St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-28
GONE MAD.

OOhiC vi biS pAA liooh
have protectionist craze, which APP
pears to go hard with them. or this
class is Senator BLAIR, of New Hamp-
shire. He is certainly possessed of an
infatuation on that subject, and he rep
reSentS large and aggressive body OF
Republican protectioniSts. His idea as
indicated in an educational bill before
congress, and in an interview last week,
is that the federal government shall go
on collecting revenue from imports re-
CARELESS of its needs, and to distribute
the excess for educational purposes.
Mr.. BLAIR does not despair of getting
his Republican coadjutOrs to finally
adopt this policy.
1t at first blush is very plausible
scheme. 1t would be very nice to have
the government to divide so, 100000 now
and then among the states. And this
scheme falls directly in with the Repub-
lican tendency toward Capitalization
OF having the federal government do
about everything, and reducing the
states to political nonentities. 1t ought
not to be difficult for Mr.. BLAIR to get
the Republican party to take up his
idea, for it grows directly out of their
philosophy.
But the scheme will not bear close
scrutiny from an economic or an in
duStrial point of view. In the first
place the protectiOnist policy is, i'll sub
stance, the imposition of tax on
articles of use and consumption in order
to increase the profits of the few men
engaged in their production. Every
person in the United States, for eX-
ample, is taxed to increase the profit OF
the few capitalists engaged in the iron
and steel manufactures. This is I'M
just and impOlitic. Every indus
try should stand on its own bottom. 1t
is unfair to oblige everybody to pay
more for articles than they would other
wise be obliged to pay in order that
few men engaged in their production
may get rich. This Is not the American
idea.
LII the second place, it is bad policy
to tax the people one cent more than is
absolutely necessary for the support of
the government. The less they are
taxed the better. Taxes may enrich the
tax gatherer but they impOverish every
body else. The constitution authorizes
no tax for any purpose but to defray the
legitimate expenses of the government.
The fact that the tariff is an indirect
tax, and that it is collected inSidiOusly
and surreptitiously by increasing the
price of every article that is pur-
chased, does not alter its essential
character one whit. But while
a direct tax is levied on property, so
that the richest men may pay the largest
share, a tariff is levied on consumption,
and its heaviest burdens fall on people
least able to bear it. 1t is the most I'M
Just tax that is levied. Moreover, it is
in fact burden on industry. it in
creases the cost of living and the cost of
production. thus limiting the market,
and lessening the profit of all industries
except those especially favored by legis-
lation. 1t bandicaps all other industries
for the benefit of few.
Under this tariff so eXacting and I'M
Just, Mr.. BLAINE proposes to collect
taxes indefinitely, and after filling the
pockets of the few for whose benefit it
was created, to squander the rest as a
prOdigal' squanders his inheritance.
But under mol circumstances is the heavy
hand of the tax gatherer ever to be
lifted from the backs of the people.