PROTECTION

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2509, 9 August 1888, Page 3

PROTECTION

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—The subjects of protection and Jreetrade have been worn nearly threadbare, but in view of the forthcoming protectionist banquet to be lielil in Wellington, in honour, I presume, of the infamous tariff recently imposed, some statistics concerning protection in America will not be out of place. President Cleveland, as is well known, is a staunch freetrader in so far as freetrade is possible, for there cannot be any such thing as absolnte freetrade. Revenue must be raised, and through the customhouse is the easiest way of raising it, and at the same time the fairest to all, but fostering industries by this means is, to put it plainly, dishonest. On the 30th June the surplus in the United States Treasury amounted to the enor mous sujjri of 140,000,000 dollars. In his message to Congress the President says, "There seems to be no assurance that with such a withdrawal from use of tne people's circulating medium our business community may not in the near future be subjected to the same distress which was quite lately produced from the same cause." People who hear of the large surplus in the United States Treasury, may unthinkingly say, " happy America," but a little reflection will show that a big surplus in the public chest is by no means indicative of prosperity. It is not in the power of the. Government to dispose of that surplus in any way they think fit. There it is and there it must remain, as the President said, " uselessly substracted from the channels of trade." It Wai proposed to lend this money to the people, but his objection to that proposal was, that it was "exceedingly objectionable in principle as establishing too close a relationship between the operations of the Government Treasury and the business of the country, and too extensive a commingling of their money, thus fostorin s an unnatural reliance upon pnblic funds." Protectionists will say any surplus could be carried into a sinking fund to pay off our debt, and they willspeakhopefully of thatjmillennial time when we shall be a nation free from debt. With a population in proportion to the supporting capabilities of the colony, the debt would sit lightly on us, but we shall not be likely to have that increase in population which, from the resources of the country, we have a right to expect, if in ad'litiou to the already heavy taxes the burden of costly living is imposed by protection. With our population fast decreasing by emigration the customs will not give the increased revenue expected. Besides the losa of revenue from this cause there is another reason which will account for the certain loss, that is that people will from lack of ability to purchase, consume less duthble articles than heretofore. By the last American census it was made to appear that 17,392,099 of the population were engaged in all kinds of industries. Of that number 7,070,493 were engaged in agriculture, while only 2,(i23,059 were engaged in such manufactures as were claimed to be benefited by the high tariff, the balance being occupied in professional, mechanical, mining, and other pnrsuits. There, as certainly as it will be the case here, protection means increase of profits for the few at the expense of the many. The average annual profits of the manufactures in that country have been stated by a Chicago manufacturer to be 350,000,000 dollars, to keep up which the agricultural community was taxed to the extent of 600,000,000 dollars. It is claimed that protection will be the means of raising the rate of wages—already high enough to satisfy any reasonable man—but what good will the increase of wages be when there will be a more than corresponding increase in the cost of living ? In another part ot his message, speaking on this subject, the President says of the employee : " He receives at the desk of his employer his wage 3, and perhaps before he readies his home is obliged, in a purchase for family use of an article which embraces his own labour, to return in the payment of the increase in price which the tariff permit.", the hard-enrncd compensation of many days of toil." are told that an increase of duty in clothing means higher prices for wool. Speaking on that subject, the President said: "In the meantime the day arrives when the farmer finds it necessary to purchase woollen goods to clothe himself and family for the winter. When he faces the tradesman for that purpose he discovers that he is obliged not only to return in the way of increased prices his tariff profit on the wool he sold, and which then perhaps lies before him in manufactured form, but he muat add a considerable sum there to meet a further increase in cost caused by a tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus in the end he is aroused to the fact that he has paid upon a moderate purchase, us a result of the tariff scheme, which, when he sold his wool, seemed so profitable an increase in price, more than sufKcient to sweep away all the tariff profit he received upon the wool he produced and sold." The policy of protection is one sided and selfish iu the extreme, there is not one of the Protectionists tt'ho would not be glad to hear of New Zealand wool being admitted to America, and there is not one who would not be dismayed if England were suddenly to be converted to Protection, thus imposing a duty npon nil we export to her, yet they consider it perfectly fair and honourable to say in effect to the English manufacturers, "We want you to take as much as you can of our raw material, but we shall take care, by imposiug heavy duties, that as little as possible of your manufactures shall come to us." England is the mother from whom we have drawn our nourishment for years, and though nominally running alone, we are, in reality, not out of leading strings yet, for we apparently cannot do without her money, and if a European war broke out we should look to her to protect us, while at the same time we were doing our best to protect (?) ourselves against her manufactures. We have already enough industries to supply our small population. We cannot eat, or wear more than a certain amount, and If the number of factories were doubled there would be no market for the products. I cannot think that the man who says manufactures will bring population believes what he says, any thinking person must acknowledge that the reverse is the case, population will bring industries. If, with the raw material for almost any kind of manufacture at our doors, we cannot compete with the manufacturer 16,000 miles away the sooner we give up the attempt the better. But as a matter of fact we can compete, and very successfully too in many branches. If some complain and say they must have Protection the fault is entirely owing to their greed and avarice in not turning out an article that will suit the tastes and requirements of the people, they want to put a cheap and nasty article on the market at the price of a good and superior one. Take for example, candles, if one is lit another has to be lit to see how the first one burns, and then it is almost necessary to strike a mat:h to see if the two are alight. I am open to here ; there may be some good coronal candles, but I have never seen anything but the veriest rubbish, dear at sixpence a packet. If one buys English goods in tins, he gets full weight of the article, exclusive of the tins, but the colonial manufacturer weighs the tin in. Commercial morality is at a very low ebb in New Zealand, and the latest indication of the lack of much morality is the proposal to adopt Protection. President Cleveland warned Congress " not to be unmindful of the time when an abused and initated people, heedless of those who have resisted timely and reasonable relief, may insist' upon a radical and sweeping rectification of theii wrongs." The time is coming when the people of New Zealand will revolt and sweep away the abeses which we suffer from and their authors from power.— I am, etc., R. W. Rocue. Tβ Awamutn, 6th August.