The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-04-20
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
PROTECTION is NOT THE CAUSE
OF Our PROSPERITY.
The Way the People are Misfed---Sena-
tor Vance Points Out the True Way to
Enlighien Them.

The Way the People are Misied---Sena-
tor Vance Points Out the True Way to
Ealighien Them.
V
one of the most difficult things to do in
morals and physics is to attribute effects
70 their proper causes. This is the chosen
hiding place of politicians in all countries
a demagogue has only to mount the stump
and assert vocift rously that hard times
and scarcity of money were all brought
about because such and such things were
done generally things that be had op-
posed-and thousands will accept it as
true. Lacking the information, or the
disposition to apply it, which would enable
them to investigate for themselves, they
adopt the first plausible theory which is
suggested. Very few of even intelligent
men will take the trouble to ascertain the
real cause of events and analyze the pOpu
lar explanations of them. Yet there is
nothing more important IN politics. 1t is
the only way We can reach wise judg
ment of the present or the future. The
most common instance of this darkenlng
of council by words without wisdom is
found in the wholesale assertion of the
high tariff men that the unexampled pros
perity of the country is due to protection
You hear it every day: I'VE have -four
ished under protection" Statistics are
read to us until our head aches to show how
our territories have been enlarged, how
our population has multiplied, how our
wealth has increased, with railroads, young
cities, quadruplng productions, arts, sci
ences. land all the time we have had a
tariff for protection.' That is plain and
unmistakable cause and effect! Protection
did it, because we hourished and had high
tariffs at the time, Ergo, the tariff caused
Tha~ e = bay
about his crazy old clock was equally as
clear and satisfactory. Being twitted with
its jerky and spasmodic behavior, he de-
clared that he could tell the time of day
by it as well as by any clock in the world.
Var see, boss" said he, ''when de hour
hands pints to four, and de mint hand to
half past eleven, and she strikes nine, den
| knows it's adzactly one o'clock" Some
such combination as this may enable an
expert to find that our riches are the re-
suit Of shutting off foreign commerce and
relying solely on high taxation. Because
things happen frequently to come togeth-
er, therefore the one is the cause of the
other, however inadequate the one may do
to produce the other. Since the earliest
recollection of man, in recorded story or
tradition, it is an undoubted fact that the
chicken cocks have crowed every day of
the world just before sunrise; therefore
that is the cause of sunrise.
Now if protection is the cause of our
prosperity, it would operate equally at all
times under similar conditions, and the
removal of the cause would produce OPP
posite effects. Yet we find that as fact
under the low tariff from 1880 to 1860
there was decade of the greatest pros
perity and increase Of wealth the country
has ever known. The official figures prove
this beyond dispute. The most highly
protected country of Europe is Russia, yet
there labor is least productive and least
rewarded. Her paper money is worth
about fifty cents on the dollar, and she is
unable to borrow money in any Of the
markets of Europe. Her standing among
the nations is maintained by the brute
force of eighty millions of people, subject
ed to the will of single man. The least
protected" country in Europe and the
nearest to free trade of any in the world
is England. Her foreign commerce ex
ceeds that Of any of the nations; her ships
carry fifty seven per cent. OF the worlds
trade; the sun never sets upon her empire,
and the subjects of the Empress of India
number more than three hundred millions.
Some years ago, when expecting a war
with Russia, her prime minister instituted
an inquiry into her resources and reported
tha: her people had, lying in banks and
elsewhere idly waiting investment, six
hundred million pounds sterling, or three
billions of dollars, and there labor is more
productive and receives higher pay than
any other county in Europe. An exami
nation of the financial condition of Europe
will disclose the fact that those are most
prosperous which have the lowest tariffs;
that where protection Is greatest, wages are
least. Without giving the lie to all hu-
man experience and the plain elements of
mathematics, no sane man can deny that
taxation is a burthen, and the greater the
tax the greater the burthen OF course. 10
say, then, that this enormous weight OF
taxation, not Only for the support of the
government, but for the support OF
standing army of two millions of protected
people also, (which, at the very least, Is
double the legitimate public expenditure,
is the cause of our great and rapid increase
in wealth and prosperity, is simply to in
suit common sense. You might just as
we'll say that the load under which man
staggers is the cause of his lOcOmotiOn.
He, perhaps, makes out to travel ten miles
per day with it on his back, and you ex-
claim, ''See there! By the help OF that load
the man has marched ten miles ID one day
In ten more he will make hundred, If
some enemy doesn't remove part OF his
load Was ever such progress known be-
fore?' That the people of these United
States have made any progress at all and
carried their load is the greatest tribute
which can be paid to their genius and in
dustry How great that progress would
have been had they been free and un-
shackled no man can say; it exceeds lmag-
nation The verdict of history will be
that they fourished in spite of protective
tariffs. This prosperity is no more to be
attributed to selftaxation than 1T Is to
government plunder. We have always
had that. Jobs and rings and all sorts of
schemes for robbing the treasury have
never ceased among US. Not only IN point
Of fact have they existed simultaneously
with tariffs, but the strong family likeness
between them is evidence of their kinship.
Their methods are the same; but recognlz-
ing the principle of the division OF labor,
one robs the people at large and the other
robs the treasury. With equal proof OF
cause and effect, why not claim that this
plunder is the source of our prosperity
Nay, the resemblance between this plum
dering and the operations of the tariff
doesn't stop here. Many of the successful
thieves have done great things with the
stolen money and lands. They have buil'
railroads and opened whole regions to set
tlement, laid out cities and towns, estab
lished factories, given employment tt
lahor and made the wilderness to blossom