The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1886. PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1453, 12 January 1886, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1886. PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

Some lime ago the Freetraders of this colony were thrown into a state of ecstasy of the publication of a cablegram stating that a Commission of Americans had decided against Protection, and had come to the conclusion it was ruining the United States. They also said the condition of workmen in America was far worse than in .England, We have just come across the text of the manifesto issued by the Freetrade League of America; and hereby give it to our readers. It is as follows : We submit to the people of the United States that the continuance of a war tariff with duties averaging 42 per cent, on more than 1400 articles of domesti cconsumption and much higher specific duties on many crude materials, has prolonged the evils of war in limes of profound peace, and has been the principal cause of the commercial and industrial depression ot recent years, by forcing labor and capital from naturally profitable into unprofitable lines of business. By adding to the cost of production it has decreased (he common productive capacity of labor and capital, thereby reducing both the wages of labor and the profits of capital; it has provoked an antagonism between labor and capital, against which our great natural resources and our free institutions should have protected us. It has impaired our power to compete with other manufacturing nations in the markets of the world. It has so obstructed national progress and development that it has destroyed many branches of business, and has kept our people from engaging in other branches of business which would have given increased employment to labor. By preventing our buying from nations willing to buy from us, and by provoking retaliation in the same spirit, instead of promoting friendly reciprocity, it has obstructed the consumption of our agricultural and manufactured products by other countries, and has driven our commerce from the sea, impairing our domestic powor to buy, it has pre-

vented the full development of our interstate commerce, and reduced the legitimate profits of traffic. It has driven into bankruptcy a large number of our transportation companies, and made domestic traffic more costly. Through the influence of its “lobbies” it has enthroned jobbing and corruption in our legislate halls, and has impeded the reform of the Civil Service. In short, in taking by force the earnings of one class of men to enrich another class, it is opposed to the spirit of American liberty and of the Constitution. It lias imposed a new industrial slavery, it has prevented the national progress of wealth among the farming classes, has decreased wages and their purchasing power, lengthened the enforced idleness of working men, restricted our manufactures from their natural markets, and demoralised the general business of the country. While holding that taxes in aid of private interests, or lor any purposes other than the requirements of Government, are unAmerican, unjust, and unwise, and that every pntective feature most at the earliest possible date be eradicated from our revenue system, we invito all who oppose the abuses of the present tariff to join us in promoting immediate steps of practical tariff reform, which we believe will increase wages, diminish the frequency of strikes, develop business, and restore our flig to the seas. We therefore urge upon Congress, with respect to its action in ensuing sessions—(l) that under no pretence shall any countenance whatever be given to any attempt to increase protective duties ; (2) that articles which are at the foundation of great industries should, in the interests of labor and of commerce, be freed from duty, whether they be crude materials—as lumber, salt, coal, wood, etc. —or partly manufactured —as chemicals, dye stuffs, pig iron, tin plate, wood, pulp, etc. ; (3) that on the produce from such articles the duties should at least be correspondingly reduced, so that the protection, real or nominal, to manufacturers shall not be increased, and so that consumers shall have the immediate benefit of the reduction. We urge that any steps in tariff reform should simplify the present complicated classification, and should do away .with mixed duties, replacing them with ad valorem rates instead of specific duties, which are most burdensome to the low-priced goods consumed by the great body of the people. We demand free ships and the abolition of our restrictive navigation laws, which, together with the tariff, have driven our flag from the seas. We oppose bounties and subsidies on shipping. We urge revenue reformers to vote only for such Congressional candidates as openly oppose a tariff for protection, and to take steps to nominate independent candidates when all the party candidates oppose tariff reform, preparing for that step by diffusing sound economical literature, and by promoting our organisation, especially in the “ close ” Congress districts. In all our experience we do not think we have come across anything dealing with so large a subject that has less in it. It hears evidence of being got up by thoughtless agitators, who do net understand wbat they are discussing. There is not a solid argument in it from beginning to end ; it deals merely with generalities, and has nothing in it to convince anyone that Protection is wrong or Preetrade right. Its leading features are that Protection has reduced both wages and profits of capital, and impaired the powers of America to compete in manufactures with other nations. The greatest fool in existence can easily see that this is quite wrong. The fact that countless thousands of working men pour yearly into America, and that all find employment there, at perhaps the highest rale of wages in the whole world, shows that the British workmen are not better off, and that the wageearning class have not suffered. As regards the assertion that the powers of America “ to compete with other manufacturing nations in the markets of the world ” have been impaired, we have only to examine her statistics to see that it has no foundation in fact. England is America’s greatest rival in the markets of the world, and what do we find ? Simply that America is underselling England in English markets. In 1872 the value of the goods exported from England to America was £40,736,567 —in 1878 the value of British goods exported to America dwindled down to L 14,552,076. Thus in seven years there was a reduction of L 26,184,490, while the population in the meantime increased from 38,558,371 to 50,152,559. Now what has America been doing in the meantime ? In 1872 the value of goods imported by England from America was L 54,668,948, and in 1878 ft reached L 89,146,170. Thus while the value of the goods bought by America from England diminished by a little over L 26,000,000, the value of the goods America sold to England increased by nearly L 34,500,000 yearly. Does not this prove that the assertion above quoted is altogether untrue. Space prevents further comment.