The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-18
ELIOT ON THE TARIFF
VOTERS HOODWINKED WITH ]
 WORD ssPROTECTION."
1uniust Menopolies Created Harvard Unfvefsityss Distinguished Presi-
 dent Says the Protective Tariff
 ls Bad Business and Bad .t str.a7, E Y -ts Efhica.

 | in the, United States since. the civil war has done little good L. the way | of building up new industries, just as patents and other nonopolies may. but Eft has done irumeeeurable harm 10 | American Industries and commerce ana | is likely to do more. and ore harm as time goes on. In the first place. 1t has postponeds and obstructed the effective entrance of American products into the | markets of the World Many American lfndustries including the. funamental | Industry of agriculture. produce much more salable material than can possi- bly be sold in the United States, and all these Industries must sell their sur plus products outside t.-e United States at a great dIsadvantage because the
 products have paid hiPh duties on the raw or partially manufactured nnatert- Is which enter s.nto them on the i'm.
 plements or machinery VI ich were used
 in producing them and on. the struc- lures which sheltered and distributed
 them. As country; which produces in
 normal years much more grain, meat and cotton and many more manufac- tured goods than it can consume 1t is the interest of the United States to de-
 veIop for itself world markets under the most favorable coalitions possible.
 The tariff prevents or oostructs the attainment of those favorable condi- tions. ~ h
 Secondly the tariff wall and the re- fusal of'-Amerlcau registry to foreign
 built vessels have, together destroyed the American ocean carrying trade
 once a valuable American industry. A nation which pfohfbits7the importation
 of. the natural exports of other na- tions or, what s.fnounts to much the
 same thing. charges higher duties than other manufacturing natit IS. charge on foreign. r..ws or unfinished products cannot maintain q; proftab blee carrying trade with ether nations. The ocean carrying trade will be possessed by the
 freest trading nation or nations. Sub
 idios alone can never restore ..e lost carrying trade, for where there is no steady, profitable exchange If products across seas thorc can be no profitable ocean carrying trade. The, national government might as we'll subsidize railroad trains between two parts of this country which had no exe-ange- able products.
 Again, the high starit Is the, accepted
 democratic way, of comforting privi-
 leges by law on individual men or small clasl es of men, Sometimes the
 privileged men arc really few in num-
 Der. At other times tho privileged
 class may be fairly numerous, and yet
 an. insignificant iproz zortion of the total population. Desootic and aristocratic governments n-ye long practiced the
 creation by law of privileged or fa- vored men or casses.J The American democracy. has abolished. or had noth- 1 ing to do .iths the ancient privileges | of nobles, court favorites, sinecure holders and commercial adventurers by royal monopoly charter but has been more than ready to create privileged | manufacturers by Sariff legislation in spite of the fact that equality before | the law has been theoretically the very foundation of American government | and society. ..s-,=-
 :, The enrichment of a few individuals or. of a small class at the, expense of the bulk of the continuity and with | no benefit to the state sis., however, not | inc; worst result of the protective pol l lev The worst -ssult is the legal vio- l Iationfby, the republic Itself of founda- | mental equity, and thi8 result Is ag-
 gravated by the falsely. altruistic argu- | ments used in support of the itarin. The | man who acts unjustly for reasons | which seem t. nam benevolent or hu- l u1anitarian is more dangerously poi l soned than the man who is unjust for l straight selfish reasons and admits to l himself .tust what he is doing and why | The fallac.es of protection are all the worse because they are covered with | the nauseous slime of a pretended al- | truism In short, the chief objection | to protective legislation Is moral one-nannely. that 1t diminishes the en- | terprise self reliance and sense of | justice of, the population as a, whole. | That legislation is a serious mental | and moral evil t:hich has been for | fifty years working injustice at home
 and contracting American exchanges | abroad, because two generations of | voters have been hoodwinked with a
 vvord-"protection." No revision of
 schedules can dig up this evil by the
 roots. It will only be cured when the
 national legislature makes the tariff nothing but one means among many of raising needed revenue.
 It Is constantly asserted and very generally believed that the object of the tariffy is to D. ,tect American work
 men against the lower paid workmen of other countries. but that is obvious | ly neither the purpose Tor the effect of the hIfH tariff. It is not it's pur-
 pose because tne tariff rates on almost all products Ire many fold the differ
 ences in labor cost. This fact has been demonstratedf over and over again in governmental and private inquiries Fandt reports on numerous industries That the tariff l. not necessary to the maintenance of American wages or | American standards of living appears
 clearly from the common 'pratice of selling American goods in foreign
 countries at much lower prices than they are sold in the United States and
 vet at a profit. The high American
 wages ! ave been paid by the manufac-
 turer who finds 1t to be his interest