The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-05-10
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
UNSER ZEB ON THE ROBBER BA-
RON PROTECTIONISTS.

RON PROTECTIONISTS.
He Tells Many Great Truths, and
Shows You In Convincing Way that
Protection Does not Protect Amy
Save Monopolists.
From the Baltimore Sun
ARTIILE VI.
One of the very earliest truisms of
political economy which the study of
the science established was that the
main source of the wealth of nations is
commerce with foreign peoples. 1t is
not necessary here to repeat the ia
miliar arguments of Adam Smith,
John Stuart Mills and other great
authors no fact in science is better
established than this, that nations get
rich by pushing to the utmost the pro-
duction of the things in the making of
which they excel, and exchanging
them tor those pr ducts in the making
of which other countries excel. 1t is
simply the principle of the division of
labor by which village 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 evol-
we'd there in the petty transactions be-
tween man and man are the same In
principle as those which control all
other business, great or small, in which
the same human nature is enlisted.
Bearing this in mind, let US look
further into the pretensions of protec-
tionists that our tariff taxation is the
cause of national wealth, and that it
must be kept up if our wealth is to
increase. It must always be remem-
bered that money is net always wealth,
but only the medium by which wealth
is exchanged 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,
a country should supply its own wants.
Hence most good writer's on political
economy admit it is to the advantage
of countries in their infancy to encour-
age domestic manufactures by extra
ordinary means. The first necessity
of such a country, struggling to estab-
hsh itself among the nations, is to Sc
cure home supply of the things nec-
essary 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 that we re-
quired 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
decay and ruin. Alter it has supplied
our 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 it, this lessons the value
of what we have, and our aggregate
wealth Is not increased a particle; il
we stop production at the point OF
home supply, then all the labor and
capital of the country beyond that
limit is unemployed, and again our
wealth ceases to grow. Common sense
points out that we might have mar
ket for our surplus, and high tariffs
tend unmistakably to prevent this
They are intended to prevent it, for as
all foreign commerce is simply ex-
change, nations will not buy from us
unless they can pay US with their pro.
ducts. With tariff wall around oul
country they cannot trade with us.
The wickedness of this policy is only
equaled by its folly. There is nc
country upon earth prepared to be
come so rich by foreign trade as these
United States, because there is none
so abundantly supplied with all the
material and all the conditions of pro
ENTHUSIASTICALLY none. There il
lions of people to dig up all of our Goa
and iron ore in thousand years oul
forests, though rapidly decreasing by
lavish waste and the tariff premium
We offer for their destruction, are still
mo It abundant. We have practica
monopoly Of cotton, a staple which
clothes two-thirds of mankind, willis
in all food products our vast and fer
tile plains are the granary as well a
the wonder of the world. In addition
to all these advantages, which are tn
gift OF nature, our population, unde
the stimulus of free institutions, ha
developed more industrial energy ant
more inventive genius than any othe
people upon earth. Their labor saw
ing inventions form an epoch in tn
history OF our race, and have multi
piled the productions of human labo
beyond the dreams of the poet. Th
statistics show, and candid men any
where admit, that the best trained Ia
bor to be found In christendom canno
equal our skilled workmen, measure,
by the amount and quality of thei
work. And yet, in the face Of all this
and whilst the sound of cur boastini
of it is still heard, we declare in tn
next breath that we are unable to com
pete with our interiors, shut out thei
products by prohibitory tariffs, dem
ourselves the riches and politica
friendships which are the fruits of for
eign commerce, and condemn thi
mighty repository of unborn weaitl
and human energy to the narrow lin
Its of the home market With tn
ore and the coal under his feet, tn
Pennsylvania iron master declares b
cannot make a ton of pig iron withou