Protective tariff

“ Nothing is more natural than that the manufacturer to whom the promised protection has thus become ineffective by the protection of something else—as, in fact, it has to not a few—should rush up to Congress, clamoring for still higher duties and renewed tariff tinkering. You may take it as a general principle that, when under a protective tariff the protection of one industry works to the prejudice of another protected industry, the tendency will always be in the direction of higher duties. ”

“ Least of all will they be permitted to accomplish that result when equality and not preference is the end to be achieved. Catch words and labels, such as the words 'protective tariff,' are subject to the dangers that lurk in metaphors an symbols, and must be watched with circumspection lest they put us off our guard. A tariff, whether protective or for revenue, burdens the very act of importation, and if laid by a state upon its commerce with another is equally unlawful whether protection or revenue is the motive back of it. ”

“ The most completely revenue-yielding tariff is one touching only articles which, even at the higher prices are not in the least to be produced profitably in the home country. A protective tariff is a schedule of import duties so arranged as to give appreciably higher prices to some domestic enterprises than they could obtain with free trade. It shuts out some foreign goods which would otherwise enter, an in so far it "protects" the domestic producer from the foreign competitors who would sell at lower prices than those at which he can or will sell. ”

“ A protective tariff so called, is a system of duties levied by the government of a country on certain commodities produced in other countries to prevent their coming into unequal competition with similar commodities of domestic production in such a way as to cripple or destroy the industries implied in the latter.
Free trade is opposed to all those duties, the design of which is to afford any advantage to domestic industry. ”

“ A protective tariff is, of course, a plain case of preferential class legislation, and so was the original Inter-state Commerce Act. They were designed to substitute artificial preferences for those effected by unregulated individual action, on the ground that the proposed modification of the natural course of trade would contribute to the general economic prosperity. ”

“ If the protective tariff operates so as to perform what is attributed to it, it prevents things from being imported into this country. That may be a disadvantage to the foreigner, it may disappoint him in his hopes, but we may leave him out of account. Then the increase of the cost of these commodities for the American consumer at home is the source from which the American protected manufacturer must obtain his benefit, if he ever obtains any. Therefore he has to pay also taxes to the other protected industries on account of the operation of the system. ”

“ A protective tariff is the most familiar instance of this, since it enables the manufacturer to export the surplus for which there is no demand at home. If there were no tariff at all, and the expense of producing a certain article at home were materially greater than the expense of producing the same article abroad, there would be none produced, and, of course, none to export. ”

“ The admission by the protectionists themselves that a high protective tariff is a failure as a means of raising sufficient revenue, and that it will not produce that stability of conditions which is necessary for the development of solid business prosperity, will greatly aid the popular mind in rightly gauging the economic merits of the protective policy. ”

“ But an intelligent people will not fail to see that the two contrivances are designed to serve the same object: to enhance the price of goods by cutting off competition. The protective tariff does this by Government interference—by the imposition of a tax upon the imported foreign article. The Trust does it by controlling the production of certain articles and the consequent fixing of the price through a coalition of the producers. It is said that Trusts have been formed to control the production and sale of things on which there is no tariff duty at all. ”

“ Conservative, put him in the Senate and you keep him there.
We have what is called a protective tariff in this country. It is a law which, in the name of protecting the workingman, robs him and every other consumer. If you are a conservative, you are in favor of maintaining this law.
The tariff schedule was drawn up by a committee of Congress behind closed doors. That is, the doors were closed on those who have to pay the tariff, but open to those who were to be benefited by it. ”

“ An attempt was made in 1912 to inject the tariff controversy into politics, when the Democrats in their platform again demanded a tariff for revenue only, on the ground that a protective tariff was unconstitutional—an absurd contention, the constitutionality of a protective tariff being all but universally conceded. ”

“ No conditions have been shown which warrant us in believing that the abolition of the protective tariff as a whole would bring any substantial benefit to the consumer, while it would certainly cause unheard of immediate disaster to all wage-workers, all business men, and’all farmers, and in all probability would permanently lower the standard of living here. ”

“ This country never had a protective tariff in its whole history, before the enactment of which the people were not assured that this was the utmost measure of the demands that would be made, and after the enactment of which the clamor for more protection—higher duties—did not soon again begin. ”

“ Equally blind is the present system of duties between it and our own country, placing an insurmountable obstacle between free interchange of products and manufactures, and shutting two great nations out of mutual advantages. On our side especially there would be everything to gain, and nothing to lose, by abolishing the protective tariff. Business is conducted now upon a most unhealthy basis. ”

“ When complaint was made that the protective tariff, by cutting off foreign competition, obliged people to pay higher prices for the things they had to buy, the protectionists used to reply that this might be true, but only at the beginning; that under the fostering care of the protective system, a multitude of manufacturing establishments would spring up at home; that they would compete among themselves; that this home competition would soon bring down prices in the home market as much as foreign competition would have done, or even more ”

“ It is possible also that this uncertainty may result in decreased revenues from customs duties, for our merchants will make cautious orders for foreign goods in view of the prospect of tariff reductions and the uncertainty as to when they will take effect. Those who have advocated a protective tariff can well afford to have their disastrous forecasts of a change of policy disappointed. ”

“ On the 31st of August, in response to an inquiry from the editor of the "Citizen," a newspaper published in Urbana, Ohio, I wrote the following letter in regard to the policy of protection to American industries by tariff laws:
"A protective tariff was the first measure provided by the first Congress of the United States. No nation can be independent without a diversity of industries. A single occupation may answer for an individual, but a nation must be composed of many men of many employments. ”

“ Most certainly, friend, if we are to be perpetually flooded with paper, a high tariff is needed;—your theory is at least consistent, however it may have worked in practice. But a high protective tariff is an impossibility, because it can be attained only by favor of the Federal legislature ”

“ Consequently, high rates of duties may have a decided influence upon the industries of a country. When the rates of duties are so fixed as to bring about this result, we have a protective tariff; i.e., one under which persons can produce in this country certain articles which otherwise they could not produce, because of their cheapness when imported from a foreign country. ”

“ A protective tariff is a duty imposed on imported goods for the purpose of encouraging their manufacture at home. By internal improvements are meant the improving of the navigation of rivers, the building of bridges and railroads, the dredging of harbors, etc. ”

“ The real difficulty in our tariff laws is to avoid unequal and unjust discrimination in the objects of protection, made with a view to favor the productions of one state or section at the cost of another state or section. The dogma of some manufacturers, that raw materials should be admitted free of duty, is far more dangerous to the protective policy than the opposition of free traders. ”

“ It is common knowledge that, while some customs duties or tariffs may have been levied 'for revenue only,' many have been enacted as 'protective tariffs' in which a primary interest of the Government was as under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, to restrict the flooding of the market with certain goods at a certain time. ”

“ For many years the subject of the tariff was keenly disputed. The Northern manufacturers were habitually seeking increased protection, which the Southern planters, having no kindred interests to protect, were often unwilling to grant. The rates imposed rose or fell with the strength of the contending parties and the political exigencies of the time. 1861 A.D. At length, immediately after the representatives of the South had quitted Congress, and the friends of protection were absolute, a highly protective tariff was enacted. ”

“ In 1872 it was over $140,000,000, and, if we add the amount of interest paid annually on bonds held in other countries, payable by railroads and other corporations, and the general government, the balance against us in 1872 was not less than $250,000,000. This balance must be paid with the products of our country, or in money. We have not coin with which to pay, and under our protection system we cannot pay with our products. A protective tariff makes the farmers, the laborers, and all consumers, insurers of a certain profit to the already powerful combination of manufacturers. ”

“ But such a discussion cannot be stopped as long as the difference of interests and opinions exists. If the opponents of the tariff should grow weary of it, the protectionists themselves would start it anew, for they are not yet satisfied with the tariff as it is. I was astonished when I heard a prominent statesman say that the protective system achieved a great triumph, a decisive victory, in the late Presidential election, and that the tariff policy of the Government was now finally and irrevocably settled. ”

“ They all seem to have taken without reserve the latest strain put upon the protective formula in order that it might cover whatever a manufacturer wanted, the form in which it had appeared in the Republican platform of 1908, insuring the person lucky enough to have a business which could be protected that he should have a duty which would not only cover the difference in the cost of his production, but insure him a profit. ”

“ Where the transportation charges are low, as on the coasts and on the main lines of railways, some imported goods may be bought, while farther inland where transportation charges are higher home production of some or all grades of such goods may take place. If the whole demand at home is supplied and all imports stop, therewith cease all revenues to the government from that source. A completely protective tariff is completely prohibitive. ”

“ But, for the great majority, there is little or no protection for what they produce, but large protection for what they consume. The tariff is principally levied upon woollen goods, lumber, furniture, stoves and other manufactured articles of iron, and upon sugar and salt. The necessities of life are weighted with the burden. It is out of the necessities of the people, therefore, that the money is realized to support the protective system. I say, Mr. Chairman, that it is beyond the sphere of true governmental power to tax one man to help the business of another. ”

“ This country is definitely committed to the protective system and any effort to uproot it could not but cause widespread industrial disaster. In other words, the principle of the present tariff law could not with wisdom be changed. But in a country of such phenomenal growth as ours it is probably well that every dozen years or so the tariff laws should be carefully scrutinized so as to see that no excessive or improper benefits are conferred thereby, that proper revenue is provided, and that our foreign trade is encouraged. ”

“ Our plain duty is to enact as speedily as possible a tariff that shall by small but continued changes cut down our protective duties and substitute non-protective duties until our tariff is for revenue only; for thus and thus only can the vast majority of the agriculturists buy what they need most cheaply, and so find that to purchase necessaries does not cost them more than the total of their sales ”

“ There is hardly a thing he consumes which this bill forgets to raise the duty upon. Every prominent necessity of life, food, fuel, shelter, and clothing, is embraced and made more expensive to the consumer throughout the country. Even on boys’ pocket-knives the duty is increased about three times—600 per cent—one member of the committee tells me. And yet it is said this is a tariff for mere protection. Why, sir, you are protecting the American people until they will not be able to buy one solitary thing that is protected if this goes on. ”