St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-03
By Showing Up the FaIlaeies
Of Their Doctrine in Fine a
Shape.
The Pauper Labor of Europe
and the Infant Industries
of This Country. !
How Workingmen Have Been
HoodWinked--A Word for &
Agriculture. j
Special to the Globe.

Dill being under discussion, Hon. Thomas
l.. Wilson, of Minnesota, said: ''The
collection of taxes is one OF the admitted
functions of government; but how they
should be collected, in what proportion
imposed on different Industries and in
dlvlduals, and for what purposes, are
still veXed questions that nearly affect
the Interests of the people. No class is
disposed to cavil at any tax or system of
taxation merely intended to raise rev.
enue for the support Of the government,
honestly and economically admins
tered; but it is claimed that this is the
limit of the power. and certainly it is
the measure of the duty of the govern
ment in respect to taxation. 1t is
claimed that the government has no
right to take from the people by taxa
ton sum more than commensurate
with its needs, or to tax, directly or in
directly, A, b and c for the purpose of
enriching d. When a greater sum is
raised by taxation than is demanded for
governmental purposes, even though it
is retained in the treasury vaults, the
people have right to complain. EX-
cesSive Or
UNNECESSARY TAXATION
takes from the people what is theirs and
what they have right to retain and
use, and the unnecessary accumulation
OF money in the treasury merely adds to
the wrong, for it can only have the effect
OF approaching the price or value of
money, and depreciating the price of
every other species of property. To the
masses of the people such a policy is
especially unjust and oppressive. By
over-taXatiOnWe have now in the treasury
Sf00,000,000, and for number of years
we have had an unnecessary accumula-
ton of the money of the people, with
drawn from the circulating medium of
the country. In addition to the direct
injury to the general business of the
cauntry and to the individual citizen,
such an accumulation in the treasury
is demOralizlng in the extreme. 1t is
an incentive to the multiplication OF
offices, the increase of salaries, and to
eXtravagant. il not corrupt, eXpendi-
lures generally. The tariff on many of
the
NECESSARIES OF THE PEOPLE
Is double what it was before the impo-
Sition of the war tax. And while
the duty paid at the custom houses on
importations is the measure of the sum
collected by the government, it is not
the measure of the sum paid by the peo-
kple. This will be apparent when it is
considered that the foreign manufac-
turer cannot afford to sell his goods in
our market at less than their value plus
the duty paid by the government, nor
can he sell at price higher than that
at which our goods of home manu-
facture of like kind are sold. If he
pays % or 80 per cent tariff on his
goods, he, of course, must add that sum
to the price, and it is borne by the con-
raised to the price of the foreign, as
they must be. or no foreign goods
would be imported or sold, the sum of
the increase is likewise paid by the
consumer. The effect of the tariff is,
therefore, to raise the price of both, and
to put into the treasury of the United
States the sum of the increase on the
imported goods, and into the treasury
of the protectionists the sum of the in
crease. All of our wealth is the pro-
duct of
CAPITAL AND LABOR,
and when capital apprOpriates too
much 1t follows, of cOurs. that labor re-
ceives too little. When the capitalist
his share of the profits, while the la
borer is enabled merely to make liv-
ing, the inequality and injustice are
Self-evident; and when few favored
classes secure such legislation as COM
pelS the people to contribute to their
wealth. the burden is on them to show
some benefit to the public to Offset the
essential injustice of taxing one class or
person for the benefit Of another. In
answer to these objections we are met
with the Stere0typed exclamation: ''Our
laborers must be protected against the
pauper labor of Europe" That is now.
apparently with one consent, accepted
as the most taking argument, as they
are pleased to style it. Some years ago
the claim was that protection would only
be needed to aid our Infant industries"
But, as these industries have grown
older and stronger and richer, their de-
mandS have grown greater. Now they
appear in the role of patriots and public
benefactors. They propose to contrib
ute largely Of other peoples money to
aid, as they pretend, our labOrerS in
their competition with the 'pauper la
Dor of Europe and Asia An argument
in favor of the retention of our eX-
tremely high taxes is that it is necessary
to build up our
HOME MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES,
and thus create home market for our
agricultural products. We have had
now about a quarter of century to dis
cover the benefcent effects of our
tariff. 100 per cent higher than that of
any other country i'll the world. and the
result can be satisfactory only to those
for whose protection it was imposed.
and their advocates. 1t is true that
| many individual fortunes have been
made by it at the expense of the people.
| The excessive tariff and high prices
our market being limited-have not
infrequentiy stimulated over production
| followed, of course, by reduction of
labor and wages. and that by strikes
and lock-outs. to the great detriment Of
| labor. We have succeeded in many
| instances in building factories. but not
| in building up industries to an extent
| that can be satisfactory to any one whip
unselfishly considers the interest of the
whole country. The prOtectioniStS are
accustomed to point to the volume of
our domestic manufactures as the
fruits of the tariff. but they do not state
what ordinary observation shows to be
! true, that so or 80 per cent of such pro-
duets must, and would. of necessity, be
made in the United States.
TARIFF OR NO TARIFF.
And as have attempted to show, so
! far'aS we export, we do so in spite Of
| the tariff. | am therefore opposed to
our present tariff, because while it en-
| riches rev it prevents the expansion
of our industries and lessons the field
and the reward of labor But my oppo-
sition is intensified by the belief that it
is especially unjust and oppressive to
the agriculturalists OF the country. The
most important question now is. shall
the wealthy classes be permitted to con-
| tinue to levy tribute to the industrial
classes, or shall toll be guaranteed the
| fruits of its own labor. Between these
two classes there is an irrepressibIe con-
| flict. Sooner or later the people will
succeed. Itmay not be at first. The
power OF concentrated capital is great.
The practical politician. the lobbyist
and the place seeker will be on that
/ I. .l,n, -