Monopolies -- United States; Railroads and state -- United States
We have been combating monopolies, and shall attempt to show that what
is termed a protection tariff affords no protection to the people at
large, or to the operatives and laborers in factories and shops, but
only to the capitalists of the country. An equitable tax for revenue is
one that is levied upon articles of foreign growth or production, that
enter into general consumption; and not one that is levied upon articles
the main portion of which are of home manufacture. It is only the
imported article that pays a duty to the government. The home
manufacturer does not sell his fabrics for less price than is paid for
the imported articles of like character and value; hence when only a
part of any commodity is imported and pays a duty, and the other part is
supplied from home manufactures, while the government derives revenue
from the imported articles, the manufacturer puts into his own pocket
the same per cent that is paid to the government in shape of import
duty. To make it plainer: If a tariff of forty per cent is paid upon the
imported article, when it is sold, the purchaser must re-pay this per
cent to the importer, but the manufacturer can advance the price of his
goods so as to realize forty per cent, or the amount of the tariff over
his former prices, and still compete with the importer. The tariff
protects him at the rate of forty per cent, which must be eventually
paid by the consumer. No tariff is paid on home manufactures, and yet,
in all cases, the manufacturer adds to the cost of production the amount
of the tariff placed on like articles, and collects it from the
purchaser or consumer. A tariff for protection gives to the
manufacturers a monopoly, in some cases so complete as to drive the
foreign article from our ports. In such cases the government receives no
revenue, but the manufacturer makes a clean profit of the per cent fixed
by the tariff, all of which is eventually paid by the consumer, and for
which he receives no consideration. To illustrate this, let us take the
duties on blankets for the year 1871, and the quantity imported. The
duties on the four classes of blankets were 87, 88, 100, and 109 per
cent, respectively. The whole imports for that year amounted to $19,355,
and the tariff duties amounted to $17,316. All of the residue of
blankets purchased during that year were home productions. The
manufacturer has only to mark up his price to realize about one hundred
per cent over the price at which they would have been sold but for the
protection tariff. Take boots and shoes as another illustration: We
imported none in 1871, and of course no revenue was received on these
articles in that year; yet the manufacturers had the benefit of a tariff
of thirty-five per cent on each pair sold. If a pair of boots was sold
at $8.00, the protection the wearer paid the manufacturer was $2.80. The
law compels the farmer and laborer to pay that sum as a bounty to the
manufacturer. On cotton goods, the consumer pays a duty of from
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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