Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-08-22
PROTECT ION.
Hon. William McKinley'S
Mastery Address Be-
fore the Georgia
Chautauqua.
A Clear, Concise and Convincing
Argument for the Ameri-
can system.
Tie Great Prosperity Which a
Protective Tariff Has
Given the Country.
A Free Trade Policy Americas Loss and
England'S Gain.
Facts and Figures that Should be Care
fully Considered by Thoughtful
Voters.
4 Free Trade Policy Americas Loss and
Ensland'S Gain.
Facts and Figures that Should be Care
fully Considered by Thoughtful
Voters.
ATLANTA, Ga, Aug. 81.

ject of Protection. Judge Howard van
Eppes presided. Mr.. Mckinley said;
FELLow-CITIzENs Il make my acknowl-
edgements to the Piedment Society for the
courtesy and cordiality of its invitation,
which has given me the opportunity to meet
for the first time an assemblage of citizens
of Georgia. 1t is no new subject
| propose to consider 1t is as old as gov
crnments by men. Taxation with few ex-
ceptions has been the chief and absorbing
issue for more than a century of the repub-
lie
Free-traders, so.called, or, to be more
exact, the advocates of a revenue tariff, be-
Eeving with the other school of political
economists In import duties, insist that duties
shall be levied upon that class of foreign
products which are not produced in the
| United States the principle being that rev.
enue is the sole and only object of such tax
alton and that duty levied upon such for
eign products as have little or no home COM
petition will secure the largest revenue with
the smallest rate of duty. And this is alto
gether true, for whenever you can find for
eign article which the people of this country
require and which of necessity they must
import, any duty, however low, indeed the
very minimum, will produce revenue; for
inasmuch as there is no home produced article
to contend for any part of the home market,
importations will go on unchecked, and the
revenue derived therefrom will be only linz
tied by the extent of the importations lnfiu-
enced by the necessities of our people and
their capacity TO pay An illustration famll-
lar to all of you are the products of tea and
coffee. Neither of these great staple art
icles are produced in the United States. The
demands of our people for these products,
and they extend to every home and fireside
in the land are supplied from abroad. Now,
any tax thereon, however slight and insigni-
ficant, would produce a very considerable
revenue to the Government: and this Illus
trates what is commonly understood as
Revenue Tariff"
If, however, the duty is levied upon the
foreign competing product it is made so low,
having revenue only in view, that the effect
is to destroy home competition and increase
the revenue therefrom by increasing importa-
tions.
Hon. J. Randolph Tucker of Virginia, an
eminent lawyer and experienced statesman,
in a speech delivered in the House of Rep
resentatives, May Is, 1873, defined revenue
duty as follows
Therefore, as no higher duty ought to be
laid than is needed to raise the requisite rev.
enus on any particular article, it follows that
the true revenue duty is the lowest duty
which will bring the required revenue
This definition is fair and frank one, and
accept it, A revenue tariff is. therefore,
such a one as will produce the largest rev.
enue from the lowest duty. The lowest rate
of duty will encourage importations, dimin-
ish home production, and inevitably increase
the revenue; it will of necessity check COM
petition at home and send our merchants
abroad to buy; it affords no protection, not
even incidental, for the very instant you dis
cover that such duty fayors the home pro-
ducer, that instant you discover that impor-
tations and revenue are checked, and that
our own producers are able to control the home
market, or part of it. Then at once the
advocate of a reform tariff reduces the
duty, brings it down to the true revenue
standard for it must not be overlooked, sc-
cording to that free trade maxim, ''where
protection begins, revenue ends" and the
question of revenue is always controlling
A revenue tariff is inconsistent with protec-
ton: it is intended for wholly different
purpose. 1t loses its force and character as
a genuine revenue tariff when it becomes to
any extent protective. 1t has but one object
1t can have but one effect-that of opening
up our markets to the foreign producer-im-
poverishing the home producer and enrich
ing his foreign rival.
England is more nearly a free trade coun-
try than any other, and her system of taxa
ton furnishes an unmistakable example of
the practice and principle of revenue tariff.
Her import duties are imposed almost exclu
sively upon articles which cannot be produced
by her own people upon her own soil To-
bacco, snuff, cigars, chicory. cocoa cnrrants,
figs. raisins, rum, brandy, wine, tea and cot
fee-these are the articles from which her
customs revenue is derived-srticles in the
main, not produced in England, but which
must be supplied from abroad; while practi-
cally all competing products of foreign make
and production are admitted through her Gus
tom houses free of duty.
A brief statement of the dutiable imports
of Great Britain will not he without interest.
Ii will be observed that her duties are
more largely imposed upoa peculiarly Amer
lean products than upon any others. The
duty upon tobacco is, according to moisture,
from 81 TO 92 cents per pound for the raw or
manufactured article, and if manufactured
it pays a duty of from 81 04 to 81 l6 per
pound. The man ufaetured article is made
dutiable at 20 cents pound greater than the
raw product, which, with all of England's
boasted free trade, is intended as a protection
to those engaged in the manipulation of
tobacco. 1t is almost prohibitive to Ameri-
cans who would export manufactured tobac-
CO. The ad valorem equivalent of the duty
on tobacco is nearly 1000 per cent. Cigars
pay duty of 1882 per pound, and from to-
bacco and snuff over S4S 5000, 900 of duties
are collected annually The duty on tea is
| ~ cents q pound. How would the Ameri-
can enjoy paying such duty upon this arti-
Gle of every day use? The duty collected
/ from this source is over sis, 000, 900 annually
| Coffee pays duty of cents pound. but if
ground, prepared, or in way manufactured it
must pay dnty of cents pound-another
example of where England protects those en-
gagged In manufacture. Coo a pays duty
of cents pound. but if it is in any form
subjected to manufacture it pays cents a
pound, the duty on the manufactured article
being double that on the raw material.
Besides the articles have named, there
are about ninety or a hundred others, chiefly