The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-06-23

that the former is a tax on home product,
while the tariff tax is laid on foreign prod
uct. is unworthy of those gentlemen and
dsparagement of popular intelligeneei for
the tax is ultimately and in every instance
land that is, after all, the vital point-paid
by the American consumer-our own flesh
and blood. Whether we pay a tax on a
hogshead of Cuban sugar or Virginia tobacco
makes little difference. In either case our
surplus is reduced; in either case it is tax,
and we are the taxpayers.
And this notion that tobacco is one OF the
necessaries of life is neither the popular nor
the philosophic idea. 1t is the newest of all
new idiosyncrasies-th offspring of fertile
brain under high political stress, novel, but
neither startling nor convincing
But it is idle to debate this point while
there are SO many highly tarif.taxed necessa-
ries of life-great food staples, such as sugar,
rice, and molasses-about which there can be
no debate as to their being among the chief
necessaries of life.
And this, Mr.. Speaker, brings me TO con-
SlucTdllOu vi Jul lsAAAh eoAOos AhSoS e----SS
may properly be divided into two great heads,
namely: Purely revenue taxes, suets, for
instance, as a tax on tea or coffee, and pro-
tective taxes, such as are laid on products
common to this country. All tariff taxes not
purely revenue taxes are, to some extent or
in some degree, protective, except in those
instances where nature has given us practi-
cal monopoly, as in the case of petroleum,
cotton, etc., or where there is great over
production dependent on export trade, as in
the case of wheat.
Owing to the vast and varied resources of
our country the items on which purely rev.
enue tariff could be levied are quite limited
and to large extent confined to the pure
necessaries of life, and hence there are very
few people indeed in this country who desire
that our tariff taxes be limited to pure reve-
nue. items. So few, indeed, are these that
it is not at all question of practical moment.
When we come to tariff taxes on products
common to this country we enter the domain
of s'protection,'' and have reached practi-
cal question. A tariff on commodity we
readily produce, where our production does
not quite equal or exceed our consumption,
is, as rule and to the degree of the tariff
tax laid, protective. Where the tariff is very
low the protection will be slight and the rev.
enue quite ample. Where the tariff is very
high the duty will be more than protective; 1t
will breed monopoly, and yield no revenue
whatsoever. The primary object of pro-
tective tariff is to enlarge and expand our
field of production in those directions in
which we are fairly open to expansion, for
do not believe protective tariff is justified
in those cases where nature has put veto on
the power of expansion, and where revenue
rather than increased production seems to
be the chief result, as in the case of sugar.
Coming to the question of the degree of
protection that ought to be given in case
where protection is fairly warranted, it seems
to me that only so high duty should be laid
as will fairly cover the difference in the cost
of production here and abroad, be it in labor,
raw material, or interest on capital. Such
tariff call Q low tariff as distinguished from
a revenue tariff Where a tariff tag eXeeeds
in q material degree this measure term it
high tariff 1t then becomes more or less
prohibitive, breeds monopolies, and> works
injury both to the consumer and the laboring
man.
The price of labor is primarily governed by
the law of supply and demand. The protected
producer does not measure the wages he pays
by the amount of protection he gets, but by
tie ease or difficulty with which he can pro-
cure labor, or by the fact whether labor is
plenty or scarce A protective tariff only
helps labor indirectly by enlarging the demand
for it. One of the secondary results of very
high tariff is overproduction, and this leads
to stagnation and suspension, from which
comes to the labOFer lower wages, lOckOuts,
strikes, and untold miserles
1t has been the fashion of certain econo.
mists to ascribe the marvellous growth of this
country for the past twenty five years wholly
to our tariff laws. Statistics of growth in all
conceivable forms have been paraded, accom-
panied with the exclamation, "Behold the
tariff" This is all pure exaggeration.
The tariff with multitude of other causes
haye, all combined, produced the magnificent
resHlt. The ehief factors hoyeyer, hayye
been opr abundant supply Of the Host fertile
lands in the world, which we have freely
given away under our homestead laws,
together with the immense tide of immigra-
ton, with all its capital of money and muscle.
U,i... L. ,,roJ,oad onr oraat homo mo Riot
Our oceans of land, as free as water, and the
development of the same have covered a null
titude of sins, and, not least of all, some of
the sins which lurk here and there in our
tariff laws.
Our leading agricultural staples are bread
stuffs and cotton The latter is theoretically
and the former practically, so far as our pro-
ducers are concerned, free Of duty. The
home price of wheat is fixed by the export
price, and the farmer of Minnesota has to
compete, without any governmental aid direct
or indirect, with the farmers Of India In iha
markets of England. And 1t is in these great
and unprotected agricultural industries that
our growth has been the greatest and most
pronounced But for the great volume of
export of our non protected agricultural sta
Piles our foreign commerce would cut but
sorry figure and the balance Of trade would
be heavily against us all the time. During
the last fiscal year our total imports amounted
10 Sg92, 100000, while opr total exports
amounted to s7oa. .O22, 1923, and Of this total
74.41 per cent. we're agricultural products,
while only l9.45 per cent. were products of
manufactures, as the following table shows;
GENERAL FEATURES OF THE DOMESTIC EXPORT
TRADE DURING 1887.
The values of our exports of domestic mer-
chandise during the last fiscal year, classified
by groups according to sources of production.
were as follows
Articles. Values. Per cent.
Products of agriculture s523 073F9 f44l
l.~,s- -xr~ r,..Awx ED< q