PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 980, 30 March 1871, Page 2

PROTECTION IN AMERICA.

[FROM THE MELBOURNE ARGUS.] The ■working classes in America are awakening to a full perception of the iniquitous character of protection, and iire throwing themselves in the cause of freedom of commerce and unrestricted industry with characteristic energy and determination. Ever since the Secretary to the Treasury demonstrated to the people of the Union, by unanswerable facts and figures*, that protection was " making the rich richer, and the poor poorer,"' and was rapidly pauperising the masses, a great change has come over public opinion with respect tq this question in the great cities. This was remarkably exhibited on the 4th of ]So\embet last, when a mass meeting, or u free-trade rally," was held in New York, and called forth the " unbounded enthusiasm " of all present. The chair was taken by Mi C, S. Marshall, an eminent ship owner of that place, who denounced the policy of monopoly and restriction as one which had driven American commerce from the seas, which had thrown the trade of the country into the hands of foreigners, had rendered the shipyard* ofNewYo.ik silent and deserted, an 4 crippkd the industries of the republic, and made the export of manufactured products well nigh impossible. Ii«

mentioned two striking illustrations of the perniciou-s effects of protection as having recently come under lii> own .observation, and we eoovnen 1 them to the attention of our colonial protectionists. " T had occasion/' he says, •" not long since to copper a vessel, and on calculating the relative cost as between New York and Liverpool, I found that the difference in favor of the latter was 1,200 dollars, and I was ohliged to send my ship to England to be re-metalled. Why was this? Because thi« iniquitous tariff has made copper dear. Thus you will perceive that the mechanics whom I would have gladly employed were deprived of their -woi-k by this so-called * protection.' They were literally * protected ' out of it. Again, a friend of mine who is engaged in the business of hiring bags to vessel fo* the purpose of transporting grain, told me the other day that Jbe had 150 men hard at work in Scotland making bags for him, and when 1 asked.him why he didn't make them here, he replied, " Because the duty on cloth is 35 p-r cent, while the ilutv on the made bag is oniy 30 per cent." The cloth manufacturer must bo 'protected,' and so he imports his bags instead of employing American laborers to manufacture them" It is proposed to in pose a duty on cloth imported into Victoria, for the protection of the local woollen manufactures, and it is just po.-sible that the operation ot such a tax here may resemble that which is .described above. Mr Marshall was followed bv the Hon. S. F. Carey, from the great agri .cultural state of Ohio, who diew a gloomy picture of the condition of the West'; asserted that four-fifths of the population were uncertain how they should struggle through the winter; : and emphatically affirmed that, while a >few men were growing rich by protected manufactures, the masses were rapidly growing poorer. The iron masters and the cotton-spinners were .amassing large fortunes, while the condition of the operatives in their employ ment was steadily deteriorating. It was not, as a subsequent speaker remarked, that protection robbed Peter to pay Paul, it plundered both of them to enrich Judas I-eariot. And the injustice of taxing the multitude in order to aggrandize a privileged class was .pointedly shown in the following re marks made by Mr R O'Gorman :~ " There arc employed in the manufacturing industries in this country probably about 600,000 people; in the great industry whiah is not protected, that of agriculture, thei e are 6,000,000 ; .and the protection of American industry means simply that these 6,000,000 are obliged to contribute for the support of these 600,000. The result ot that is that corn is more expensive, flour more .expensive, and meat; and thus you, working men of New York, contribute in everything you eat, drink, and wear to this ' protection' to certain rich industries." These six million agriculturists annually exported to Great Britain, be fore the outbreak of the civil war in America, upwards of £40,000,000 worth of the products of the soil, leceiring in exchange British manufac tures ; but the 30 or 40 per cent import duties imposed upon the latter, under the plea of protection, involved the confiscation of a corresponding poison of the value of the produce exported. In other words, if a farmer in Illinois has to pay <£3 for an English plough, instead of £2 under free trade, he must send twelve bushels of wheat in exchange for it instead of eight bushels, which would suffice to adjust the transaction if he wore not pillaged by the state, in order to protect the ironfounders of Pennsylvania or Connecticut. But, as the mayor of New York forcibly put it at this meeting, e-ery vote given in favor of protection " is a vote against ch«ap living; against cheap clothing, blankets, fuel, iron, travel, tools, and food ; against the revival of American shipping; against the pro gress of economical science; against the growth of New York ; against the equal rights of American laborer.-, to the proceeds of their toil ; ami in favor of ruinous taxation, grinding down the laboring man, and building up an aristocracy of capital." A geneial election has just taken place in the United Statee, which was

to a great extent fought <out upon the broal iss-je, "Shall the labor of the many be taxed for the benefit of the few?" And it lias resulted in the reduction of the Republican or protectionist majority in Congress from 93 to 50. The free trade party, strong in numbers, strong in intellect, and strong in the righteousness of its Cause, for it is that of justice and the people, *»tan h pledged to eliminate every protective duty from the revenue laws. On the other hand the protectionists have nothing to fall back upon but' the old stock arguments, which ha*e been worn threadbare in defending ihe law of primogeniture, the existence of a State Church, and the maintenance of a privileged aristocracy. Tn effect, they say to the mass of the people, "You are incapable of choosing your own employment. You must, therefore, be gathered together in certain occupations selected for you, and supervised by a par ticular class in the community specially favored by the state, which concentrates a larger late of profit in the hands of that class than it could obtain by the use of its capital in any other channel, unless .so protected by law." We cannot doubt that among a people so intelligent and mo politically active as the inhabitants of the United States are, the principles of free trade must be triumphantly established ere long. As an eloquent speaker remarked at a previous mass meering held in New York in May last, t; Free speech, free soil, free men, and free trade—these are the four corner stones upon whicn we build. Upon th*> broad platform based upon these foundations, we will establi>h justice and equal rights for all men."