The tariff [microform]. A short study upon an important subject

97-84013-28 Hosmer, Francis J. The tariff [Boston] [1900?] MASTER NEGATIVE # COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DIVISION BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET ORIGINAL MATERIAL AS FILMED - EXISTING BIBUOGRAPHIC RECORD TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE: /97/>) REDUCTION RATIO: /A'/ IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA ^ IB HB DATE FILMED: ^^^-"^7 INITIALS: /VL^ TRACKING # : ^n^> FILMED BY PRESERVATION RESOURCES, BETHLEHEM, PA I ! OA OCT a 0 im THE TARIFF A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT By FRANCIS J. HQSMER 1% THE TARIFF SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT By FRANCIS J. HOSMER THE TARIFF A Short Study upon an Important Subject By FRANCIS J. HOSMER. CHAPTER L Before any proposition can be truly demonstrated, the founda- tion upon which it rests must be made entirely clear; and before it can carry conviction it must be evident that it is based upon facts. There is no method whereby the mind can reason its way up to a conclusion except from some clearly defined foundation, and the conclusions are either right or wrong, just in proportion as the original premise is related to the exact truth. No true structure can be built upon an untrue foundation, so no true con- clusion can be reached from a foundation of untruth, of half truth, or of misstated facts supposed to be true. Therefore it follows that true conclusions can only be reached after the mind has first grasped an elementary truth and followed its teachii^ to its logical end. This much would seem to be axiomatic. What then is to be said of those questions of public policy which have been discussed for more than a century and are still unsettled? It is my purpose to attempt to apply this principle to one of the questions upon which good men differ and see if through this channel some light may not be thrown upon the canvas of the future; not that there is good ground for supposing that the writer has been able to delve deeper into the hidden mysteries than others, but I have chanced, perhaps, to stumble upon a line of investigation which no writer on political economy has ever touched upon, so far as I know. It, therefore, seems to me to be a duty to present a few new facts which would seem to place an old question in an entirely new light. The starting point, therefore, of my investigation to find, if possible, a foundation upon which the political economy of the future could be safely built; must be a search for the elementary 4 THE TARIFF jMinciples of action; the motive that rules and governs in the social intercourse of men; and this is plainly freedom^ for to nothing less than freedom will advanced intelligence submit. This, then, must be an impulse which is ever present, lying at the base of human action. Whatever of freedom each may be willing to sur- render into the keeping and for the well-being of the whole would seem to emphasize this truth for, thus far, they stand upon equal ground, for no one has surrendered more than his neighbor. They have already learned that order must {Mrevail and that only well understood rules, which all must obey, can produce it; still, they are free men. If their laws are faulty, they can change them. But free men desire to be rated as equals; all are ready to offer their lives for — or in defence of — their principles at th& supreme moment, and man can do no more, and herein the humblest offers just as much as the most exalted, thereby demonstrating that in the highest sense all are equal. It would, therefore, seem safe to assume that the highest m^ure of equality wouM be carefully preserved through every avenue of life and that no one would surrender any part until he must at the behest of some overpower- ing necessity. These would seem to be primitive traits of human nature and that no man would willingly transfer the direction of his higher intdltgence to his neighbor, for equality as the world regards it cannot exist so long as one i§ depending upon his neighbor for employment. Such would seem to be the social side of the problem, and if there were no other side to be considered, there would be few to seek em(doyment. Here the individual is confronted with the material side of the question, — he must have silver in his purse. This side of the question is vital; it is not only vital but it is pressing. It gives him no vacation. He battles with it, and if he be fertile in expedi- ents, he solves it for himself ; if he be deficient, he seeks his neigh- bors' assistance and voluntarily offers to surrender a certain element of his freedom for the purpose of an income which he knows not how else to secure. The ex^n-es^ve taunt so often heard upon the j^yground, *T am as good as you'' is never absent from the minds of men, and no amount of argument or of organization into Unions or Societies of any kind can banish that feeling of inferiority which the man A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IBfPOETANT SUBJECT S himself endures who knows that he must sell his service to his neighbor; and the Union and the strike are vital expressions of that feeling. The strike then becomes the active demonstration of that abhorrence with which the human mind r^^ards its own fancied inferiority. Not always will the false standard of societ>^ regard the accu- mulation of wealth as the highest ambition of man or regard material thin^ as the only wealth; but so long as it does, those endowed with the faculty to direct affairs to that end will be re- garded as superior men, for the standard of measurement is the one which society has established and society alone can change. If Socialism in all its forms will but take counsel of. its own iimiost heart, it will be surprised to find how true these propositions are; nor need they despair, for sometime, somewhere, in some way must be realized the highest conception of the human mind, but it can proceed only from a generous motive; no sordid motive can have any standii^ in the Court of the future, for there is no sordid motive recorded which has not left its bitter taste throi^h all the records of the past. For the present we can only deal with the material things of life as we find them, and the condition whidi would seem to demand attention is that unrest which seems to arise from the fancied inequalities of society; and it should be noted that the only in- equaUty complained of is that measured by the money standard. No one complains that his neighbor knows more or is better bred. The most ordinary intelligence must be able to see tikat no law creates that distinction, but the complaint is bitter that one has more than another of the luxuries of life. It is not that he himself lacks for the necessaries of life or that one's neighbor can consume more of them, but one is in possession of more of the evidences of wealth than another, and there the trouble begins. CHAPTER 11. There would seem to be something wrong about the reasoning in the discussion of any important question when, alter irore than three-quarters of a century of debate, good men can still be found to differ upon the subject. In the first Congress that assembled under the Constitution, the second act passed was for the laying of impost, and the pre- amble defining the purpose of the law expressly stipulates that it was for the following purpose, namely: 'Tor the support of the Government, for the payment of the debt of the United States, and for the encouragement and protection of manufacturers.'* The first tariff law was accordingly so adjusted as to accom- plish those ends. As the men who composed that Coi^e^ were very largely the men who had framed the Constitution they may be supposed to be the most competent judges of the powers con- ferred upon tham by an instrument of their own adoption, and as a result the constitutional right to ena>urag^ and protect manu- factures was not seriously questioned for thirty years and more. The revision of the tariff in 1816 was opposed by Massachusetts and, in fact, by New England upon the ground that protection Wcis being carried too far; but the Middle States, under the leadership of South Carolina, were in favor of it; and the protective feature was still further strengthened under the law of that year. In 1824, under the leadership of Henry Clay of Kentucky, and against the voice and the votes of New England, the so-called ''American System" of protection was supposed to have become established as the fixed policy of the Government. About the year 1830 John C. Calhoun denied the constitu- tionality of the protective policy, notwithstanding he had himself been instrumental in establishing it, and from that day until now it has been a prominent feature of almost every presidential cam- paign and the discussion has proceeded in very much the same language. The arguments of each side in the controversy seem to have been substantially exhausted in the early thirties: one party A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 7 claiming that protection was one of the direct agencies for the greats emfrioyment of labor, while the oi^xments of protection have as generally diaracterized protection as the legalized robbery of the many for the benefit of the few; while from the standpoint of each, no account has ever been taken of the varying conditions oi mankind; each side has seemed to proceed upon the assumption that one man is as well qualified as another to direct lus efforts in the race of life. This is plainly a mistake of fact, which sooner or later will have to be recognized in the solution of this question. Men are created unequal and every sii^le avenue of life illustrates it. Nearly all are endowed with talents which excel in some given direction, with no two alike, and the very diversity is the charm of human existence; but when those talents are applied to the solution of the intricate (»oblems of life it is then that the inequality in executive ability becomes manifest, for it is the executive ability which is not only the guiding spirit but it is the stroke oar of the race, and no man can hope to win in the struggle of life until he has prepared himself to pull the stroke oar in some one, at least, of life's contests. Whether or not the enormous developments of science shall have been too rapid to allow the average man to * 'catch on," as the boys say, and become one of the fmndpals in this rapidly moving panorama of life, is not here and now under discussion. The phenomenon which lies plainly before us is this: in this country we have a population of a hundred millions of people needing bread. In the manufacturing states we see that the agency through whidi that bread is furnished rests almost entirely in the hands of comparatively few men. The so-called tariff barons are furnish- ing the executive ability which is directing the effort of a large majority of the people and paying them the wage that gives them their support. It is safe to assume that tiiie wage earner knows not where to procure his bread earner or in greater abundance, else why is he there. If he could employ his talents to better advantage, he can be depended upon to do so, for both his pride and his interest prompt it. The very fact that he still remains a wage earner implies two truths, first, that there are those who 8 THE TARIFF are ready to employ labor, and second, that the wage earner knows not how to do better widi his labor tiian to sell it for what he can secure. Here are two distinct classes of men; the one, resolute and hopeful, and the other, doubtful, and it may be, timid, and in its final analysis the whole human family can be se^^ated on these lines, and in the problem of bread winning under present day conditions it is necessary to know what relation these two classes sustain to each other and through that relation to the economics of government. First, how do they compare in numbers? That must be the first step in the investigation. In the effort to ascertain, nothing definite could be gathered from any available statistical com- pilation. To state in concrete terms just the data that was wanted, it was simply this: What {^portion of the whole population is able to maintain itself by its own executive ability and what proportion is surrendering its independence in the matter of labor for wages? There seemed no way of determining these facts for any con- siderable number of people and the nearest approach to a canvass that might serve as an average basis for calculation, seemed to be to take some local community, large enough to embrace the various activities, where the agricultural, manufacturing, mer- chandising and professional classes were suffidentiy numerous to form a compact, well-balanced community. To that end, one of the towns of western Massachusetts was selected, whose population at that time numbered sixty-one hundred people with a poll list on that year of eighteen hundred and tweiity- five poll tax payers; and that list was supposed to contain the name of every male citizen above the age of twenty-one not criminal or pauper, and embraces the entire class usually denonunated bread winners. The result was as follows : out of the entire number of tax payers, fifty-one of the number were found to be engaged in what was denominated manufactures with an employee list vary- ing from two or three to some three hundred ; seventy-seven were found engaged in merchandising and emfidoying such help as the nature of their business required; one hundred thirty-eight were A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 9 engaged in mechanical and miscellaneous pursuits, all of whom employed themselves and most of them had some employment to bestow upon others; while one hundred ninety-one were in- cluded in the professional classes and in agriculture, all of whom were directing their own efforts, and many were furnishing some employment for their neighbors. If the above data are correct, and they were tabulated with care, the numbers here stated constitute the entire employer class of over six thousand people. No record was attempted of the female employers of labor, such as milliners and dressmakers, whose numbers are few and whose pay roll in comparison with the whole, light indeed. To confine ourselves to the poll list, the statement would be as follows: out of a fairly representative list of eighteen hundred and twenty-five bread winners, four hundred fifty-seven of the number are conducting the entire productive industries of the town, and not only that, but they are <x)nducting the public business as well. Now, let this proposition be stated so that its importance can- not be minimized. In the community tabulated there is a standard of education and a degree of intellig^ce probably second to no place in the world; and when we come to compare the executive ability, this startling fact stares us squarely in the face: in every group of four men, almost exactly three men are leaning upon the fourth one for their income. As no one is obliged to employ labor, it would naturally follow that no one would, except from the hope of gain or to enhance their own comfort, and if an extended investigation shall make it plain that three men in every group of four ^all be found unable to stand unaided upon their own feet, so to speak, in the race of life, then all laws which shall foster the employment of labor must be wise. CHAPTER III. After the problem had been worked out in one town where the conditions were thought to be as nearly representative of tlie whole country as could exist in any small community, and finding the results so marked, the matter was brought to the attention of the Bureau of Statistics of Massachusetts in 1895, and of Con- gress in 1900, but for some reason, which is not plain, no definite data upon this matter exists, except the little which is here pre- sented, so far as has come to notice. Perhaps, the conditions are too intricate to be analyzed by the Census Bureau and can only be done by experts in the various industries. The difficulty will readily occur to one who is familiar with the organization of large concerns which require a general manager, superintendents for each department, many foremen for the various jobs and many sub-foremen for the varying sections of the job, who are all in- directly employing labor, especially where some part of the work is done by contract as is very often the case , but in its last analysis, they are all employees so long as ttoey continue to draw either wages or salary, and it is from this class that the employer class is being constantly recruited; and as the crying need of today and of all todays is, more and diversified manufactures, the humble toiler will yet learn that the politician who would attempt to better his material condition by temporizing with that policy which affects the only source of income he can possibly have, should himself at least know the nature of the subject he is dealing with, and not in his zeal wantonly destroy the only bridge the poor fellow ever had to cross on. There is, perhaps, no subject quite as vital as that which affects the industries of the people. It is the problem of problems to furnish employment and keep the people at work. While they are busy they are accumulating wealth, when idle they are consum- ing their substance ; and here is one of the strange phenomena of hu- man existence, that accumulated wealth, which we are all in A SHOET STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 11 greater or less degree striving for, and is the only possible guaranty of continued human existm^e, looked upon with complacency when in our own pocket, at once takes on a sinister look when discovered in our neighbor's pocket, and that sinister look gathers malignity just in proportion as our neighbor's pocket bulges more than our own. It is often called Socialism, and strangely enough, the men who talk Sodalism seem to have no conception of the trait of character they are advertising. Envy is a very poor counselor. Whether the figures here presented constitute a reasonable average of the general executive deficiency of the human race can only be assumed* If added intelligence be the touchstone of success in life it would seem that the small cities and large towns of Massachusetts should furnish as large a proportion of examples as it would be possible to secure, and until something to the contrary may be adduced, for the purpose of this article, it will be so aa:epted, and, for the present we will assume it to be a fair average. There are, indeed, some indications that the average would be materially increased as the scale of intelligence declines, and it may be that a careful study of the primitive races of men will give to the stu- dent of economics its most valuable lesson. Whether development in the mechanical arts has been the agency, or merely the expression of an agency through which mankind has advanced, can only be detamined as the psychologist shall join with the archaeologist in the investigation, and the characters found upon the Karnak Rock, the Aztec Temples and the ruins of the Montezumas may yet furnish the clue, .as its dim dawning is visible m some of its forms in every race of men. A study of its development should furnish valuable information in determining its tendency. If the conservation of energy in the form of wealth, and the concentration of energy in the attribute of executive ability shall be found to be the keystone to the arch of all material progress, then for the first time will political economy be furnished with a tangible and unvarying fact upon w^hich to build, and social economy with a ground floor plan for a future structure. Undoubtedly, the highest attribute of Govmunent is to con- 1% THE TARIFF serve and enhance the public good, and, perhaps, no better defini- tion exists; but the words themselves are too narrow for the sub- ject. They seem to relate only to material things, while the material things are only the inddents whidi succeed the sublime ceremony. The sublime ceremony of Government is to erect not a code, Justinian simply, but a code celestial as near as may be, and poise upon it scales of justice attuned to the eternal verities. If this is too mudi to expect, it is certainly not too much to hope for. It has long been accepted as a political axiom by a very large class of men, that any legislation which shall have a tendency to reduce the cost of tha necessaries of life to those least able to buy them is the very height of political wisdom, and so generally has this theory been accepted that no one, so far as I have yet dis- covered, has attempted to argue against it, and indeed, it would seam to be impossible to present any argument against it if all were equally sure of a given income, that is, if both the factors in the problem bore with equal weight upon all who came within the range of the proposition, there would then be little chance for argument. Unfortunately, only one side of the case applies to all aUke. It may be assumed that all can buy alike, provided they have the meai^ and buy in the same quantities, but so far as this part of the proposition is concerned no legislation whatever is needed. These men have the money; they are the men who can always be depended upon to have money; they are the fourth men of the groups; they are the identical men who have been instrumental in building every government and every institution that exists, and when the scroll shall be rolled back and an im- partial eye shall be able to analyze their mission, they will probably be found in their collective capacity to have b^n certainly among the world's greatest benefactors. This, it may be assumed, is a reasonable picture of what the fourth men of the groups have already done and may be depended upon to accomplish in the future. Now it must be borne m mind that in the township investi- gated it was found that almost exactly three men in every group of four were leaning upon the fourth man for their incom.e, and from that standpoint we wiU examine the other side of the prop- A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 13 osidon and see how it might be expected to affect that community. The fourth men of the groups if not already supplied can attend to their wants at any time, they need no laws except such as shall preserve order; while of the other three men of the group there will be here and tho'e one more prudent and thrifty than the average who is about ready to graduate into the employer class but Hot enough to change the general proportion ; there are still three men in every group of four who must find someone who not only has sudi work as they can do, but has the money with which to pay, and furthermore is willing to hire the work done, before they can bu\ anything. Of what interest can the price of commodities be to them until they have first secured the price for which some- thing <^ be bought? Whoever knew of a man, asking alms from doOT to door, inquiring after the price of flour? He is not interestwi in the price of anything until he has raised himself to the dignity of that condition where he can approach his neighbor as a buyer and not as a beggar, and he can do that only after hnding a market for his labor« What is the first duty which political economy would seem to owe to this large class who are depending upon their neighbor for the profitable employment of their energy, through which, and only which, they may compass their support? The answer would seem to be plmn enough; in fact, is there anything that can be done for them except to strengthen them so far as legislation can, where they are weak, by broadening, so far as law can be made to, a market for the only item of value they have to sell, which is their labor? What interest can they possibly have in prices until they shall have secured that with which they can buy something? All other and collateral considerations must give place to this, for it is only as self-sustaining individuab that they can preserve thdr man- hood. They could buy flour at $20.00 per barrel just as well as at S5.00 if they have no money. If they must become a public charge, while the quality of their food would still interest them, the cost would seem to be a matter of indifference; but when they have found a market for their labor and they fed that the moome is assured, whatever prices may be, they can make it supply 14 THE TARIFF sorest needs, and keeping in view the permanence of their income from that standpoint strive to enhance their receipts to compass their wants. If the origmal proposition shall be accepted as proven and future statistics verify the claim that about three men in every four need the aid of other executive ability than their own, one thing, at least, would seem to be made plain; namely, that the men who possess initiative and courage need no laws to assist them in makmg their way in life's contest, while the men who are deficient in those elements are just the ones who do need all the favors that the law can possibly bestow. The initiative in life's affairs must be by the individual and not by any combination of men. Men can be found who can work together in harmony, but in the last analysis it will always be found that some one mind controls. Thus far it would seem that thinking men might pretty gener- ally agree, but in the adjustment of law to the most beneficent end, from the data at hand, nothing, perhaps, is more certain than that intelligent men will differ, and the intensity of that difference would seem to prove that each really desires the same end, and it is reasonable to suppose that all are ready to accept the correct theory of action as soon as it shall be made plain. Unfortunately for us, the world has furnished us no pattern which we can adopt, which seems in any way superior to our own; if, indeed, any parallel was possible, for it is probably true that no two countries could be wisely governed by the same internal policy, and no single government long continue the same internal policy without modification. England was not only highly protective but actually prohibited trade that she considered an injury to her material interests, and she continued that policy for some time even after her ratio of food consumers quite largely overbalanced her food producers. So long as she could feed her people from her own soil her condition was economically safe. With a food supply sufficient for the needs of her people, and a manufacturing class large enough to consume the surplus from her farms; a merchant marine visiting every port of the world seeking customers and buying raw material for A SHOBT STDDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 15 her looms; protected by a strong navy, by the middle of the nineteenth century she stood at the head of the nations of the earth in material prosperity. But the world had been moving forward and England, which had previously seemed quite indifferent to that fact, began to realize that something was radically wrong in the balance of those elmeats which make for continued nation^d prosperity and her public men began the study of the new problem. As the most important study of mankind is man, so the most vital study of public men is the needs of their own body politic, and in England's cas^ these strange facts were being impressed upon tiiem. Here was a small idand community with constantly increasing numbers who must be maintained. This fact lay at the base of the problem. How were they doing it? They were supplying a certain part of the food and raiment frcnn thdr own domain and buying the balance in foreign countries. Now, this fact should never be lost sight of. No economic condition can be regarded as safe until it rests upon a constant and never-failing food and raiment supply, for without it the rajot must perish, and it is England's deficiency in these vital el^ents which actually compels her to maintain such a navy as shall be able, not only to defend her own ports against invasion, but, if need be, at the same time to fight her way to some foreign food suf^ly. How is England equipped for the national race of life viewed from this standpoint? The four peoples immediately under EngUsh rule and subject to the above conditions number some f<Mty mil- lions. It has been recently stated that the soil {»oduces a supply sufficient for her entire population for eight months of the year. Here is a vital defect, for one week in every three must be met, and the supply must come from some foreign country. She has a supply of iron ore and the coal for smelting, the tin mines of Cotu- wall and her fisheries. These substantially must support her people. They must not only furnish them with employment, but that employment must be so manipulated as to be made available for the purchase of what raw material they require — which is much — and what food their soil fails to furnish, which is about one-third their needs. 16 THE TARIFF Her textile industries by which a large per cent of her people are maintained, with the exception of Ireland's flax, must draw almost every fibre from abroad, and probably more than one- half the product of her looms must find a market in foreign lands. With this general outline of the case, how does it analyze? Here is a population of some forty millions of peofde who must have employment, must be sheltered and fed. How is Englamd equipped for the task? Her building materia] is abundant in the form of clay aiul cement deposits, and are reasonably cheap. That factor in the {nx>blem, probably, need give them no cxmomi either now or later, and it is the only one of her vital problems that rests entirely in her own hands. When it comes to the question of raiment, they can supply their looms with whatever flax can be grown in Ireland and what little wool can be raised on the few square miles of her territory not devoted to game preserves, whidi from the nature of the case can be but a trifling part of what they need; while for silk, they must go for their supply to that land where the mulberry tree thrives, and for their cotton to that land kissed, at least, by the sunlight of the tropics; while the food supply, the most vital of all their material interests is, to accept their own estimate, sufficient to supply their needs for only about eight months out of twelve. England early discovered that the foundation of her economic system was inherently weak, that her food supply was limited and must soon be inadequate to the wants of her growing family. She also knew that no government could long endure with her food supply in peril; aiui, as die could in no wise enlarge her borda:^, and her conquests we^-e proving very uncertain pillars upon which to lean, she studied out a rather ingenious method for making the mechanical arts supply the deficiency of her farms. True, it was in a very roundabout way, but it has answered the end for more than fifty years. The English people early discovered the importance of their own natural resources, and were among the world's pioneers in broadly developing the iron and steel industrias and in the develop- m^t of the mechanical arts. She thus long enjoyed the prestige of priority in a realm where there were but few teachers, and of A SHORT STUDY UPON AN mPOIlTANT SUBJECT 17 mattaers not easy to leam, and after teaching Englishmen to mafce the machines and how to run them, they then closed the door to the exportation of any English machines. The secret of the me- chanical arts, as wrought out by machinery, they proposed to enjoy all alone. Ei^landy which had always been a maritime nation, now com- missioned her merchant marine to the double service of finding a market for her surplus wares and returning to her the raw ma- terial which might keep her people employed, and the food th^ must have. After this plan had prevailed for a series of years, and other peoples had begun to display ingenuity in the development of the mechanical arts and gave promise of soon being able to sup(dy their own needs, it gave England a new viewpoint f iwn which to study her economic system; her tariff laws were high and in some cases prohibitive, even grain, the staple food of the humble, was under a heavy tax; her mechanical toilers w^ many of them idle and mudi suffering was abroad, and in the eariy half of the last century the condition was so serious that the public men of England were compelled to study the real facts in their economic condition, and this is what they found: — A growing family, with a food supply from their own gard^ sufficient for only two meals out of three, with a lai^e proportion of her people dependent upon the mechanical arts for their support, and the raw material which must supply their looms almost entirely beyond their bord^ and outside their control. No theory could alter these stem facte, nor did they attempt it. They reasoned the matter to a logical conclusion. Their wares had already found a market in every country in the world and a certain demand was already established. They were still the leading manufacturing nation of the world and that of itself was a strong factor in their favor; but iheir fiscal policy was highly protective and they were not unmindful that it was under this policy that misery had accumulated, and while it was called protective, it failed to give protection, and under the changed world conditions they saw no way of securing the protection they were after, except by reversing the policy and inviting the whole world to bring their wares to her markets and 18 THE TARIFF make a clearing house of her. It may be supposed that England would lay the matter before her customers in as favorable light as pos^ble by suggesting lliat it would be mudi better £<»* the buyer to approach the seller than for the seller to be constantly obliged to seek the buyer; that by bringing their wares to the English market one has the benefit of choodng from unlimited stock and endless variety, and if there be any question about transportation their shipmasters would supply that at reasonable rates. If there be a single reason why England under these conditions diould not open her ports for the free commarce of all nations as the highest form of protection of whidi her omdition was then susceptible, it can hardly be expected to appear to the ordinary intellect; in fact, it needs no argument to prove that England does, and always has made her laws with especial reference to the pro- tection of English interests. Such is the testimony of English history, and it also testifies that at different periods of her history she has sought the protection of her people through opposite extremes and the intermediate halting, and probably will many times in the future. CHAPTER IV. Congress has recently created a ccmimission to aso^tain the difference in the cost between articles made in this country and such wares as are made in Europe and other foreign countries, which enter into competition with them, to the end that the manu- factuter in this country may not "rob the poor" that he himself may become rich. How hope inspiring that must be to the man out of employ- ment! 0£ course, he has no desire to help enrich his neighbor, but his own wants are instant and imperative and his neighbors' assistance in their relief are as e^ntial as his own effort. ''Where, gentle shepherd, tell us where" he may look for relief? He has no income, and until he has, prices cannot interest him; yet it is the interest of this very class that sorely needs the fostering care of the law, that has been made the sport of politicians for three- quarters of a century. It should not be forgotten that this class which stands in such urgent need of assistance are the three men in the groups of four who are constantly lookii^ to the fourth man to direct their efforts. How can the fourdi man best do it wiAout invohdt^ himself? The three men must sell their talent to someone. There are already a certain number of doors open to them for competition in their line of talent. Can l^slation enhance their interest by closing some of the doors already open to them by upsetting tariff arrangements or appointing commissions to inquire into the high cost of living? This proportion may not seem absured to everyone, but it would seem that it must to the poor fellow who has nothing to live upon and can entertain no hope of having, until he can find a market for his labor. If we accept the past experience of England from which to consider our case, and whidi not only common srase but all expai- 20 THE TARIFF «ice confirms, we must begin with the natural resources: — the Bcniy the mines and the fisheries as the foundation, with the me- chanical arts as auxiliary to them and from the intardeveloiMient of each spring that class of scientific men who are striving through invention and chemical discovery to enhance the condition of each. While standing somewhat apart, is the class known as profes- sionals, the teadiere, clei^ymen, lawyers and doctors. This classs-^ fication is simply for the convenience of analysis, and it will be observed that from the first three factors in the problem, the soil, the mines and the fisheries, must spring the direct production; and fiwn the fourth class, the professional, the indirect only; while their mission is no less essendal than the other toilers, from the material standpoint it is not as readily discernible, but in its last analysis it would seem that all people who are self-sustaining must be classed as i»rodu<^rs. The clergyman and the teacher add to the world's wealth not only by every joy they impart, but just in proportion as they may be able to influence the community in which they live to higher aims and better methods; the physician, not only by banishing suffering but by reducing the hours of idl^iess; the lawyCT, by the respect he may be able to enforce for order. Thus each is an indispensable component of a symmetrical whole and all are con- sumers* in a community of one hundred millions of people, with the industries properly diversified and the several factors in the in- dustrial problem properly balanced, there must be work for all and idleness for none, unless they chose to remain idle. It is to furnish an equipoise that the whole tarifi legislation should be directed. If an investigation shall make it plain that forty per cent, or about that, of our people are able to furnish sufficient food product to feed the whole, tlien the question arises: "How are they to be paid for feeding the whole family?*' It must of necessity be through an exchange trade, and that exchange must be for something which they have not and yet are willing to exchange for, and from the nature of the case it cannot be much with the farmer. He must have a set of customers other than those who work at his trade. He must have a lai^e non-food pro- A SHORT STUDY UPON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT 21 ducing class for his customers, who can buy his surplus product or he mi^ reduce his acreage to the limits of his own needs; in fact, the most valuable protection that l^slation can bestow upon the farmer is to help provide him customers for his surfrfus stock, and this can be done only in one of two ways, either to augment the purchasing capacity of his present customers or increase the number of his customers by measures whidi will stimulate the growth of the non-food produdng dass, and give to him a domestic market free from foreign competition. The Govenunent can sometimes enlarge the circle of customers by treaty; but the only permanently safe method is to encourage the widest diversification of industry, so that the food produdng class and the non-food producing class may be kept in such adjust- ment that all may find employment; then all will have customers. Here we orine to that standard free trade maxim : Why pass laws that benefit a dass at the expense of the whole? This im>- position sounds specious and because it sounds so, it has beenac- cepted as a truism. As a matter of fact, it is a physical impossi- bility. Was there ever a wealthy man in any community who was not of material benefit to the conmiunity in which he spent his money? And if true of individuals, can it be less true of classes? The only uncertainty that seems possible must arise from im- proper dassification and if the intelligence of todav is not sufficient to solve that pxt>bleni» there imuXd seem to be little excuse for m^ecting the attempt. To start at the bottom, the purchaser must have money to buy with, to continue buying he must have an income at least equal to the amount of his purdiases; this much needs no proof. It, therefore, fdlows that the price of goods can form no part of the consideration apart from the income of the buyer, the inccmne must precede the purchase, either actual or prospective. It is the income, then, that at once stands out plainly as the vital element whidi must receive the first and substantially the only consideration, and it was not so very long ago that ^bnerica was favored with an object lesson, showing conclusively how little cheap prices have to do with the wdl-bdng of the human race. In 1896 sonfte <rf the staple products were quoted at {nrices lower THE TABIFF than ever before known by the older generation. The wheels of industry were largely idle, and, measured by the purchasing capacity of the masses, prices in the year 1912 which in many cases were two and three times as high as in 1896, seem very reasonable indeed, and why should they not? Flour milled in Minneapolie from wheat grown in Dakota, selling in Boston at three dollars and fifty cents per barrel, carries its own commentary. It speaks of disaster to every one instrumental in its production and distribution back thmugh every stage of its pn^ess to the man who turned the furrow. Nor is the consumer benefited. He, too, is a partaker in the miseries his co-workers share, else the price had not been three dollars and fifty cents. Analyze any price one may sdect where the price is unduly low to the consumer and the result must be the same in every case; thus each link must bear an equal proportion of the strain and the capacity of the weakest link determines the capacity of tbe chain; and from this it must follow that the process nece^ary to add strength to the chain must be to strengthen its weak links, for it certainly cannot be strengthened by weakening its strong ones. Here appears another standard maxim* "^y confine the analysis to America alone when we are already selling abroad in all countries; and what matter who makes the goods so long as we sell abroad more than we buy? To the first proposition the answer must be: The analysis cannot pos^bly extend beyond governmental control, for other governments are making laws in their own interest as they see it and that, if nothing else, compels America to do the same; while for the second part of the proposi- tion a single illustratk>n will be sufficient to show how the labor maxhtt is affected by our exchange trade, even though we sell abroad more than we buy. Until very recently our export trade was composed almost exclusively of the products of the soil: — beef, pOTk, wheat, cotton; com, petroleum and their products. For the purpose of analysis, take the item of beef, not as an average but rather an extreme case for better illustration. We will assume that a force of twenty men will care for a herd of cattle A SHOKT STUDY UFON AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT £S of such size as will fit five thousand for market each year; the salary of the herdsmen one thousand dollars each, and the value of the beeves forty dollars per head at point of shipment. That would leave the problem to be stated as follows; Two hundred thousand dollars worth of goods, with tibie assistance of nature, have been produced by the labor of twenty men at a cost of ten per cent. We will assume that the beef is consigned to Liverpool and a ninety day draft drawn against the account on London, and the ranchmen proceed to repeat the operation. Before the maturity of the London draft, the American importer of cutlery who has a buyer among the manufacturers of Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds who has, perhaps, purchased two hundred thousand dollars worth of pocket cutlery, against whidi the English manufacturer makes his draft usually on New York. As the time draws nigh when the London banker must pay the American farmer for his beef, he finds himself armed with an offset account in favor of the English manufacturer for the same amount; when the bankers have settled with their dients, the drafts are cancelled and exchanged, that completes the transaction. In each case value has been received and in its broad sense both the commerce of England and America has been satisfied. Now, how has the transaction affected the labor element of the two countries? We have assumed that ten per cent divided among twenty men would be labor's reward for producing the beef, while for the labor required to produce two hundred thousand dollars worth of pocket cutlery would probably be not less than two hun- dred men for a year. It has been broadly estimated by cutlery men that the labor cost is eighty-five per cent of the whole, and the profit to the manufacturer ten per cent, we will assume; that would leave eighty-five per cent of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, or over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars as labor's share in the Englishman's case, divided among two hundred people, as against twenty thousand dollars divided among twenty men in America's case. To be able to purchase the product of two hun- dred men in one country with the labor of twenty men in another country would certainly be an ideal condition where labor was scarce, and if this proposition be true its converse must be true. 24 THE TARIFF The problem in this country and in all countries is to employ its labor. This, all who discuss the subject seem to realize, but no discussion has yet come to hand which seems to recognire the importance of striving to keep the two classes in the proper relation to each other, — the food and the non-food producing element. It is the people who are not direct food producers that are always nearest the dai^er line, and these are the people who most need all the assistance that laws can give and the law stands perfectly powerless to render anyone direct assistance except through its charity bequests ; but it can be of immense indirect assistance by giving or withholding such consent as may stimulate the resource- ful men to devise ways and means whereby such talent as exists may be employed; and yet there is a strong sentiment in this country- in favor of closing such avenues as the law has already opened, lest the men who study out the ways and means secure a latter share of the profits than the men who are leaning upon them for their support. If this be wise, then our calculations must be wrong. CHAPTER V A MECHANIC who had been long in the emi^oy of one of Massa- chusetts' prosperous corporations and who was above the average of his class in intelligence, was heard to remark that the status of the factory operative in this country had virtually been reduced to the condition of peonage, and in comparison he conmdered the race better off when conditions were sudi that the shoemab^ and the tailor plied their vocation from house to house. It might have been supposed that one of his intelligence would have discovered that economic pn^iress had not halted at that stage of its development to accommodate the whims of any one, but had moved forward under a law of its own and with just so much force as that law was able to give it. If that law had been satisfied with a condition which required a young man to give from five to seven years of his time to leam what has now been divided into some seventy distinct trades, the separate parts of which can be learned in a few weeks, before he could make a shoe, that law of development would have stopped where he indicated. He had considered the question apparently from the standpoint of an inherent discontent. He had convinced himself that he was not permitted to enjoy what he was earning for his employer; that his toil was swelling the income of those whose social life was entirely distinct from his and whose interest in his welfare was measured only by the profit he could make for them. There is no excuse to be offered for the man who would treat his help with any less consideration than he would treat his banker; but there is this (or exfdanation, which the B^veragt emTployee cannot realize until sudi time as they shall become employers themselves: Very few men are so constituted as to be able to main- tain discipline with their working force under any degree of familiar- ity, consequently, their material interests seem to force upon them a comtant business attitude toward their help which they feel cannot safely be relaxed outside the factory; and while it is known 26 'CHE TARIFF m many instances to be entirely at variance with their natural impulse, yet they are of that temperament that it is impossible to change, and they come to be regarded by their hdp as cold, unfeel- ing men. * In the run of time the old boss retires and some one of the employees succeeds to the business. He may have been one among them and one of them for years and been regarded a royal shop mate^ In two or three months that royal shop mate is fortunate if he be not regarded as worse than his predecessor, and he, of all that force, realizes why. His old shop mates say the man has changed. They do not realize that they ai^ paying in obedience the price of their position. They must be content to pay it or create a position for themselves. Not always will the capacity to create and accumulate wealth be the only standard by which mankind shall be measured, but so long as it is, it must be reckoned with ; and if the forces which have produced the present condition are to continue until nature is compelled to furnish the muscle and man only the skill to direct it in