PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1466, 3 January 1880, Page 13

PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

We quote the following from a pamphlet, recently published in Manchester by Joseph Wood, of Fallowfield, its contents being those of a paper delivered by him at the Highfcown Liberal Club, Manchester, in February, 1878. The pamphlet is dedicated by permission to John Bright. The quoted passages are well worthy tha attention of our local Protectionists, who are so fond of holding up America as a successful instance of Protective policy :— 1 The whole export trade of the United States in 1872 amounted to the enormous sum of 549,000,000 dollars ; but when you have taken off the increase of bread, stuffs, corn, cotton, 1 petroleum, and other natural products, the gifts of God, there remains the paltry sum of 6,000,000 dollars, of which the single item of sewing machines takes credit for one and a-half million of dollars. Is this the grand result of 17 years"prohibition ? Is this all that the advocates of Protection can show 1 Then truly may we say the mountain has been in labour and brought forth a mouse. Yes, there is far more than this to show; but the New England manufacturers will not look it in the face, nor allow the people to see it if they can prevent it. According to a calculation in my possession based upon the best and most reliable data — for the tabulation of statistical records in the States is most complete— Protection has cost the country in 12 years 7,200,000 of dollars, or tbrea times the amount of their wab debt. This great sum of money would have bought the freedom of all the slaves in the South 20 years ago, and would now buy all the sbipa in the world, cargoes included.

The condition of the great industries of America is that of an army of infants ; they are quite unable to face the wholesome corrective of fair competition. When it is proposed to reduce the duties a little, there is an outcry from the labourers that wages are so low that they cannot live on them. Quite recently I read that the wages of an iron-puddler was only one dollar per day, and this for the most laborious occupation in the world. In the cotton trade also the wages are lower than in Lancashire. (See Appendix B.) The distress existing amongst the working classes supplies the best evidence of the failure of this unnatural system. In New York City alone all last year the number of unemployed artisans is put down at 50,000. If we reckon an average of three persons dependent upon each, this gives a total of 150,000, including children dependent upon charity ; and I find that L 220.000 was distributed by the New York -charities in 1875, and L 270.000 in 1873. The change in these figures may result from the diminished means of the subscribers, aa there are no poor laws in America ; this is all voluntary relief by a properly-organised system. The number of unemployed tor tbe whole of the United States is returned at 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 of breadwinners, while the condition of those in wobk on the railways, coal and iron fields, is described by one of themselves in the North. American Review as being, before the late railway strike, worse than that of the slaves in the South before secession. The tramp, unknown in America till 1861 (he came in with Protection), is now a dreaded institution, met with in gangs of 30 or 40. The residents of outlying districts dread their approach. They come and ask for work ; if that is denied, they ask for food, which must be given, or most likely they prowl around till night come*, and set on fire anything that will burn, for revenge, or inßheer despair from their abject misery, In short, the skilled artisan is being ground into poverty in order that a few millionaires may increase their wealth. Thus, the United States exists for the manufacturers, not the manufacturers for the States, as should be the case, according to Lord Derby's recent reply to a deputation from the Coventry ribbon-weavers, asking for Protection. We cannot, therefore, wonder that Communism is gaining many adherents in the States, being openly advocated as a cure for social ills ; and unless speedy reforms are adopted, it is feared there will be a recurrence of the terrible scenes of bloodshed and destruction of property which recently took place in the railway riots. The ruin of those engaged in mercantile pursuits since 1873 is perhaps without a parallel in the whole history of commerce, the failures in New York the first month of this year reaching 8,000,000 dollars. The most discouraging feature of these suspensions, however, is that they ought to have happened sooner. The assets are so small compared with the liabilities as to prove that there was no justification for the firms continuing ia business. APPENDIX B. Influence of Protection not Permanent but Temporary. — A further conclusion, alike deducible from theory and proved by all experience, is that, not only does protection to a special industry not result in any benefit to the general industry of a country, but also that its beneficial influence on any special industry is not permanent, but temporary. Thus, the price of no article can be permanently advanced by artificial agencies without an effort on the part of every person directly or indirectly concerned in its consumption to protect and compensate himself by advancing the price of the labour or products he gives in exchange. If sufficient time is afforded, and local exchanges are not undulyrestricted, this effort of compensation is always successful. Hence, from the very necessity of the case, no protective duty can be permanently effective. Hence, also, it is that protective manufacturers always proclaim, and no doubt honestly feel, that tho abandonment of Protection, or even its abatement, would be ruinous ; and in all ' history not one case can be cited where the representatives of an industry once protected have ever come forward and asked for an abatement of taxation on the ground that Protection had done its work,— D, A, Weils' " Owed of Free Trade,"