The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-21

me which is of the most serious character.
namely, this: that there is great deal OF
capital undoubtedly kept at home by protec-
ton, not for the purpose of dear production,
which is partial waste, but for another kind
Of waste, which is sheer and absolute and
totally uncompensated. This Is the waste in
Cured in the great work of distributing COM
modities. If the price of iron or of cotton
cloth is increased 80 per cent. by protection,
then the capital required by every wholesale
and every retail distributor must be increased
in the same proportion. The distributor is
not and cannot be, in his auxiliary and essen
tally domestic work, protected by an import
duty, any more than can the scavenger or
the chimney sweep. The import duty adds
to the price he pays, and consequently to the
circulating capital which he requires in order
to carry on this traffic; but it adds nothing
to the rate of profit which he receives and
nothing whatever to the employment which
he gives This forced increment of capital
sets in motion no labor, and is compelled TO
work in the uncovered field Of open trade. II
has not the prima facie apology such as that
apology may be) which the iron maker or the
mill owner may make, that he is employing
American labor which would not otherwise
beemployed If the waste under a protective
duty of 80 per cent. be waste of so per cent,
the waste of the extra capital required in dis
tribution is waste of 100 per cent on the
cost of the operation; for it accomplishes abb
solutely nothing on behalf of the community
which would not be accomplished equally If
the commodity were so per cent less in price;
just as the postman distributing letters at a
shilling performs no better or other services
than the postman distributing letters at a
penny. But of distributors the name is
legion; they constitute the vast army of the
wholesale and retail tradesmen of a country,
with all the wants appertaining to them As
consumers, they are taxed on all protected
commodities; as the allies of producers in the
business of distributing, they are forced to do
with more capital what could be done as well
with less.
PROTECTION CANNOT WORK IMPARTIALLY.
But the view of the genuine protectionist l
understand to be that protection is a mine
of wealth; that greater aggregate profit re-
suits from what you would call keeping labor
and capital at home than from letting them
seek employment wherever in the whole
world they can find it most economically
But If there be this Unborn fertility in the
principle itself, why are the several states of
the Union precluded from applying it within
their own respective borders? If the aggre-
gate would be made richer by this internal
application of protection to the parts, why Is
it not so applied? On the other hand, if the
country, as a whole, would by this device be
made not richer, but poorer, through the in
reference with the natural laws of produc-
ton, then how is it that by similar interior
ence the aggregate OF the states, the great
commonwealth of America, can be made, in
its general balance sheet, not poorer, but
richerl
But, in America, besides the jealously pail
saded field of dear production, there is a vast
open expanse Of cheap production, namely,
in the whole mass Ito speak roughly of the
agricultural products of the country, not to
mention such gifts of the earth as its mineral
oils. In raising these the American capitalist
will find the demand of the world unexhaust-
ed, however he may increase the supply. Why,
then, is he TO carry his capital abroad when
there is profitable employment for it at homei
If protection is necessary to keep American
capital at home why is not the vast capital
now sustaining your domestic agriculture, and
raising commodities for sale at free trade
prices, exported to other countries? Or, con-
versely, since vast capitals find an unlimited
field for employment in cheap domestic pro
duction without protection, why is it demon
strated that protection is not required in or
der to keep your capital at homei
No adversary will think, venture upon
answering this by saying that the profits are
larger in protected than in unprotected in
dustries, because the best opinions seem to
testify that in your protected trades profits
are hard pressed by wages
MY claim is this: A country cannot possibly
r~i-s it- ss~s.sa.e -~-es f4:a " Proseesioa,
but must inevitably reduce 1t. 1t is con-
trivance for producing dear and for selling
dear, under cover of wall or fence which
shuts out the cheaper foreign article, or
handicaps it on admission by the imposition
of a heavy fine. Yet may for the moment
allow it to be possible that, in some particular
trade or trades, wages may be raised lat the
expense of the community in consequence Of
protection There was time when America
built ships for Great Britain; namely, before
the American revolution She now imposes
heavy duties to prevent our building ships
for her. Even my own recollection goes back
to the period, between sixty and seventy
years ago, when by far the most, and also
the best, part of trade between us was carried
in American bottoms.
IT MAY RAISE WAGES IN ONE TRADE.
II the labor market, although open to the
world, is insuficiently supplied, then the wage
Garner may possibly, in given case, come in
for share Of the monopoly price of ships.
If the hand work be one requiring long ap-
premiership $50 10 call it,, and thereby i'm
pedhig the access of domestic competitors,
this vii augment his share Then why not
the like, some one win ask, in all casesi Be
cause the community in the given case pays
the price OF the monopoly-that is to say,
throws the price to waste, and because, while
trader in multitude Of commodities may
lose upon one of them, and yet may have
good balance sheet upon the whole, he must
not and cannot lose upon them all without
ceasing to be trader; and a nation, with re-
spect to its aggregate of production, is as
single trader.
Without, then, absolutely denying it to be
possible that In some isolated and exceptional
cases there may be relation between protec-
ton land all protection. SO far as it goes, Is
monopoly and high wages, l contend that to
refer generally the high rate Of wages in the
United States to this cause would be nothing
less than preposterous.
How, then, is it that America, which, as
you say, makes enormous waste by protec-
ton, nevertheless outstrips all other coun-
tries in the rapid accumulation Of her
wealth" My general answer is that the case
is like that OF an individual who, with waste
full expenditure has a vast fortune, such as
to leave him large excess of receipts
Let me observe, first, that America pro-
duces an enormous mass of cotton, cereals,
meat and other commodities, which is sold
in the unsheltered market Of the world at
such prices as it will yield. The producers
are fined for the benefit of the protected in
terests, and receive nothing in return; but
they obtain for their country, as well as for
the world, the whole advantage Of a vast
natural trade-that is to saw q trade in
which production is carried on at minimum
cost in capital and labor as COMPARED with
what the rest of the world can do. America
invites and obtains in remarkable degree
from all the world one of the great elements
of production, without tax of any kind
namely, capital. While securing to the cap
italist producer a monopoly in the protected
trades, she allows all the world to do its
best, by a free immigration, to prevent any
corresponding monopoly in the class of work
men. She draws upon a bank Of natural re-
sources SO vast that it easily bears those de.
auctions Of improvidence which simply pre-
vent the results from being vaster still
WHY AMERICA is PROSPEROUS
Let me now mention some at least among
those elements of the unrivalled national
strength Of America which explain 10 us why
she is not ruined by the huge waste of the
protective system. And first of these place
the immense extent and vastness of her terri
tory. She carries on the business of domestic
exchanges on a scale such as mankind has
never seen OF all the staple nrodncts 10 h.,