Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1891 — PROTECTIVEREVENUE TARIFF [ARTICLE]

PROTECTIVEREVENUE TARIFF

As Mr. McKinley pointed put in : his recent speech in Sandusky, a 1 revenue tariff puts duties on articles not produced at home, while a protective tariff puts duties on articles competing with home products. This broadly stated, is the real difference between the two systems. Both; free traders and protectionists are agreed that the bulk of the money fortheGov-1 ernment s support must he obtained | at the Custom House. Each, that is | to say, prefers the indirect to the di- j root form of taxation, but the free \ traders contend that this indirect; taxation should be levied on such ar- 1 tides and in such a way that it could ! afford no aid to the de velopmen 11 of any home industry. The protec- i tionists, on the other hand, demand 1 that the tax be put on things which \ come into competition with articles ! .grown, mined or made here, and ; thus help in the broadening and ] cheapening of home production. The ! free trader would have duties on tea, : coffee and sugar, which can not be produced here at all, or which can not be grown in quantities approaching the home demand. Woolen and cotton goods, iron and steel manufactures, and other articles which are produced here, or which may, by a reasonable amount of protection, be produced here, are tho things which, when imported, the protectionists compel to pay tribute. The average reasonable being, when bethinks over the matter'“carefully, will be convinced that the protec - t-iouist system is wiser and better than the other. Under this plan the things which we can not grow or make come to us cheaper than the free traders would furnish them, while the barriers erected against the free entrance of other goods do not increase their price .to the extent of the impost put upon thorn. The tendency of prices in these articles, moreover, is steadily downward, beeause of the development of the home industries which these barriers provide. Protective duties, in fact,render us a double benefit in the long run. They not only give work to* large numbers of our people who could not find such lucrative employment otherwise, but, owing to the increased competition,they cut down the prices of tho protected commodities to a lower figure than could be touched if we adhered to a course which would have left us dependent .on the outside world for these things. The-record of the steel rail and other metal industries is absolutely conclusive on this point. The protective duties are not permanent. They' arejmposeil for the purpose of, giving the industries affected-et'start, 1 uncUas the.-e industries' gain in extent and strength tho duties are lowered. In the*meantime the prices of-these-goods ate reduced in a larger ratio than the cut in the duties, and the consumers'asWell as the prouuceTs are benefitted.