The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-05-25
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
LET NO MAN TIRE OF TALKING
TARlFF.'
Tariff Laws are for the Benefit of the
Few, and are Hostile to the Great
Majority.

Tariff Laws are for the Benefit of the
Few, and are Hostile to the Great
Majority.
K Will not be denied that in fixing the
policy of a country, those measures should
be preferred which will confer the great
est good on the greatest number In our
country it has become a maxim. a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation. 1t
simply means that the general interest
must overrule the particular interest of
individuals. 1t by no means implies a
sacrifice Of individual interests, for, as N
Bastiat says, an essential element of each
mans prosperity is the general prosperity.
Therefore, whilst each one is more or less
benefited by the general welfare, it is not
true that the general welfare is to the same
extent promoted by the advancement of a
few. In short, the prosperity of nine
men is of more value to the tenth man
than the prosperity of the tenth man
would be to the nine. The maxim is too
obvious to doubt and too humane to assail.
In our legislation, then, we should un
questionably be guided by it, and ask,
first of all, what is the general interest
and how can it be best promoted?
The first grand division of our people,
OF any other, is into producers and con-
sumers. This division has preference to
tariff taxation, for, in the general sense,
all human beings are consumers. So, in
one sense, all the II 600, 900 of persons
put down in the census as engaged in
galnful occupations are producers, or do
ing work which assists production. But
we are to consider only those who are en-
gagged in the production of articles which
are protected from competition by tariff
duties. Farmers and those engaged in all
branches of agriculture are producers, but
with slight exceptions none of their pro
ducts are protected or can in any way be
increased in price by the imposition of
tariff duties. SO Of builders, of those en-
gagged in transportation, personal service
and all the rest of the vast army of toilers
none are PROTECTED. The direct recip-
tents of the benefits of tariff legislation
are Whitfield down to those engaged in
creating manufactured products alone.
Ii Is not necessary to claim, as in fairness
| might that it should be further cut
down to the factory owners, excluding the
operatives.
Putting into the count ALL persons en-
ployed IN manufacturing, the case stands
thus that We legiSlate FOR some two and
ahalf millions of producers, and AGAINST
some fifteen millions of men who are both
consumers and producers; or, counting
for the interest of less than ten millions,
and against the interest of more than fifty
millions of our people, The conclusion is
unavoidable that the major interest is that
of the consumer, whilst that of the pro
ducer is the minor, and therefore tariff
laws are for the benefit of the few, and
are hostile to the great majority.
Who is injured by protection?
To this question it may be answered,
every one who is not benefited.
Protection can only benefit ANYBODY, as
has been shown, by increasing the prices
of those things which they have to sell.
Now, if it increased likewise the price of
that which they had to buy, the one would
benefit at ALL Surely this is self-evident
To make protection benefit to SOMEBODY,
therefore, it must, in the necessity of
things, either increase the price of their
products, leaving the price of their pur-
chases the same, or it must maintain the
price of their sales and lower that Of their
sales and lower that of their purchases.
II it does NEITHER it does nothing; if it
does EITHER it Injuries somebody. Every
man, therefore, in the United States is in
jured who, having (by protection) the cost
raised Of all which he has to buy, does not
also, by the same law, have the price of
all that he has to sell increased to the
same extent. First and foremost, then,
it Injuries all who only consume and do
not produce. AS they have nothing to
sell, but all their transactions are pur-
chase, it is impossible TO compensate them
for their losses by the increase in prices.
This large class includes the professions,
merchants, all persons engaged in trans
portation, personal and government ser
vice, women, orphan children, and all who
live on fixed incomes and the like. Per-
haps, however, their injury is not so great
as that done to the farmers and planters,
for though the expenditure of the first
named is increased by protection, their
incomes are not necessarily diminished.
But with the farmer both are done. The
price of his purchases is increased, and
being compelled to sell his surplus pro
ducts in the markets Of nations who can
not exchange with us on equal terms, the
prices are necessarily lowered and his in
come is thereby lessened. He is wasting
at both the spigot and the splle. There is
no proposition more obviously just than
that when the farmer is forced to send
for sale his wheat, his meat and his cotton
to Europe, when the price is fixed for him
by the competition of the world, he should
be permitted to buy his supplies of WOO
and iron and the like in the self-same
markets at prices regulated ty the same
competition.
l have seen it stated by reputable au
th0rity that in many portions OF India
recently opened up by railroads wheat If
protitably grown at a cost of five shllilngS
per quarter of eight bushels! In competl
ton with this "pauper" grown wheat ou1
Western farmers have to sell their wheat
produced at cost at least three times a:
great. British capital was put into these
railroads, and these cheap wheat lands O.
India were developed because England
could not get her bread from our pralrle'
in exchange for her manufactured goods
the tariff wall forbidding. She woule
gladly have fed her people from the riches
of our plains if she could, but all foreigr
commerce is exchange, and protection
forbids exchange The story of cotton
the same. The planter sells 1t in Liver
pool in competition with that grown IN al
parts of the earth, at the lowest figure TO
which human labor can be induced t.
grow it. But he is not permitted to bu.
even the jute bagging and the iron tie
which envelope it in the same marke
cheapened in the same way. The price
those things is fixed by having tariff dutie
to suit the American manufactures. s.
it is with nearly everything produced b
those who till the earth and create foo'
or the material of raiment. They ar
,,o1o tho y,afionf victims a. tARi6 taxation