Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-01-06
some ABSURD NOTIONS OF PRO.
TECTIONISTS.
The Theory That You Can Sell with.
out Buying; That to Sell the Most
and Buy the Least is the WaY to
PrOSperitYiS faIiaCiOuS. The Re.
verse is True.

There are millions of people in this
country who believe that were it not tor
the protective tariff our industries would
lauguish, and instead of standing at the
head of the industrial nations we should
recede constantly and finally reach bot
tom. To see how absurd this is let us
analyze few of the notions entertained
by Protectionists. In every case we
shall discover u fallacy.
Protectionists believe that it il better
to sell than to buy, and that the man
who sells most and buys least will be
the most prosperous. This is fallacy.
Buying and selling are two halves OF a
complete whole; together they make
trade; one is impossible without the
other. and if buyer and'seler are COM
petent neither will be injured but both
will te benefited. That is the nature OF
trade-mutual benefits. And that is
why people trade. 1t is the sole object.
Another fallacy is that dollar is more
valuable than dollars worth. Upon
this false assumption protectonists build
the notion that if you can only cell a lot
OF goods for lot Of money, you have got
the best OF the bargain. This silly notion
explains the superstition of the vast ad.
vantage Of foreign trade, in which we
send whole lot of goods away and are
supposed to get whole lot Of money
back, another fallacy, but of that later.
The man who believes in this ridiculous
idea will go into shoe store and give
five dollars worth of money for five dol
lars worth of shoes, demonstrating in
the process that he values the goods
more than the money. His act is bold
contradiction of the theory which he
and all other protectionists hold, that a
dollar is more valuable than dollar g
worth. According to them, the ideal
condition would be one in which we, in
our international trade, sent away moth.
ing but goods and got back nothing but
money. We might take foreigners
money without serious injury, but their
goods would ruin us utterly.
Now for the puncture. In the first
place money does not 60 across the
oceans. Gold and elver 60, but only az
metal-goods, if you please, weighed a,
both ends Of the line. Even in the case
OF coins, no attention is paid to the face
OF the coins of any nation. but weight
only is considered, and the market price
governs; which proves that international
trade consists OF goods for goods, and not
Of goods for money. Foreigners don't
want our money, and we don't want
theirs. Yet every protectionist IN the
land thinks that we send money to for.
eign countries, and in so doing enrich
them and impoverish ourselves. Hence
the protective tariff to prevent it. Even
il We did send money, million dollars
worth of gold money, or any other kind
for that matter, is not worth one cent
more than million dollars worth oil
cigars. No protectionist in the land
would give one cent more for it az a
practical matter OF fact.
Here's another. The object OF tariff
is to make work for our working men.
Otherwise they would not have it. This
is based upon the further fallacy that it
is work men want instead of results,
Yet as a matter of fact the reverse is
true. Men want results. Since they
cannot get results without work, they
work; for wealth they must have or die,
and wealth is produced by work and
work only. But they try to minimize
the work in every possible way by the
use of machinery, which shows that
they really want the results and not
work itself. Now think. Right at this
point, think. If they import million
dollars worth of goods from abroad they
will have to do just one million dollars
worth OF work to pay for them. If they
don't they will not get the goods
Henry Fl. Harding in The Public.
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