The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-04-27
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
HIGH TARIFF SHUTS UP OUR
MARKETS..

MARKETS.
Senator Vance Continues to Expose the
Fallacies and PretensiOns OF PrOtec.
tiOnists.
One of the very earliest truisms of politi-
cal economy which the study of the sci
ence established was that the main source
of the wealth Of nations is commerce with
foreign people. 1t is not necessary here
to repeat the familiar arguments of Adam
Smith. John Stuart Mill and other great
authors: no fact in science is better estab-
lshed than this, that nations get rich by
pushing to the utmost the production Of
the things in the making of which they
excel, and exchanging them for those pro-
ducts in the making of which other coun-
tries excel. 1t Is simply the principle of
the division of labor by which a villa 9
community thrives, carried into operation
IN the larger business of the world. In
fact, all the great laws of the science have
their source in the humble dealings of the
hamlet. The laws which are evolved there
in the petty transactions between man and
man are the same principle as those which
control all other business, great or small,
in which the same human nature is en-
listed.
Bearing this in mind, let US look further
into the pretensions of protectionists that
our tariff taxation is the cause of national
wealth, and that it must be kept up if our
wealth is to increase. 1t must always be
remembered that MONEY is not wealth, but
only the medium by which wealth is ex-
changed Real wealth consists in the
possession of objects of utility or pleasure
Now it is desirable that as far as it is
possible to do so with profit, country
should supply its own wants. Hence most
good writers on political economy admit
it is to the advantage of countries in their
infancy to encourage domestic manufac-
turers by extraordinary means. The first
necessity of such a country, struggling to
establish itself among the nations, is to
secure home supply of the things neces-
sary to its existence, of which it might be
deprived by war in case it were dependent
on, foreigners. But that period soon passes,
and then comes the question of surplus
Of products. So long as our country is
producing only its own supplies, of course
its wealth is increasing day by day; and if
we made all we required and could make
no more; We could attain to national
wealth by dealing with each other only
that is to say, We could attain to all the
wealth possible in such a state Of things.
But human industry cannot stop without
own country, one of two things must take
place; either foreign market must be
found for our surplus products or We must
cease to make any. If we make more than
we want and can't sell 1t, this lessons the
value of what we have, and our aggregate
wealth is not increased a particle; if We
stop production at the point of home sup
ply, then all the labor and capital of the
country beyond that limit is unemployed,
and again our wealth ceases to grow. Com
mon sense points out that We must have a
market for our surplus, and high tariffs
tend unmistakably to prevent this. They
are intended to prevent it, for as all for
eign commerce is simply exchange, nations
will not buy from US unless they can pay
us with their products. With tariff wall
around our country they CANNOT trade
with US.
The wickedness Of this policy is only
eoualled by its folly. There is no country
upon earth prepared to become so rich by
foreign trade as these United States, be-
cause there is none so abundantly sup
piled with all the material and all the con-
ditions Of production-absolutely none.
There is not labor enough in our sixty
millions Of people to dig up all of our coal
and iron ore in . thousand years; our for
ests, though rapidly decreasing by lavish
their destruction, are still most abundant.
We have practical monopoly of cotton, q
staple which clothes two-thirds OF man
kind, whilst in all food products our vast
and fertile plains are the granary as we'll
as the wonder Of the world. In addition
to all these advantages, which are the
gifts Of nature, our population, under the
stimulus Of free institutions, has devel-
oped more industrial energy and more in
ventive genius than any other people upon
earth. Their labor saving inventions form
an epoch in the history OF our race, and
have multiplied the productions OF human
labor beyond the dreams of the poet. The
statistics snow, and candid men every
where admit, that the best trained labor
to be found in Christendom cannot equal
our skilled workmen, measured by the
amount and quality Of their work. And
yet, in the face of all this, and whilst the
sound Of our boasting of it is still heard,
we declare in the next breath that we are
unable to compete with our interiors, shut
out their products by prohibitory tariffs,
deny ourselves the riches and the political
friendships which are the fruits Of foreign
commerce, and condemn this mighty re-
pository OF unborn wealth and human en-
ergy to the narrow limits OF the home
marketi With the ore and the coal under
Ills lttI, Luc AAOA ~
clares be cannot make ton OF pig iron
without tax Of seventy-five per cent, on
the product Of his nearest rival, who Is
from three to four thousand miles away
beyond the sea- So it is with the cotton
spinner, the woolen weaver, the potter,
and all the rest. Offer to reduce the duty,
even slightly, on any one of his products,
and he will cry Murder" loud enough to
wake a sleeping city, and declare that the
least reduction will destroy him instantly
and forever. If he would consent to die
alone it would not be so alarming-we
might attend one funeral-but he is equal
u positive that the country at large will
perish with him. He wants no foreign
trade of course The home market Is good
enough for HIN. There the competitor
Of the foreigner is forbidden by law, the
competition of his neighbors, whenever II
gets trou blesome, is regulated by ring ol
trust which stops production and keeps uI
prices as dividends may demand, anc
there is none to molest him or make hin
afraid. When by chance he miscalculate
and finds himself possessed of more good
than he can sell at home, he ships then
abroad and markets them in competition
with the foreign paupers. II be suffer
any loss he makes it up out OF his Owl
people, who are not allowed to buy any
where else, and he goes Oh prospering ant
to prosper. In this We may have fallet