The Forrest City times., 1891-01-09
TARIFF LETTERS TO FARMER
 BROWN.
Can Protection Increase Wealth?
NO. II,

Can Protection Increase Wealth? DEAR FARMER BROWN: You and l are familiar with the claim of the protection sts that protection increases the coun- try's wealth. We look into their papers and we find reports of the vast increase of production in various industries. One will give us tables showing the growth of iron production-in 1885 we produced 4,o44, GOO tons of pig iron, in 1890 prob- ably 5000. tons. Others will run through the yearly reports of steel rail production, nail-making, barbed wire making. plate and window glass, wooen and cotton goods industries-and every where they are able to point to growth, growth which they claim in all cases as the result of protection.
 In every case this claim rests upon that error in reasoning which is usually expressed in the Latin words, post hoe, erqo propter hoe looming after this, there fore caused by this). The protectionist coolly assumes that since the country prospers under prote tion, therefore pro- tection is the cause of such prosperity. If you should raise good crop notwith- standing the drouth, you would not be so simple as to say that the drouth caused your good crop. On the contrary, you are sure you Nouiu iittu d slitl better crop if rain had come as you needed it.
 Imagine q steamboat beating it's way down from Chicago to the northern end of Lake Michigan in the face of a fierce wind. The vessel certainly makes speed, but if a certain passenger should claim that the speed was caused by this north wind he would be laughed at as fool, every intelligent passenger knowing that q A--1-i II --i-- ---.-.ardAi 4, ;,, ss-,r~se | une vesso4 Was o.l3 r~..-- >.>>s Ill JUS eVu ss by the wind If the passenger should point to the receding fields and groves on the shore to prove that the vessel was going forward, and should still insist the progress was due to the north wind, the passengers would think either that he was crazy, or else that no was some belated Rip Van Wrinkle who fell asleep in the last century, before the day of 1 steam. and who cannot now take account 1 of anything else than the wind as pro 1 polling force for ships. In the same way 1 the country goes forward, not by reason 1 of protection, but despite protection. 1 As the vessel has within it a force which 1 is able to overcome the external hinder 1 anco of wind, so the country has in 1t native forces of brain and muscle, in 1 Ventive genius and skill of hand, Nat l ure's rich resources and mans courage and industry, which are able Go force the l industrial ship Of state forward in its l course, notwithstanding the contrary wind of protection,
 l When the protectioniSts try to estab- l fish their claim that protection enriehes the country, they always examine the
 matter from the standpoint of the pro- ducer, the consumer being rarely taken account of. If they can show, as they doubtless can in many instances, that the profits of an industry are caused by 1 the protective duty, they at once con clude that protection is wealth-pro- ducing factor ip the nations life. Some | Of them, however, do take account Of the 1 consumer, if enly to show that although
 protec tion may make him pay more Tor
 his goods, still the money he pays fer
 them remains in the country, and there
 fore the country is none the poorer for
 his loss.
 But the srue standpoint from which to estimate the cost of a given product to
 the country is the standpoint of the con
 sumner. 0he total cost to ala consumers
 Is tho assure of cost to the country. If
 the product in question is put down to the consumers of it at q higher price by
 the domestic manufaeturer than 1t would
 be if that product was imported, is 1t not | clear that we are buying at home at a loss, and that loss precisely equal
 to the difference of pries between the domestic article and the similar foreign
 article? For why do We labor? Is it
 for the sake of toil itsef? Do we not
 rather labor for the sake of the things
 which labor produces. for what we call
 goods? But if goods can be had with
 less labor by an exchange with foreign
 people do we not impose unnecessary
 labor upon ourselves when we undertake
 to make those goods ourselves?
 Where people are let alone by the tariff maker they naturally take to those
 employments which pay best, or, in other
 words, in which their labor is most pro ,ductive If however, the tariff maker
 comes along and decides that people
 must produce goods which they have not
 yet undertaken 10 produce, is 1t not clear
 that people must be taken away from
 profitable employment and put to doing
 what is relatively less profitable?
 We do not make tin plates. Why not?
 Because our people find that they can
 make more money by doing other things
 The present high Mckinley duty on tin
 plates will doubtless cause some of our
 people to undertake the manufacture of
 them, and 1t may be done, too,
 at profit, but this pro-
 fit will be possible only by
 reason of the higher price caused by
 the duty of .-l0 cents a pound. The
 makers of tin plates may grow rich,
 they may give employment to several
 thousand laborcrs. and protectionists will then point to the wealthy capitalists in
 this business, and to the homes of the
 laborers engaged in it, and tell us that
 this is an example of wealth created by protection, But deny beforehand that
 it vii be anything of the kind-deny it emphatically. The effect pointed to will
 be only new distribution of old wealth
 A few cents will be collected from each
 household which uses tinware. from each 1 housewife who buys canned fruits and vegetables, a few dollars from each man
 who puts tin roof on his house, and all 1 these small contributions will flow to-
 gether and reappear In the form of tim
 plate mills and houses for tn-p plate mak- CTS. Wealth has not ben created: iJ
 has been scattered, and has been gath
 cred up again by others. When the creek
 washes away your pumpkins your labor is
 lost. and you have no pumpkins; it is , very little comfort to you to be told that your pumpkins lodged ten miles down the creek and that a brother farmers pigs are five pounds fatter than they were
 before the freshet-
 Let me call your attention to an actual
 case The plate-gass industry of this
 country, consisting of nine or ten fac