Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1882 — The Beanties of Protection. [ARTICLE]

The Beanties of Protection.

The two propositions that a protective tariff does not “protect ” and that it acts as an export duty on protected manufactures are sustained by the facts disclosed by the trade reports of the United States, We give, in the first place,

the value of the exports of the principal articles of American production which are not protected during the fiscal year of 1881: Bread and breadstuffß $270,332,519 Cotton, raw 247,895,746 Provisions 151,528,268 Mineral oils ............. .. 40,315,609 Tobacco . 20,800,000 Oilcake 8,200,000 Fursand fur skins.... 5,600,000 Naval stores 2,650,000 Agricultural implements 2,400,000 Hops -. 2,100,000 Animal and vegetable oils 2,700,000 Hides and skins 903,000 Others 5,100,000 Total (unprotected) $783,687,142 The total value of all the exports of the United States during the same year was $883,925,947. Admitting that all the exports not included in our list of “ not protected ” were of the protected class, which is by no means the case, these figures show how the protective tariff prohibits the export of American manufactures. On the other point, that the protective tariff does not protect, we give the list of values of American manufactures exported, and the values of the same classes of goods imported, despite the enormous protective duties levied thereon : Imported. Exported. Sugars and molasses $93,4 4,228 $ 2,673,897 Silk manufactures. 32,056,000 none Wool and manufactures... 40,860,000 350,000 Iron and steel 46,439,000 14,608,700 Chemicals, dyes 36,500,000 3,850,000 Cotton goods 31,219,000 13,571,000 Tin and manufactures... . 18,191,000 200,000 Flax and manufactures.... 17.521.000 none Leather manufactures 10,500,000 975,000 Grass and jute goods 8,984,000 none Earthen and china ware... 6,500,000 123,000 Glass and glass ware 5,870,000 756,000 Straw goods 4,360,000 none Hemp 4,244,000 1,186,000 Salt.?. 2,100,000 14,752 We might extend this comparison indefinitely through the entire list of manufactures which are “protected” by the tariff, showing that the protection does not protect; that, despite the heavy duties, we import an average of $lO worth of protected merchandise to the $1 worth we sell to other countries. That, though the American people are taxed 60 per cent, on all the silk used in the United States for the benefit of our silk mills, which get their silk free, they do not sell a yard of it abroad, and still we import far more than tbese mills produce. The higher the duty the less it protects, but the severer is the prohibition against exports.— Chicago Tribune.