PROTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Evening Star, Issue 6480, 22 December 1883, Page 1

PROTECTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

The Hoc. David A. Wells, LL.D., late Special Commissioner of Revenue of the United States, an eminent authority on political and social economics, has recently delivered a lecture before the Brooklyn Revenue Reform Club which contains many points of great interest to thß people tff this Colony, where a small, interested, but persistent minority advocate, in defiance of reason, statistics, and common sense,* the policy of Protection. Speaking in regard to over-production, and the necessity for a more extended market, Mr "Wei/LS conclusively demonstrated the practical results of a high protective tariff on the industries and trade of the United States.

For all practical purposes, he said, the exports may be regarded as made up of agricultural products and manufactures : products of the sea, the mine, and the forest are certainly exported, but the shipments are comparatively small in amount, and some of them are in manufactured form. In the comparisons he institutes, he, therefore, treats all non-agricultural products, as manufactures, and gives the following results of his investigations of the character and value of the exports. For the year 1879-80, 87| per cent, of the exports consisted of unprotected unmanufactured products—all agricultural except petroleum, and the value of the manufactured products exported constituted a smaller proportion of the total exports than they did in 1869-70, when the proportion was smaller than it was in 1859-60. To put the case differently, in 1859-60 the value of the manufactured exports constituted 17.5 per cent, of the value of the total exports. In 1869-70, after ten years of a high-tariff policy, they had run down to 13.4 per cent.; and in 1879-80, after another ten years of like experience, they were further reduced to 12.5 per cent. During the same period the export of unmanufactured unprotected articles increased from a proportion of 82.3 per cent, of the total exports in 1859-60 to 87.5 in 1879-80. On the other hand, the value of imports of foreign merchandise, which was at the rate of about lOdol 80c per head of the population in 1860, increased to lldol 21c in 1870, and 13dol 36c in 1880. All the talk, therefore, Mr Wells affirms, which of late years has been indulged in about the ability of the manufacturers to command foreign markets; all the flaming reports of consuls which from time to time are issued, "to the " effect that our industrial supremacy in "these departments is being everywhere " acknowledged, and that Great Britain " is pervaded with apprehension thereat, " are but the merest drivel and non- " sense, the imagining of those who " see only what they conceive it to be " for their interest to see. It is not to "be denied that our trade and com"merce with foreign countries have "greatly increased within the last " thirty years; but a fair analysis of " this trade will bring nothing of con- " solation to the believer in the efficacy "of the protectionist policy as a means "of national development." He proceeds to show this very plainly. During the ten years from 1850 ta 1860, under a tariff of low duties, the exports of manufactured articles were increased in the ratio of 171 per cent.; but during the next twenty years, under a tariff called protective, the corresponding increase was in the ratio of only 89 per cent. In 1880 the export of manufactured cottons—although the United States holds a monopoly of the raw material, and notwithstanding the efforts of the manufacturers—was less in quantity and value than it was in 1860. The exports of all kinds of woollens in 1880 amounted to only 331,000dol; but the imports of foreign fabrics of wool for the same year were returned at 39,000,000d01, in addition to 128,000,0001b of foreign wool, valued at 23,000,000d01. Much boasting, says Mr Wells, was indulged' in at the recent tariff conventions over the success in the manufacture of carpets. " But how about these ugly "figures from the official record for " 1880: Exports, 8,541 yards; imports, " 1,443,000 yards ?" What, moreover, he continues, must be the condition of an industry when the persons engaged in it can go over to England, as the woollen manufacturers have done during the past year (1882), and buy for the price of old metal machinery discarded as behind the age, and bring it over and work it at a profit ? American sewing - machine manufacturers, he states, are erecting immense establishments in Great Britain, because they find that, mainly through a greater cheapness of their raw materials, they can better afford' to manufacture machines intended for foreign markets in that country than in the United States. Sheffield, he notes as a fact, is exporting double the value of her peculiar goods to the States than she did in 1879. A few years ago the importation of foreign ores of iron was never dreamed of j but last year 700,000 tons were imported, although the mines of the country have not diminished in number or become impaired in quality. In 1860, 71,000 tons of pig iron were imported ; in 1880, with much greater protection, 784,000 tons. In 1860,66 per cent, of the exports and imports were transported in American vessels ; in 1870, 35 per cent, j but in 1881 only 16.2 per cent. Mr Wells, in regard to the future, points out that by reason of the great natural resources, the rapidly-increasing population, and other causes, the power of domestic production continually tends to be, and in most departments of industry is, far in excess of the power of domestic consumption. It is clear, indeed, he shows by statistics, that the foremost industry of the country agriculture has already reached the point of an abnormally high production, whilsfc-Hhe tendency is to still further increase. It is not, therefore, he affirms, a matter

of hypothesis, but one of certainty, •that if the Agricultural development fa ♦to be continued it must end in Ruinous over-production. If, with a view of preventing the surplus ot food products becoming more excessive, any considerable portion of the large annual increment of population is diverted from agriculture, it must, argues Mr Wells, find employment in commerce and agriculture, "But the Federal statute "book directly teaches that foreign u commerce i 8 undesirable, and, under " the influence of such teaching, the " amount of external commerce which "we can specially call our own has " been reduced to almost nothing. On " the other hand, any considerable in- " crease in the number of persons em- " ployed in our manufacturing indus- " tries means an increase of manufac- " tured product in excess of any "requirements for domestic consump- " tion, and, unless all the signs of the " times fail us, it is just to this con--11 dition we are rapidly drifting." The pressing necessity of the hour, he concludes, is an extension of the markets for produce, and, "in default thereof, "we are certain to be smothered ih "our own grease. But under the "protective system how are we going "to obtain extended markets? for " Protection means, both in theory and " practice, restriction on exchanges and "high prices, or it does not mean " anything. . . Unless, therefore, " something unforeseen occurs, Ameri- " can manufacturers at no distant day " will certainly be compelled to adopt 41 one of two courses—namely, to export " their surplus products at a loss, or a surplus by restricting their " productions." *