that those who tax
themselves for the support of manu-
facturers by cOnsenting to pay an in
crease for the latter's products, and
for competing foreign products, shall
be compensated by exclusive market
and, consequently, higher prices for
their goods. The farmer, for ex-
ample. the duties on whose products
been told that his crops would find
purchasers in this country, and pur-
chasers whose tariff-bred prosperity
would enable them to pay to him high
prices for what they consumed; that
he would not be obliged TO COM
pete with any but the other
farmers OF his own country, and
that he would never be forced to accept
prices that compensated the peasants
of Russia and the ryots of India
Every Intelligent person knows that
this promise has been broken. Dur
ing the fiscal year ending June so,
1887. the farmers sent abroad 1928
1878 of the products of agriculture.
Inc price of wheat was fixed in Lon
don, and the American farmer. taxed
as he is for the sustenance of manu-
facturers. sold his grain in compe-
tition with the products of the pauper
labor of Russia and India. In hun
dred years protection has not made a
home market for the farmer On the
contrary, the outlook is more and more
unpromising as the years go on. We
have not been able to prevent ex-
changes of manufactures, for we both
export and import them. We have
ing exchanges by our impertinent in
terference with the laws of nature, and
We have driven the farmer into the
clutches of the usurious money-lender
The home-Inarllet theory was invented
by selfish seekers of the peoples
bounty, and now appeals only to per-
sons of little information and weak
Imagination.
1t is not only the unprotected who
are interested in a revision of the pres
ent tariff law. The wage-earners in
protected industries are equally con-
cerned in securing a readjustment and
reduction of tariff taxes. There were
in New York in 1880 certainly not more
than 400, 900 wage-earners who could
be said to be directly benefited by the
Tariff. The average yearly income of
zach person thus employed in manu-
featuring was about 1874. In this ca
cuiation are included the low wages
paid to women and children, but to bal
ance that the higher wages paid to the
heads of families go to the support of
several persons. According to the cen
sus tables the earnings of one person
In this State support nearly four.
Counting two children as one adult,
three are sustained by the wages of
the head of an average New York fam
lily. According to Mr.. Atkinson, the
individuals ration amounts to from 20
to % cents day. depending a good
deal upon the economy and Judgment
used in buying the food. We will sup
pose that the average family is sup
piled with food to the best advantage,
and that the ration is 20 cents a day
for each individual. This is a violent
assumption, but the advocates of a
protective tariff can not complain of it.
On this basis each person would con-
sumo $73 of food. and The cost of food
to the family would be S219. This
would leave S1o5 d year for rent, cloth
ing. fuel, medical attendance ard all
the necessaries of life other than food.
This is the prosperity which the pro-
tective tariff has brought to the wage
Garner of New York. 1t is, however,
by deluding the working people that
the protectionists hope to maintain the
existing law. and to persuade them to
consent to continue to pay out of the
earnings which are barely sufficient
for their support tax on what few
imported articles they use, and boun-
ty on nearly every domestic product
that enters into the consumption of the
household.
One delusion under which the vic
Tins of the prOtectionists are at pres
ent laboring is that the Mills bill is
free-trade bill. 1t is incredible that
the active opponents of this measure
should really believe what they say.
The average rate of duty on imported
articles entered for consumption in
1887 was. AZ. 10 per cent. This is not
only an enormous charge upon the
commerce and the consumers of the
country, but the protectionists them
selves have admitted that it is ex-
cessive. The fact, however, that the
protectionists have forgotten their ad-
missions of former years and now de-
mand more than they then professed to
DO contented with, is not unique in the
history of their system. The first act
1or 1.-THE encouragement and protection
OF manufactures was passed in 1889
AT that time an average rate of duty of
about 10 per cent. was thought. to be
sufficient. The next act was passed in
1870. and increased the rate q per
cent. Then came Hamilton's celebrated
report in 1871, and in 1892 there was a
further increase of p per cent, in COM