The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-07
ARGUES FOR HIGH TARIFF,
A Protectionist Takes Issue With
Saroni'S Views of Reve.
nue. Laws.
ndorses the Work of the Manufac.
turers' and Producers Associa.
ton of California.

An advocate of high tariff for the protec-
ton OF American interests and American
labor, who Endorses the work of the Manu-
facturers' and Producers Association,
sends the following pertinent argument in
favor of protection:
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, Dec. 4, 1895.
To the Editor Of the San Francisco Cali DEAR
SIR: read in this mornings issue of your val
liable paper the proceedings OF a Manufacture
ers' Association committee, ana the writer
hereof heartily concurs in the sentiments ex-
pressed at that meeting by Mr.. Sonntag, but
would not advocate the exclusion of the cheap
labor manufactures of the Japanese while al
lowing the importation of the manufactured
articles of the Chinese, which come in direct
competition with the productions and labor of
our own country.
A proper tariff-a tariff law framed and en-
acted Tor the American people, would remedy
the evils that threaten the industries of the
United States. low tariff only tends to bring
the laboring man down to the level OF the wage
worker in the countries of the Old World. The
present tariff laws were not framed in the in
terest OF American manufacturers nor of
American labor, but they were conceived and
enacted in the interest of free-trade England.
Under high protective tariff our country
was rich and prosperous; the laborer and
mechanic owned their own homes; their wives
and children were well fed and well clothed.
Without protection to home labor and home
production, the wageworker will become like
unto beast of burden. His lot will be one
present nothing but dark chaos of despair.
MIR. Saron1 argues that the matter of protection
is entirely without the scope OF the Manufac-
lures and Producers Association, and that
this association should deal alone with State
and not with National problems. He asserts
that such restrictions as suggested by Mr..
Sonntag would put the community entirely at
the mercy of trusts and com binations.
The population of this community and of
these United States is composed largely OF la
boring men, who depend entirely upon their
nd or IIp ion nf
their. families. Mr.. Saroni fears trusts and
combinations. 1t is not the purpose of this
communication to discuss the advantages or
the disadvantages of the various commercial
trusts existing throughout our country, but
were l q wageworker depending upon my en-
ployment for my own and my children's sup
port would infinitely rather toll for a trust
which employed large capital and reaped
large income, than to find employment with
one compelled to compete with the pauper
price of labor paid to Asiatic and other cheap
manufacturing countries of the world. l think
my pay would be better from the combination
than from the other
Mr.. Saroni is an American manufacturer, and
l wonder that he cannot see and realize the
benefits to the masses arising from a high
protective tariff. 1t certainly cannot be posi-
BILE that Mr.. Saroni would prefer to employ the
products of Asia, where labor does not COM
mand more than 10 cents per diem, in the
process of his own manufacture, rather than
to encourage and assist in fostering a home
industry which employs several hundred
thousand honest American laborers.
Mr.. Saroni certainly would not desire to see
his neighbor working from early morn until
night for the small pittance OF 10 cents, and
yet without protection to our home industries,
our home manufactures, and TO American
labor, the low wage must be the result. No,
Mr.. Saroni, this country will never be pros
porous nor happy except under protective
policy.
Bismarck, the greatest German statesman,
said in one of his greatest speeches:
THE success of the United States in material
development is the most illustrious of modern
times. The American Nation has not only
successfully borne and suppressed the most
expensive and gigantic war of all history. but
Immediately afterward it disbanded its army,
found employment for all its soldiers and
marines, paid off most of its debt and gave
labor and homes to all the unemployed of
Europe fast thew could arrive within it's
territory, and still by system of taxation so
indirect as not to be perceived much less felt
Because 1t is my deliberate judgment that the
prosperity of America is due to its system of
protective laws, urge that Germany has now
reached that point where il is necessary 10
initiate the tariff system OF the United States"
Yours truly, PRoTECTIoNIsT.