St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-07
FREE TRADE H AFTER.
HE TALKS AGAINST TARIFF OF
ANY KIND.
Statistics Showing That Manu-
features Thrive Best in Low
Tax Countries.

AUBURN. N. T., Sept. o. Democratic
day al the county fair brought good
attendance. Gov. Flower and Con-
gresham NJ ID. Harter. Of Ohio. were
the orators. Mr.. Harter said in part:
"The tariff question is purely ques-
ion OF taxation, and the principles
which govern all other forms of taxa
ion apply equally to it. In other words,
all taxation is DurdensOme, and an evil
generally OF no small proportions. 1t is,
however, a necessary evil. and as an
evil 1t gives reasonable compensation
for its existence. IL is the price of
government. as it represents the cost of
protecting the people of state or ma
ton in the rights of person and prop
erty. Taxation, then. is the price of
government. and unless we approve
paying more than we need tor what we
buy in our private capacities. we
should. as intelligent citizens. object to
paying any more taxes than are required
to defray the actual necessary cost of
government.
"Tariff taxation is naturally
A Very I'm just Thing.
inasmuch as it is collected upon what
we consume and not upon wealth, cap
ital, or what we have accumulated.
Under this system very Door man
with large family would pay larger
sum Tor the support of his government
than very rich man having no fam
lily. This is an indictment which
always lies against any form of tariff
taxation"
Continuing. Mr.. Harter said that a
tariff for revenue puts the saddle Oh the
wrong horse, as it taxes the outgo of ii
family instead of the income. He
argued against protection as worse,
and said the law OF "Thou shalt not
steal" still stands against anything like
protective tariff in any land where the
rights of citiz enship are equal and
where the burdens of government
are intended to he exactly alike. Pro-
lection he characterized as gross per-
version Of our American idea of govern
ment. and said that ii the laws aid
should be invoked to either advance or
reduce prices, it should invariably be
used to reduce them. 1t would be I'M
just to the producer, but it would help
many consumers, while protective
tariff Injuries all consumers TO the ad-
vantage of the producers alone.
MIR. Harter continued: 1.-The nations
that have the lowest tariff must he the
richest and most prosperous, and ma
tons which have tried both systems
have grown in wealth faster under the
low tariff taxes than under high tariff
burdens.
Manufacturing Must Thrive
more in low tariff countries, or in any
country where its system approaches
free trade, than when it follows prOtec-
ton lines. The rewards Of labor must
be larger under low tax system than
where the theory of protection is per-
United to Interfere with natural condi-
tions."
The speaker then compared the con-
d1tlons In free-trade England with those
IN hlgh-tarlf Germany, showing that
the English worker received higher
wages and supplied his wants at lower
cost than his brethren in Germany.
AFTER reviewing free trade and tariff
legislation, Mr.. Harter concluded:
10 sum up, it may be fairly said that
IN producing prosperity and wealth our
experience In the past shows that free
trade is doubly as effective as protec-
ton, anu when we consider that our
taxes under protection average almost
three times as much as under free trade,
say only twice as much, we come to the
quick and safe conclusion that free
trade is twice as desirable for all our
people as protection, and it follows that
every man of sense and patriotism
should vote four times with the party
which is charged with favoring free
trade before he votes once with the
advocates Of protection"