Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1888 — TARIFF TRUTHS. [ARTICLE]

TARIFF TRUTHS.

A Brilliant Speech by Emery A. Storrs, Delivered Eighteen Years Ago. The High Tariff a War Measure That Ought to Be Dispensed With. If Farmers Need Protection Against Anything, It Is Against Protection. [From the Chicago Herald.] In 1870 Emery A. Storrs addressed a large meeting of farmers at Springfield, 111. An “enormous surplus” of $125,000,000 lay in the Treasury, and there was of necessity a feeling that the heaviest burdens of the war should be laid down. Some extracts from the speech then made cannot fail to have weight when it is considered that nearly two decades have passed, the tariff has been reduced less than five per cent., the expenses of Government increased $75,060,000, and the “surplus” has swelled from $125,000,000 to $231,000,000. And it should not be forgotten that this surplus is left after counting many liabilities that are purely conjectural. A strain on the Treasury, such as war, would undoubtedly reveal at least $300,000,000 that could be spent without putting the nation in debt. Mr. Storrs said: During the prosecution of the war it was deemed necessary, in order to enable the government to meet the gigantic expenses which its prosecution entailed, to impose upon every conceivable product of human use, wear or consumption heavier tariffs than had ever before been known in our history. Taxes were also levied upon nearly everything that we ate. or drank, or wore, upon the product of our industry, upon the articles which we manufactured, and upon the incomes which ore derived from the prosecution of our business, whatever that business might be. But little complaint was made against these tariffs and taxes while the war was pending. They were regarded by the great mass of the people as war measures, and to cease when the war itself ceased. Moreover, as every form of industry and almost every character of business was stimulated to a feverish activity by the vast requirements of the government, afcled in no small degree by a paper currency, these taxes, onerous as they were, were easily paid, and hence, during that period of time, public complaints were not ireguent. But the war finally ended. The vast demands of the government upon the industry of the country ceased. Nearly a million of men who had teen engaged in the armies, relieved from those duties, returned quietly but suddenly to their ordinary pursuits. As the currency was contracted and appreciated in value prices began to shrink, and under such a change of circumstances the burdens of taxation began at once to be felt, and the desire in some measure to be relieved from those burdens came to be almost universally expressed, and the necessity for some such relief is urgent and undeniable. ****** The requirements of the Government are certainly not as great as they were five years ago. Its expenses have been, during the short period of time that General Grant has been President, reduced many millions. A vast amount of the national dent has already been paid, and in the midst of general business deftression the over-burdened public are curiousy enough confronted by a surplus which will, during the year 1869-70, reach at least one hundred millions, and probably one hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars. A surplus so gigantic demonstrates, better than any' argument could possibly do, that taxation is unnecessarily high, btill there stands, in a time of profound peace, an enormous tariff, the effect of which is felt in every department of business, and the maintenance of which enhances the cost of living of every man in the land. Why should that tariff be continued? The fact oi the surplus demonstrates that it is not necessary for the support of the Government, and so those who are interested in maintaining it are compelled toplace their demands upon what they call the “protection of American industry." I will inquire precisely what is meant by protecting American industry? Against what, or against whom, is American industry to be protected? Who attacks, or proposes to attack, American industry ? How is the attack made? Is American industry so feeble that it can not, without assistance from the Government, protect itself? These are all vital questions, if no one is attacking American industry, it needs no protection. The forms of American industry are wonderfully diversified. The great body of the farmers of the country constitute a large element of what may be called American industry, and I know of no attack upon them so serious in its character as that made by the tariff; and if the farmers need irrotection against anything, it is against firotection. There are thousands of printers in the country; who attacks or proposes to attack them? Noone, except it be the tariff, which enhances the cost of the material with which their industry is carried on, of the clothes which they wear, of the coal which they burn, of the lumber with which their homes are built, of the salt which they consume, and of the books which they read. There are thousands of ship-builders in the country; who attacks them and their interests, and from what enemy do they need to be protected ? The deserted ship yards of the East answer this question—they need to be protected against protection, and that is all the protection they need. The thousands and hundreds of thousands of carpenters and joiners, boot and shoe makers, blacksmiths, and the daily toilers with their hands, upon the land or upon the sea, are threatened with no attack against which, for their own protection, the intervention of the Government is necessary. I apprehend that, should the Government levy a direct tax upon all the property of the country, to be paid over directly to the iron manufacturers, so that they might be enabled to hold their own against the competition of the foreign manufacturers, but few would be found who would justify such an exercise of the power of taxation. When reduced to its exact practical operations, the protection of American industry, so-called, is simply the forcible taking from the consumer of a portion df his earnings and handing it over to the manufacturer. The proposition to the consumer is simply this : We, the Government, will take from ( you 10 or 15 or 20 per cent, of your earnings and give it to the manufacturer, and he will spend it so much more judiciously than you would, that ultimately and in the process of time it will, in some curious and circuitous manner, which we haven’t the time to explain now, redound more greatly to your advantage than it would had you spent it yourself and for yourself. We are all now in favor of free speech, free thought, free soil, free labor; what is there about trade that it should not be free? * * * * * * On the shores of the Mediterranean, the Almighty has seen fit to confer warmer suns and more genial heats than shine upon the salt marshes of Syracuse or Saginaw. Congress has sought to correct thia order of Providence, and to protect the Onondaga and the Saginaw salt, manufactured by mechanical heats and appliances, against that perfected by the cheaper agencies cf solar heat. We bring in our vessels no more salt from the shores and the islands of the Mediterranean. Wo get poor salt, and at a higher price than formerly; but be assured, Providence will win. ****** A gentleman[of the name of Spaulding prepares glue and sells it for a good firice under the name of “Spaulding's Prepared Glue.” His is an American industry,and hence is protected. Last year the Government received by way of revenue from the tariff on glue the magnificent sum of sl7. Our hens ore protected; and in 1868 the Government received £6.90 from duties on ostrich eggs ; and yet I believe that, even thus protected, the native hen will never succeed —so far at least as the size of the egg is concerned—in competition with the ostrich. Sauer kraut is protected, and the protection yielded a revenue to the Government of $6. Apple sauce is also protected, and in 1898 yielded a revenue to the Government of, f 309. We are also protected against Spanish flies and Brazilian bugs. Our native flies and bugs are in their infancy, and must be protected.