The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-10-17
Government, which, under the pretext

abroad. WHAT IS the consequence! Il
the English importer has an article
which be can sell at eighty cents, and
with profit to himself, and the Govern.
ment imposes a duty of twenty cents on
the sale of the article in this country,
that duty must be added by the importer
to the price, and he will be compelled to
charge s1.OO, instead ofeighty cents. In
this way the home manufacturer, who
ought to be able to sell the same article
at the same price as the foreign importer,
is enabled 10 advance his price to the full
extent of the duty, and to that extent the
home consumer is compelled to pay to
the home manufacturer premium OF
twenty cents above the actual value OF
the product. This is all made plain in
the work on political economy referred
too. This tax or duty is paid by the con-
sumer on nearly every article of mer-
chandise he purchases, but being an
indirect and not direct tax, it is paid
without complaint, because the consumer
little suspects that in paying the pur-
chase price he is paying not only the
full value of the goods, but tax besides,
No wonder when these duties are higher
than they should be, to raise just such
an amount of revenue as may be neces.
sary to defray the actual expenses of the
Government economically administered,
that there is such large surplus in the
treasury of the United States. is the
very essence Of injustice and oppression,
and leads to fraud and extravagance.
History shows that the loss of liberty is
always preceded by public corruption,
and that there is nothing 80 dangerous to
public morals as an overAowing treasury.
These duties are imposed not by the rep.
resentatives of those who pay the tax,
but by the representatives of those who
receive it. We pay it because we are'the
consumers, and because ne manufacture
nothing from an axe handle up to the
ostentstious equipages of the vulgar rich.
We are without remedy at the ballot
boz, because we are outnumbered. We
would be equally so in the Supreme
Court of the United States, as some
writer maintains in the Southern Rsvie,o,
for that Court would say that Congress,
under the Constitution, has the power to
impose duties to raise revenue to defray
the expenses of the Government, but that
it could not undertake to say that the
duties, however high, were not necessary
for that purpose. Assuming then that a
tariff for protection is the settled policy
of the Government, and that this condi.
tion of affairs is to be continued, what is
the consumer to do? The answer is that
the necessities of his situation, aa we'll as
his interest, require that be should him
self become the manufactures of the same
products, and thus by competition reduce
the price to its natural level.
There is no difference really in the
operation Of a tariff for protection and a
trust, except that The duty in the one
case is imposed by the Government, and
in the other by company Of individuals.
The Government is being called on by
the people to protect them against the
injustice and oppression of trusts, aud
thus it is involved in the strange incon-
sistency of being called on to remedy an
evil for which it has set the example in
a tariff for protection. No Government
can interfere with the business of pro.
duction without giving an advantage to
one industry at the expense of another,
and, therefore, the true policy is to leave
the whole business 10 individual enter.
prise and the regular laws of demand and
supply.
There are certain evils for which legis.
lation never can afford an adequate REM
edy. 1t cannot compel us to desist from
purchasing nearly every necessary of life
in foreign markets, as we have hitherto
chosen to do. 1t cannot compel us to
exert those means in our power for the
requirement of wealth which we do not
choose to employ. 1t cannot direct the
methods ofacquiring and investing capi-
tai, because such matters are of private
concern, and must be left to the dictates
ofindividual interest and the exercise of
a sound judgment. The truth is that we
must rely on our own energy, industry
and economy. We have thus endeavored
to point out some of the numerous ways
in which the profits of agriculture are
reduced, and to apply some of those
familiar principles of political economy
to its conduct and management, which
cannot be disregarded If our farmers
mean to make it profitable. 1t has had
burdens enough to bear, and when the
farmer adds the cost of his farm supplies,
it does seem to be really inexcusable.
Whenever we become united in the
determination that the productive pow
ers of our land shall be increased; that
the crop produced shall be sufficient to
pay clear profit after all the proper
allowances are made for rent of the land,
interest upon the capital and laborers'
wages, and that portion of it shall be
invested in mechanical and manufacture
ing establishments, 80 as to increase the
number and variety of our products, then
there can be no doubt that we will enter
upon d career of prosperity, which has
hitherto been unknown to our people.
A. T. BRoYLEs.
"A Chicago correspondent writes
zone of the most wonderful manufactures
of recent growth ia that Of catsup. a
great number of factories have:originated
in the past ten years, and competing
I