The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-04-05
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
DISCUSSED BY SENATOR ZEBU-
LON b. VANCE.
More of the Robber Tariff and Its OPP
preston of the People. The Fallacy
of Protection Exposed.
EJo1n the Bg7ti11Ore SIM.
ARTICLE II,


From the Baltimore Sun.
ARTICLE II.
Having shown that tariff levief
not to raise revenue for the govern
ment but to increase the price Of man
ufactured articles to the consumers il
unconstitutional and contrary to the
accepted ideas of free government
I will next consider it with reference
to its Justice and morality. We be-
lieve that our representative democra
cies are the best form of government
in the world, because the most just
Justice between man and man being
the essence of liberty, equality. order,
and everything else that is excellent
in government.
/, The old watchword of the French
revolutionists, Liberty, fraternity
and equality" though somewhat shorn
of their beauty by an association with
the violence and blood of that unhap-
py period, yet contain the sum and
substance of democratic libetry. Cen
turies ago our ancestors made war
against all forms of legal exclusive
privileges and class distinction, and
the fight was kept up by each succeed
ing generation. When our fathers,
liz the continuation of that struggle,
threw off British supremacy in 1776,
and established the American Union,
by our constitution, they thought they
had thrown off also all the ideas and
institutions of aristocratic Europe
which tended to create artificial and
unnatural distinctions among men.
Theoretically they did succeed in
bringing about the equality of all be-
fore the law, but they did not provide
for, because they could not foresee, the
encroachments on popular rights of
the spirit of greed which has in mod
ern times converted the very instru-
ments Of democratic equality into the
means Of class advantage. The pos
session Of wealth confers such powers
and privileges as makes its attain
ment the ambition of all. In the
struggle for it the law should do no
more than give all men a fair start
and an equal chance. In no case
should it lend one man help against
another. There will soon be ineqauli-
ty enough, at best. The strong man
will soon overcome the weak the
man of brains will circumvent the
<dullard the diligent the temperate !;
the industrious will soon forge ahead
Uf their rivals. As soon as one ad
vantage is secured the capacity to Sc
cure the next one is doubled for in
the business world the increase of pow
er is in arithmetical ratio to the in
crease of wealth. Hence, without a
line of legislation, according to the
course of nature, the inequality Of our
society caused by the unequal distri-
button of wealth are sufficiently great
to cause much misery. There is no
subject which causes greater anxiety
to the humane statesman. Yet, when
ssucb things come about naturally, as
the result of superior thrift, industry
-or ability, no one can justly complain.
1t is the fulfillment of a great moral
law, but what shall we say of that
character of legislation which hastens
and increases these deplorable inequal-
titles? Which creates them where, ac-
cording to the moral law, they would
not exist? BY which one class of our
people, however industrious, temper
ate and thrifty, are yet SO weighted
down with restrictions and taxation
in favor of another class that they are
left behind in the struggle? Law
. represents the supreme power of the
State. With us that power is lodged
in the people, and law is the express
sion of the will indicated by the ma
jority. There can be nothing more
cruel and despotic than to bring the
collective will of the majority or su-
preme powers of the State to the point
of taxing or confscating the property
of the minority, or, which is the same
/. thing, giving the one legal advan-
tage of the other which enables the
same result to be obtained. Yet such
is the effect and intentions of a pro-
-tective fariif Its avowed object is to
enable the home manufacturer to make
money, and as it rejects the idea OF
foreign trade and shuts it out altogeth-
er, the only persons off of whom he
can make it are his own countrymen.
The element of moral wrong in such
legislation is radical, and unmistaka-
BILE. No matter by what ingenious
far-fetched and roundabout arguments
they attempt to show the taxed man
that in the long run he is benefited
the wrong remains. We may not dc
evil that good may come, even if il
were sure Of coming. Whilst the tax.
ed man may or may not get back his
money in the long run, we know of q
certainty that the manufacturer gets
his money every time in the short run,
Wherever natural causes have opera
ted to give one section or class of oul
people an advantage over another, the
man who is either wise or humane
would say at once that if the Legislat
ure interfered at all it should be tt
help me weak and tide them over the
shoals of their situation. There is nc
nobler function of law than this
What is a protective tariff, then, but
a tax levied on A to support b? 1
it be 80, then it is morally wrong. II
the abstract, no man will venture Il
deny it. The sophistries and subter
fuges resorted to in the attempt tt
show that it is n It tax levied on A
or, if it is, that he receives It all bach
again, are unworthy Of serious co1sid
eratio1 in this connection. 1t is j
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