Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-09-24
PRESIDENT ELIOT
DISCUSSES TARIFF
DISTINGUISHES EDUCATOR DE-
CLARES THAT PROTECTION
is BAD BUSINESS.
WORST RESULT Is THE LEGAL
VIOLATION OF FUNDA-
MENTAL EQUITY,

trent discussion of the tariff question
a statement of his views. His contri-
button is made at the solicitation of
the tariff reform club of New York.
He says:
The high tariff which has pre-
vailed in the United States since the
civil war has done a little good in
the way Of building up new industries
Just as patents and other mOnopolies
may, but it has done Unreasonable
harm to American industries and com
MERGE and is likely to do more and
more harm as time goes on. In the
! first place, it has postponed and OBJ
structed the effective entrance of
American products into the markets
of the world. Many American in
dustries, including agriculture, pro
duCe much more salable material than
; can possibly be sod in the United
States, and all these industries must
sell their surplus products outside
the United States at a great disad-
vantage because the products have
! paid high duties on the raw or partial
~ manufactured materials which en-
! ter into them, on the implements or
machinery which were used in produc-
ing. them and on the structures
which sheltered and distributed them.
AS a country which produces in nor
NAL years much more grain, meat and
! cotton and many more manufactured
goods than it can consume it is the
interest of the United States to de-
velOp for itself world markets under
the most favorable conditions posi-
I bic. The tariff prevents or obstructs
the attainment of those favorable CON
ditiOns.
SECONDLY, the tariff wall and the
refusal of American registry to for
eign built vessels have together des-
troyed the American ocean carrying
trade, once a valuable American in
dustry. A nation which prohibits the
importation of the natural exports of
other nations, or, what amounts to
much the same thing, charges higher
duties than other manufacturing ma
, tions charge. on foreign raw or unf1n-
iShed products, cannot maintain prof
liable carrying trade with other ma
tiOns. The ocean carrying trade will be
possessed by the freest trading nation
or nations. Subsidies alone can never
restore the lost carrying trade, for
where there is no steady. profitable
exchange of products across seas
there can be no profitable ocean
carrying trade. The national govern
ment might as we'll subsidize railroad
liable carrying trade with other ma
try which had no exchangeabIe prod
ucts.
Again, the high tariff is the ac-
cepted democratic way of comforting
privileges by law on individual men
or small classes of men. Sometimes
the privileged men are really few in
number. At other times the privileged
class may be fairly numerous and yet
an insignificant proportion of the to-.
tai population. DespOtic and artistic
cratic governments have long prac
ticed the creation by law of privileged
or favored men or classes. The
American democracy has abolished
or had nothing to do with, the ancient
privileges or mobiles. court favOrites,
'sinecure holders and commercial adj
venturers, by royal monopoly char
ter, but has been more than ready to
create privileged manufacturers by
tariff Legislation, in spite of the fact
that equality before the law has been
theoretically the very foundation Of
American government and society.
THE enrichment of a few indfvfdu-
of the bulk of the community and
with no benefit to the state is. how
ever, not the worst result is the pro-.
tectiVe policy. The worst result is the
legal violation by the republic itself
Of fundamental equity, and this is ag-
gravated by the falsely altruistic ar
guments used in support of the tar
if. The man who acts unjustIy for rea-
sons which seem to him benevolent or
humanitarian is more dangerously poi
sOned than the man who is unjust for
straight selfish reasons and admits to
.
The fallacies of protection are all
The worse because they are covered
with the nauseOus slime of a pretend
ed altruism. In short, the chief objec-
ton to protective legislation is a NOR
al one-namely, that it diminishes
the enterprise, self reliance and
sense of justice Of the population as
a whole. The legislation is a seri-
Gus mental and moral evil which
has been for fifty years working in
Justice at home and contracting Amer
lean exchanges abroad. because two
generations of voters have been hood
winked with protection No
revision of schedules can dig up
this evil by its roots. It will only be
cured when the national legislature
makes the tariff nothing but one
means among many of raising needed
revenue.
1T is constantly asserted and very
generally believed that the object of
the tariff is to protect American
workmen against the lower paid work
men of other countries, but that is
obviously neither the purpose nor the |
effect Of the high tariff Il is not its
purpose because the tariff rates on al |
most all products are many fold the |
differences in labor cost This fact |
has been demonstrated over and over
again in governmental and private in |