Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-05-17
BANBFOL BOUNTIfS.
AN OHIO VILLAGE PAYS DEARLY
FOR ITS PROTECTIVE WHISTLE
Giving Bonus OF Thirty Thousand
Dollars to Protected Industry
A Mighty Poor Return for the In-

Dollars to u Protected Industry
A Mighty Poor Return for tho In.
vcstment.
Tho folly of bounties, tariffs and
subsidies is only beginning to be I'M
derstood by our moro intelligent citi-
zens. Possibly it may be advisable
for State or country to pay n bounty
to get rid of some pest; but even this
kind of bounty is subject to great
abuse. AS for example, when ono
county pays bounty of twenty-five
cents for muskrats' heads and ON I'D
joining county pays twenty-five cents
for muskrats' tails. This was the con-
dition in two Pennsylvania counties
before tho officials discovered that all
of the muskrat catchers in both ooun-
ties were selling heads in one county
and tails in another.
1t is probable that bounties to
manufacturers or producers, whether
in the form of tariff duties or of direct
payments in cash are, in ninety-nine
cases out of hundred, bnd invest-
ments for the county, State or Nation
that authorizes them. Protcctionlsts,
and people generally who think it is
possible to lift themselves by their
boot straps or to coax water to run up
| hill, think that bourties are tho best
possible Investments, because they are
such helps to n certain few people and
really have to bo paid by nobody-or,
Mt least, tho burden 10 so light upon
tho millions who contribute few
pennies or dollars each that it is not
felt by anybody. 1t is SO nice to be
producer of beet sugar in Nebraska,
of cano sugar in the South or of maple
sugar in the North and to receive
bounty which pays more than half OF
tho cost of production; or to be
manufacturer of refined sugar or of
cartridges and belong to n trust that,
by taking advantage of protective
duties, cnn regulate prices, SO TINT
few surplus millions will be extracted
each year from the American people.
But tho fiddler must be paid---if not
by tho manufacturers and producers,
who do tho dancing, then 10y the poo
pie, who look on.
Protectionists usually SOC but ono
sido of tho question. Thus in his
speech before tho National Associa-
ton of Manufacturers, OF which he is
President, Mr. Thomas Dolan said n
few weeks ago:
"The motives which impel individual
communities NIL over the land to offer
inducements to manufacturers to 10.
cate with them are precisely those
which should shape the policy of the
Nation in It's treatment of manufnc.
tuners. The single community which
encourages the building of factories
profits in IL small way exactly ns the
whole country profits in large way
from the encouragement and enlarge
ment of its manufacturing industries.
In both cases the advantage comes
from industrial diversiiication, from
the larger employment of labor, from
the retention ut home of wages anc
from the movement toward self-de.
pendence."
In this case President Dolan take.
it for granted las protectionists- usu.
ally do) that community is benefited
when it pays n bonus to manufac.
turer to locate in its territory. Is it?
Take case, analyze it, sec who peck.
cts the bonus and who pays the bills
and then draw conclusions. This i,
what the Democrat, of Pomeroy, Ohio,
has done in its issue OF April 18th.
Middlcport is n village of 5000 pop.
ulation on the Ohio River, just below
Pomeroy. In 1885 Niddleport con
cluded that it must have n cut-nail
mill at any cost. 1t voted to giy,
$50, 600 TO e manufacturer OF cut nails
in West Virginia, fhe would move his
plant across the river to Middleport.
10 cvado the law tho bounty wa.
raised in the form OF "sewer bonds"
The manufacture OF cut-nnils becom
ing Improbable, the works were soon
changed to n eteel plant which gavs
employment to about $50 men. Iu
1871 the managers concluded that thev
had been benefaciors to NIiddlepori
about long enough and that they
would give some other community
inc Leneiit OF their presencc-for Ger
tam considerations. Columbus, Ohio,
having offered valuable land for plant
and considerable sum of moneys
the Democrat supEoses-the steel
plant migrated from Aliddleport tc
Columbus i'll January, 1895.
In estimating what Middlepor
gained and lost by this Investment,
the Democrat says:
Now, how much did the mill bene.
lit Middleport? There were two bust.
nesses which are said to have doomed
wonderfully saloons and that of dis.
orderly houses. Rents advanced con
siderabiy, especially on tho poorer
class OF houses, probably going upE
twenty. five per cent. The advance inE
the value of real estate was not so (
marked, but thercwas an advance. u
"Whilo it gave market TO the +
farmers Tor food products it also in
creased their taxes in court fees andk
additional costs for the PoorhouseE
and Children's Home, and while thoE
hands received aud spent u great DEAL
OF money large per cent. of it was
wasted MS far rs building up COM
munlty was concerned. They had mob