The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-04-27
THE ETHICS OF JOBBERY.

THE ETHICS OF JOBBERY.
| The ethics underlying the Chinese
| system of excluding foreign products, i'm
properly called protection and by some
politicians OF adamantive cheek, called the
American SYSTEM, find good illustra-
ton in the history o. the duty on ores of
nickel. The discovery of nickel in Ian
caster county, Pennsylvania had the effect,
not of reducing, but of raising, the price of
nickel to American consumers. One
JOSEPH WHARTON, who owned the mine,
persuaded Congress into the belief that
countries which produce nickel from mines
within their own borders, ought to pay
more for nickel than those countries which
produce no nickel. Under his advice the
tariff rates on nickel before 1853, were
fixed so high that the importation of the
ores and alloys of nickel was practically
impossible. Mr.. WHARTON was thus per-
mitted to supply all the metallic nickel
used In this country at prices artifcially
high, and he made large fortune by SO
doing. But it was finally learned that it
cost Mr.. WHARTON only from fifty to
seventy cents pound to produce the nickel,
while he sold it at from 81 to S2.75 a
pound. Congress then took steps for
reducing the tariff on ores of nickel Then
came MIR. WHARTON forward with pamph-
let in which he bewailed the degeneracy of
Congress in this action of striking down an
established industry. cit is pitiful," said
he, Ito think that the industries of our
country should be at the mercy of legisla
tors" Nevertheless, the tariff was re-
duced, and Mr.. WHARToNs business went
right on and continued to flourish.
| A pioneer in the working and application
of nickel in this country, Mr.. WHARTON
greatly desired the discovery of richer
American nickel mine, for his ores pro-
duced but 2 per cent. of metal. Such a
mine has now been discovered, but, alas
1t is in Canada; and the ores cannot be i'm
ported without paying the duty of 30 per
cent. And now Mr.. WHARTON, who wants
these ores, has become a rampant free
trader, and has published another pamphlet
in which he sets forth in strong terms the
great benefit that would accrue from unre-
stricted trade with Canada. AS an evil
dence of his good faith, moreover, he has
| induced the trainers of the MCKINLEY bill
to put ores of nickel back on the free list.
This case affords perfect illustration of
the selfshness underlying the whole sys-
TEN of protection" and might also serve
as a warning to legislators that industries
are inter dependent. The evil effect of in
terfering with the price of any article as
fixed by the law OF supply and demand, may
not be apparent in every case, yet the evil
turks somewhere in the consequences. In
creasing the price of foreign wool, cripples
our wooden manufactures without even
raising the price of domestic wool. Increas-
ing the price of hides would cripple the
boot and shoe industry, and so on indefi-
nitely. The injury will follow, just as
surely that reaction is equal to action, and
in contrary direction" The natural laws
of supply and demand may not be tempered
with, even by legislators.
Let anyone propose to himself" says
DR.. WHATELY, 1.-The problem of supplying
with daily provisions of all kinds city like
London. Let him imagine himself head
commissary entrusted with the office of fur
nishing to this enormous host their daily
ration. A failure in the supply for even a
single day might produce the most fright
full distress. This immense population is
extremely fiuctuatlng in numbers; and the
increase or diminution in numbers depends
on causes of which some may, other can
not, be distinctly foreseen. Again, an6
above all, the daily supplies of each article
must be so nicely adjusted to the stock from
which thew N ha n,
abundant harvest, importation, or Other
source of supply, to the interval which
must elapse before fresh stock can bt
furnished, and to the probable abundance
of the new supply, that as little distress a!
possible may be felt; that, on the one hant
the population may not unnecessarily be pu
on short allowance of any article, and OF
} the other may be preserved from the NOR,
dreadful risk of famine, which must hap
pen if they continued to consume freel,
when the stock was insufficient to holt
outn
The great writer then continues in
paragraph too long for quotation, to show
how easily all this is accomplished through
the sagacity of Individual interest, ant
how utterly impossible it would be for any
committee of men, however learned, t.
accomplish this miracle which divine
wisdom accomplishes day by day, using
individual instinct and the foresight o.
apparently unconscious agents in its ac-
complishments. Yet legislators presume
to tamper with affairs of almost equal i'm
portance, and seem surprised at the in
juries they infict.