The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1888-04-13
NEEDS OF THE NATION.
SHOWN TO BE 4
BATCH OF FALLACIES.
Senator Vance Reviews Arguments Made
in Favor of ProtectiOn--PrOtect
COnfuteS Itself.

senator Vance Reviews Arguments Made
in Favor of fProtectiOn-- -ProtectiOnism r
Confutes Itself.
Having Somew hat lengthily discussed
the injustice, inequalities and dangerous
tendencies Of tariff taxation, even under
the most favorable and well-guarded con
ditions, We will now examine what is said
in its favor. The pretensions made for it
are most remarkable. They frequently do
not stop at the absurd, but approach the
miraculous itself. If onehalf that is
claimed for it be true, there should be no
excuse for poverty or suffering on earth;
for there is no nation so low in civiliZa-
tion and intelligence but its statesmen
could enact high tariff laws or prohibit al
together any trade with foreigners; and
that, IN the opinion of protectionists, is
the secret of the whole process of national
wealth And what a cruel and unjustifia-
bic thing We did when we sent a fleet of
war ships to open by force the exclusive
policy of Japan to the commerce Of the
world, She was merely initiating our own
policy IN giving her own manufactures a
home market, and trying TO get rich by
trading with each otheri
What are the claims put forth by the
friends of protection? Let me mention a
few, with the understanding that nobody
is permitted to laugh. They say first,
that 1t encourages our infant manufac-
lures; that without it they could not com
pete with the pauper labor of Europe; that
it raises the price of labor; that it raises
the price of the farmers products; that it
lowers the prices of manufactured pro
ducts; that it raises revenues by taxing
the foreigner who brings in the goods: that
il keeps our money at home and maintains
the balance of trade in our favor. Whilst
II does all this, they say at the same time
it is no tax at all, and that the tariff duty
does not enter into the price of the article
on which it is imposed. 1t is mere pre-
tense of taxation, a kind of commercial
fiction or man Of straw, like John Doe
and Richard Roe, and the confession of
lessee, entry and custer" in the old ac-
ton of ejectment, by which the foreigner
is elected from our market and made to
pay our taxes out of his own pocket, whilst
our own people obtain a judgment of the
court that they shall buy everything cheap
and sell everything dear, After so many
grave political economists and alleged
statesmen have asserted these things in
behalf of protection, what right has any
man TO laugh at the claims of the most
pretentious patent medicine ever adver
tised? l don't believe l ever saw one
which professed that it could kill man
and restore him to life by swallowing for
one and rubbing outwardly for the other
purpose Yet greater thing than this is
aimed for protection. 1t reduces prices
to the consumer, and it increases prices to
the producer; it PROTECTS the manufactur
er because the duty added to the cost of the
article enables him to compete with the
foreigner, but as the duty is not added to
the cost of the homemade article the con-
sumer pays no more than he would if
there was no duty at all, and in fact he
gets the article cheaper. Let me illustrate:
1t costs in England twenty cents to make
a yard of flannel, where labor is cheap and
wool is free In America, where labor is
higher and wool is taxed fifty-six per cent,
it costs thirty cents to make a yard of the
same flannel The American manufacture
er says be can't compete, and the English
man is bound to undersell and drive him
out of the business. This is undoubtedly
true for simple arithmetic proves it. Very
well A duty Of fifty per cent. is then
placed on the Englishman's flannel; this
enables the American to turn the tables
on his rival and undersell him. How so2
Simply because the duty of ten cents a
yard being added to the foreign article
makes it cost thirty cents also, whilst cost
of transportation raises 1t above the cost
of the home article. So far nobody dis
But after the consumer has paid many
millions of dollars-not for flannel, but to
support the home manufacturer in losing
contest-he at last gets tired of being tax
ed for another mans pocket and proposes
to remove some of it; then the figures
which we have known and trusted from
childhood begin to lie. The consumer is
told that he Is altogether mistaken; that
he is not taxed at all; that the duty is not
added to the price Of flannel, and assures
him in proof of it that he never bought
f1annels so cheap be fore Nay, sometimes,
when his blood is up, he will go so far as
to say that he makes fannels cheaper than
the Englishman, and he can beat him at
his own game any day. Now any man in
his senses will say that there is a lie some
where in this statement. There is bound
TO be- Either the manufacturer lies when
he says the tariff duty in whole or in part
is NOT added to the price, or he lies when
he says he can't compete without the duty
that is, without something which Is non
existent, In my opinion both assertions
are destitute of due eIactltude to use
the language of a Spanish diplomat. My
observation has been that IN matters touch
ing the tariff and their profits under IT.
the reputation Of protected manufacturers
is much the same as that of Shacknasty
jim, of whom his eulogist wrote that bis
reverence for the truth was so great thai
he never uttered it or went near it, or IN
terfered with it in any way whatever
How CAN the tax protect home product:
unless it increases the price2 How CAN i
increase the price unless it is added, il
whole or in part, to the cost2 And If they
can make goods as cheap as the foreigner
why can't they compete with him, ant
what is the necessity OF retaining the duty
When pushed to the wall on this poin
they say the duty keeps out the foreigne
and gives them the entire home market
But what benefit to them is the hom'
market unless they are making money b.
supplying it2 And if they do make none.
and still make cheaper goods than tn
foreigner, the question then recurs will
redoubled force; why keep up the duty
1t is too plain for argument, the price O
domestic goods IS enhanced by duty ol
the foreign, and enhanced at the expens
of the consumer. Common sense ant
common honesty can make nothing els
out of it.
That protection encourages our manu-
features is undoubtedly true. But 1t s
happens that there are two sides to tina
{ proposition, as there are to almost all 9th
ers. Man himself is bilateral, and It seem
to be law of nature as well. SO also i
tho moral world A Self-ODiniOnated oil