Los Angeles herald., 1892-09-24
LIMITATIONS TO THE TARIFF.

None of the great constitutional ex-
Founders OF our country have gone far
ther than to admit that the general gov
ernment could only have the right to
impose duties to meet the legitimate ex-
penses OF the administration. In all
the discussions upon the subject the
right OF the government to collect reve-
nue. in any form to benefit particular
class has been denied. The Mckinley
bill, however, has utterly disregarded
this limitation OF federal powers, and
has used the prerogative of taxation for
the purpose of building up one class at
the expense of all. To merely state the
proposition is to insure it's condemna-
tion by every fair mind.
In the early history OF the republic
the fathers were confronted with Gu
rious and anomalous state of affairs.
The mother country had strictly prohib-
tied all manufactures that interfered
with the established industries of Great
Britain. Even the manufacture of hats
in the colonies was rigidly prohibited.
When, after the successful war OF the
revolution, the colonies emerged into
national power, new and struggling man.
ufacturing industries found themselves
at tremendous disadvantage. Their re-
preston by the policy OF the mother
country, made the establishment of
manufacturing industries difficult, ex-
pensive and experimental. AT that time
the idea of encouraging home hnanufac-
lures by protection had it's birth in the
United States. 1t was fsvorite dogma
with many statesmen to put a high tariff
duties on foreign importations, so that
home manufactures could be proftably
| established.
Henry Clay, who was the apostle of
high tariff in the whig party, never
dreamed of such policy as using the
revenue laws to pamper established and
hourishipg industries, but studiously
took the ground that it was the duty of
the government to encourage new and
infant industries by placing such tariff
on cognate productions from abroad as
would nurse into strength and ultimate
ly enable the home industries to become
self-sustaining. But should Henry
Clay, by some inscrutable dispensation,
return to us today and to see to what
base uses the policy of protection to
infant industries has been put by the
Republican party, as illustrated by the
Mckinley bill, he would shudder at the
extent to which his darling policy had
been carried. He, certainly, would
never have thought of fostering with gov
ernment protection industries that had
grown robust and strong under the mild
policy Of duties established, not with d
view to the building up great trusts
but to act as corrective 10 the growth
of mOnopolies.
When the government uses its powers
to tax the whole people for the benefit
of a few, it transcends its constitutional
rights. The government cannot dis
criminate for or against classes. 1t
must legislate impartially for all. The
exception recognized by the Democratic
party that it may impose duties on i'm
portations is limited by the necessity
for government use OF the revenues col
lerted.
Surely the legitimate expenses of the
government are now sufficient to the
framing of tariff that will afford just
protection to American industries. But
the Mckinley tariff has so far injured
the true principle as to aim at the en-
tire suppression OF revenue from man.
ufactured imports. This would leave
American consumers entirely at the
mercy of the monopolists, who are pro-
tected by the Republican tariff.