Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-02-02
The Tariff.
BY HENRY wATTERSON.
A.G. S.

BY HENRY wATTERsoN.
| It is cnntended by the advocates O
each recurring scheme for the regeDer
alton of mankind that it, and it alone
| is equal to the proposed emergency
| The followers of Richard Golden and
John Bright conscientiously believed
and predicted for free trade a millen.
MUM, which has not come to pass, fol
there is still starvation in England
| The disciples of Mr.. George and DIR
| McGlynn look to the abolition of prop.
erty in land and the substitution oi
| land rental as remedy for the in.
equalities of taxation and the oblitera.
| ton of poverty. In like manner the
protectioBist is loud in praise of the
virtues of his specific, which, according
| to its label, is to secure the native ma o.
ufacturer profit against his foreign
rival without increasing the cost OF
manufactured products to the domestic
| consumer, and to insure the native
operative steady work and good wages
by restricting production to a home
market, whose wants are not able to
employ half his time, To be sure, pro-
lection is advertised to do many other
things, such as the building of cities
and the opening of mines, unconscious.
or refusing to allow, that cities spring
from a concentration of population.
altogether independent of tariff laws.
and that wherever accessible mineral
wealth has been discovered in sufficient
abundance to justify its development,
capital has never been wanting. But
the main-stays Of the prevailing pro-
tectionist argument are the manufact-
urer. who thinks he cannot stand with
out the help of high import duties levi
ed upon the commodities of his foreign
rival, and the operative, who is induc-
ed to believe that these duties affect
his wages, and in some way keep him
out of the poor-house.
The truth is that protection in Amer
lea as little as free trade i'm England
has wrought what was claimed for it
and expected of it by its partisans-to
wit. the extinction of pauperism. Nor
| will thoughtful men look to any theory
of legislation or plan of government to
do that. AS long as there are Unequal
tiles in human character they will show
themselves in human conditions. The
frugal man will save whilst the thrift
less man wastes his substance, and to
the end of time the rewards of sobriety
and skill will be set against the penal
ties attached to incapacity and sloth.
All that statesmen can do is to consider
what is right and what is best, aud
contrasting opposite policies and sys-
TENS with the assistance of collected in
formation, follow the injunction of
Paul, and "hold that which is good. !"
Government is more or less a COM
promise, and too much in wisdom may
not be required of it. But wise and free
men should have a care that its COM
promises are just to all, and not the
artifices of seff-interest and class-inter
est. disguised as philanthropists.
Those who demand the revision of
our war tariff, the reduction of its
duties, and the reform of It's abuses 90
not deceive themselves, and have no
wish to dupe the people into the notion
that the simple righting of a wrong,
however great, is going to work MIR
acle in the state of the country. con-
verting an Irishman into Scotchman,
an Ethiopian into an ADglO-Saxon, and
extracting sunbeams from cucumbers.
They dream of no Utopia. They adj
vance no visionary theories. They are
at once practical in their aims and con-
servative in their methods. They point
to the excess of revenue wrung from
the people as a proof of needless and
therefore unjust taxation. They point
to duties levied rather upon the nec-
essaries of life than on its laxGties. and
so fixed as to yield the largest bounty
to the manufacturer, the highest cost
to the consumer, and the least revenue
10 the government, yet, notwithstand-
ing, amassing u vast surplus in the
Treasury. They deny that such sac
rifice of the Taxpayer lie either expedi-
ent or just, that 1t represents any right
of domestic industry, that it confers
any blessing on the domestic workman,
and stigmatiZing it, as the Supreme
Court has stigmatized it. as robbery
under the forms of law" they propose
to substitute in place of the system
which exacts it a system less restrictive
to commerce and less costly to the
great body of the people. Since no
question, however practical, can be
discussed without some reference to
theory, which is simply a vehicle of
exposition, they sustain their exhibit of
ascertaiued facts by theories drawn
from natures laws and the history of
trade, which tt ey believe to be equally
conclusive. But the strength of their
case lies in the assumptions of the pro-
tectionist theory that the country can
be enriched by taxation, and its attend
ant claim that Congress has the right
to levy taxes for any other than for
public purposes.
In considering the question here /
shall limit myself to the two PROPOSE
tions on W hich the advocates of ofprotec-
tive duties mainly rely-that they
cheaper the home market and insure
high wages. If the error of these pre-
tensions can be shown, the claim of
protection upon the community at large
and the operative IN particular falls to
the ground. Fatsuna in atfa0 fdLsnDa in
omni Countless volumes have been
written. and may be written. with the
only effect, and often with the sole
purpose, of complicating the argument
ard confusing inquiry. There is but
one way. however, to tell the truth,
and that ia never campIex. No moral
ist eaa successfully maintain that in q
free government like ours it is right to
tax one man for the benefit of another,
and no statistician can demonstrate
how prices can be lowered by inoreas-
Ing tue cost of production.
To be contfaued.)