The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1888-07-13
PROTECTION.
Free Trade the Beast of the Seven
Heads and Ten Horns.
THE SYSTEM OF AMERICA.

The Seven Kinds Of FREQ Traders-George
shearman and Their supporters-Hew-
itt and Others Who Think Protection
No Longer Necessary-NIills. Morrison.
Hurd q Co.-The Original secessionists
and Anti-Nationalists The Angioma-
niacs-The Importers-The Philanthropy
lists - Arguments by DIR. Van Buren,
Denslow.
Copyright by The American Press Association
And stood upon the sand OF the sea, and saw
and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns,
and upon his heads the name Of blasphemy.
And the beast which l saw was like unto a
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of lion; and the
dragon gave him his power and his seat and great
And saw one of his heads as it were wounded
TO death, and his deadly wound was healed; and
all the world wondered after the beast.
And they worshiped the dragon which gave
power unto the beast, and they worshiped the
beast, saying, who is like unto the beastS who is
able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him mouth speak
Ing great things and blasphemies, and power was
was given unto him to continue forty and two
months. Rev. xiii, Is.
The term "Free Trade" has about seven
different shades of meaning. 1t therefore
tent with protective policies, as many dis
tinct classes of dissentients from existing
tariff measures. Neither of these seven
classes, If called on to frame bill satisfac-
tory to the others, could do so without sacrific-
ing either its views or theirs. But all can at
present unite in opposing existing protective
legislation. In this sense free trade is q fog
bank, which depends on its vagueness for its
existence, and which, if it should attempt to
define itself, would disappear.
These seven classes are:
l. Those who, like Henry George, Professor
W. G. Sumner, Thomas @. Sherman and, I
think, Professor Perry, say that custom
houses In our own country should DO abol-
ished, and that all collection of revenue from
imports should cease, regardless Of the course
that may be pursued by any and all other
countries.
There are probably but a few of these In
all They consist chiefly of those vision
aries or mercenaries who take up free trade
either as hobby to make a name by, or as
an apple cart to make a living out of. The
alternative which their policy involves Is,
either logically or avowedly, nearly single
tax on either land alone, or land and capital,
as a means Of running all government, local,
state and national. To practical men their
position explodes itself in two directions,
viz: one economic, and the other legislative
Or constitutional. In the economic sense, as
Stunning that it could be adopted, it would sad
die all our taxes on that very land and capital
which already are handicapped in their COM
petition with English land and capital by the
fact that the latter pay no taxes, while the
former pay in the first instance all state and
local taxes throughout the United States To
intensity this inequality would be to increase
the relative disadvantages under which
American manufacturers, bankers, ship
owners, farmers, traders and all other per-
IONS using land and capital struggle in the
competitive race with their foreign rivals
This would be very gratifying to foreign
manufacturers and bankers, but it would
lessen the profits of the American, and
therein lessen the inducement on their part
TO pay wages to American labor. Then the
outcome of the Stree trade and single tax
policy" would be to increase on American
workmen the heaviest and most multifarious
Of all taxes, the loss Of employment.
But in a constitutional sense the policy Is
impossible of adoption in the United States,
as the Federal government has no power to
lay direct taxes on land, but was formed ex-
pressly to establish a government which
should lay duties on imports. The ''single
tar free trade scheme, therefore, is disposed
Of by the two objections: 1. The government
under which we live has no power to enact it,
2. If enacted it would terminate all indus
tries of which the product commands O
higher price here than it commands abroad,
and would preclude the possibility of wages
being higher here than in the lowest paid for
eign country. The former fact renders it
proposal looking to political revolution-the
latter to general famine.
II. A second class of free traders consists
Of those who, like Mayor Hewitt, of New
York; Mr.. Hazard, of Rhode Island; Mr.
Schoenhof, and few others, have some re-
lation to or connection with manufactures,
and who conceive that American mnnufac-
turers have passed the infantile stage, and
are now ready for free competition with all
the world provided only they can get their
taxes as favorably adjusted, their raw ma
terials as low, and their labor as low, as their
foreign competitors now have them. They
profess to believe that what American manu-
farturers now need is to SO reduce their cost
of production as to divide with Great Britain
the privilege of selling American cotton
goods, and perhaps a few other manufac-
lures, in India, China, Brazil, Mexico and
the West and East Indies.
The points at which this notion is out of
j. ut with good judgment are many. A few
or them are these:
(a) The barbarian markets thus referred to
could not have been opened to us except by
a military force, which we have not, in most
cases, put forth, and are not prepared to put
forth, and when opened by Britis'i armies,
navies, bankers, shippers and merchants re-
main securely in the grasp of the power
whose arms and money opened them to trade.
Mere cheapness does not control them
against these antecedent influences, when
these influences have given British merchants
possession. Our consular reports made while
Mr.. Evarts was secretary of state show, from
all quarters of these barbarian markets, that
they cannot be controlled by nero cheapness
against the other influences which England
has brought to bear either in the form of
conquest, diplomacy, subsidized lines of
transportation, long bank credits, etc. Hence
the vision of trade in the swords mar
kets" is delusion, like the haunch of veni-
son which the dog saw in the water below
him-the mere reflection Of that he held in
his mouth. To drop our grip on the home
trade in order to grasp this foreign trade is