Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1890 — The Justice of Tariff Protection. [ARTICLE]

The Justice of Tariff Protection.

There is no device to which the free trade attorney will not resort in his efforts to create prejudice against the policy of protection. A favorite cry is that “the tariff is a tax,” and for that reason should be abandoned. This plea is without force so long as it is a fact that all revenue obtained from importations of foreign products by just so much reduces tfio amount that would otherwise have to come from the pockets of the people. One of the first needs of civilized government is revenue; —money with which to pay for defense against outside enemies and for the enforcement of domestic laws for the convenience of citizens and protection of life arid, property against the assaults of evil doers. It is the aim of enlightened statesmanship to obtain this required revenue with the least possible inconvenience of the people for whose benefit it is expended and from whom the major portion of it must be drawn. The history of all civilized governments, and a hundred years of experience under our own, bear testimony to the to the fact that in no other way can this be so fully ard equitably accomplished as through the medium of a tariff—which is nothing more than compelling foreigners who insist upon sharing in the profits of a nation’s trade to likewise share in the payment of that nation’s expenses. It is no valid argument agaipst the policy of tariff protection to

urge that whatever money may be raised Trom competing importations is charged over to consumers of the imported products—for while this may in part be true, it has even less force hi this connection than when applied to every article of domestic production re’achedlbyTaxation. After all,that lias been said in this behalf by free trade advocates the} 7 have never yrft named a single competing imported article the selling price of which is increased above its foreign value by the amount of the tariff. The very sufficient reason for their silence lies in the fact that no -such instance can be found. And it is because of this fact that the foreigner is so urgent for “reform in our tariff laws. It is the fact that he has something to pay at the port of entry and can only charge a fraction of it back on the consumer here, that impels him to keep his attorneys busy in demanding that all the expenses of government be taken from domestic property and industries and that foreign trade be allowed to go free.