Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-09-12
Fairness in Dealing.


principal staples of export arc food products,
tobacco and cotton, and have their prices
fixed by the current demand and supply of
all the nations that export and import. No
tariff regulations can enhance the price of
them. The price is fixed by what either
of these staples will fetch in the foreign
market to VIII ich it is sent. Liverpool, for
instance, determines the price at which
wheat will sell in New York and Chicago.
But when it comes to the tariff we impose
on foreign commodities the case is different.
That tariff is tax laid on commodities for
the benefit and to the great profit of Ameri-
can manufacturers, and is paid by Ameri-
can consumers. The consequence is that
we sell our staple products in the cheapest
market, which is the foreign, and we buy
our manufactured goods in the dearest
market, which is our own. To the extent
that it is necessary to provide revenue to
meet the expenses of our government,
when economically administered, the Gus
toms duties imposed by the tariff are just;
but when that revenue takes from the peo-
pie for the benefit of protected manufactures
hundred millions of dollars year more
than it needs it becomes extortion, and is
al abuse of the confidence of the people for
which there is not a shadow of justification.
We have said that this is an age of greed
and extravaganza. The old principle of
fair dealing that once existed among Ameri-
cans is becoming a thing Of the past, and
the country is divided politically into two
camps-one seeking to repress the rapacity
that the high tariff has fostered, the ether
to encourage and maintain it. One of the
most serious results of our civil war was
tdat it demoralizsd the public conscience.
The immense amount of money it set ahoat
revolutionized all the old ideas of thrift and
frugality, and we went whirling into all era
of unparalleled expenditure. The transac-
tions of the trade assumed enormous pro-
portions, contractors got rich, farmers sold
their products at prices never known be-
fore, the prices of all commodities went up
to the highest figures. Every agent of the
government, every hanger on to its skirts
spent money as if it were water. There
was a change in the style of living. Country
girls accustomed to the modest dress of
calico bought at the country store wore for
the first time silks from the city. There
were graspipg and covetousness and haste
to get rich on all sides, and so long as show
ers of greenbacks were falling thick as
autumn leaves all seemed to go well. But
when peace was made, and the exactions of
the war tariff began to be felt, a change set
in. The men who had made money out of
the war made it no longer, and prices in the
course of few years settled down to their
normal level. The farmers suffered most.
They found it difficult to get back to their
old frugal habits. Yet some Of them still
cling to the war tariff which is their bane,
as if it were thing too sacred to be med
large amounts of money that the govern
ment does not want and which they might
put to beneficial use. 1t is one of the phases
of the Generalization that the war produced.
The protected capitalists and the copora-
tons that have grown wealthy from the
tariff insist that no change shall be made
in it that will interfere With their profits,
no matter how much the unprotected farm
er and the bulk of the consumers may suf-
fer Another great change that has mani
tested itself since the war is the eagerness
at any cost to make money. Ia this eager
ness the principle of fair dealing is lost sight
of. "You should only charge reasonable
prices for what you sell. You should not
pay unreasonable prices for what you buy
said Governor Hill, of Nav York, in le-
cent speech. These arc axioms that the
traders before the war very generally OBJ
served. They lie al tbs root of what we
have called stair dealing" They are the
very reverse of that cynical injunction,
''Get money, honestly if you can, bat get
money No country can remain prosper
GUS that is dominated by class which ex-
acts tribute from the people, whether in the
shape of war taxes or in any other way.
The principle of fair dealing is founded on
respect for mutual rights. 1t is the moral
bond that unites man to man, and the often
er it is incuicatsd upoa the government aud
upon traders of all classes, the sooner we
shall get back to the old standard of right
and..wrong."