The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1887. A PRINCE ON PROTECTION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1590, 22 June 1887, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 1887. A PRINCE ON PROTECTION.

Now that the question of the expediency of adopting m New Zealand an avowed policy of protection is necessarily brought prominently before the 4 electors by the appeal which has been made to the ccuntry, it is interesting to note the considerations which some five years ago induced Germany to follow the fiscal policy of the United States m this direction. Addressing the Reichstag on May 14th, 1882, Prince Bismarck said — ** The success of the United States m material development is the most illustrious of modern times. The American nationhas not only successfully borne and suppressed the most gigantic and expensive war m all history, but immediately afterwards disbanded its army, found employment for all its soldiers and mari nes, paid oft most of its debts, given labor and homes to all the unemployed of Europe as fast as they.could arrive within its territory, and still by a system of taxation so indirect as not to be. perceived, rrtiich less felt. The United States found every year a great and growing surplus m its treasury, which it could expend upon national defences, or national improvements. While the American Republic was enjoying this peculiar prosperity, the countries of Europe, which America most relieved by absorbing their unemployed population, were apparently continually getting worse off. Because it was his deliberate judgment that the prosperity of America was mainly due to its system of protective laws, he urged that Germany had now reached a point where it was necessary to imitate the tariff system of the United States." We qll know that Germany followed Prince Bismarck's advice, and it is a noteworthy fact that almost every nation m the world is now avowedly Protectionist, the one remarkable exception being the United Kingdom. But there are not wanting indications that even she will cease to bean exception ere long, it being a significant fact that Glasgow has declared m favor of a return to Protection, while even m Manchester itself that view is strongly championed. The question of Protection versus Freetrade is so wide, and raises such a number of issues that it would take volumes to exhaust the argument, and we can only on the present occasion allude to one or two remarkable facts which go to show that the assertions of Freetraders that Protection necessarily enhances prices and benefits only those who are engaged m the industries protected, and that at the expense of all other clases m the community are founded upon fallacies. Speaking upon this subject m 1883 before the Cornell University, New York, Mr Eilis H. Roberts adduces m this connection the history of Bessemer steel rails. He says " The price was isodols. a ton, and Americans bought them at that price. The duty was fixed at 28dols. a ton, and the consumer undoubtedly paid it. But soon like rails were produced here at home and the foreign manufacturer was compelled^ to lower his chatge. The fall was' gradual, and the buyer kept paying the duty. Soon transactions were made directly and m terms with the duties paid by the foreign producer. Such transactions are on record ; but the whole market was affected and the price tumbled until these rails are sold at 33 or 34d015. a ton, and the producer keeps on accepting the situation, sand allowing the American imposts to be thrown back upon him. In England such rails sell to-day at 25d015. a ton, m the United States at 34d015. The duty is i7dols. It is obvious that, with transportation added, the British producer must bear the greater part, if not the whole of the imposts." The sameauthority takes the pig iron industry as an example of the benefits derived by America from a protective policy. He shows that m 1854 the product was 736,218 tons, and that up to 1861 it made absolutely no progress, rather the reverse, the figures for that year being 731,544 tons. But m that year a strongly protective tariff was adopted with the result that within the next seven years the product ran up so as to become 1,603,000 tons m 1868, since when the increuse has been signally steady until m 1883 the product was 5,146,972 tons. During the ten years, 1874-83, while British furnaces added 1,751,366 tons to their

product (an increase of less than 30 per cent.) American furnaces added to the annual product no less . than 2,324,564 tans — an increase of nearly 50 per cent. So that under the American revenue system *' the growth m the development of iron m its simplest form is both absolutely and m percentage far greater than that of Britain." Surely such facts as these afford food for thought and go far to prove that the policy of protection advocated by the present Government is a wise and desirable one.