Mr. Marshall On Protection

Frou I 'rk World. The principio of "proteci:on" ia tliis : that, whereas in au t-ntratnmeled stato A can sell a certará nrticlo fot SI iid B oan oniy afibré to sell a like sitiólo at SI 50, some power exterior to A nud ii is to step in and say t hut, whüa !s uny sell at 31 50, no one is to buy fro A save on conditinn of pnying $1 for the privilege. TJntlef these circumf as A's waros are mudo to eost $& eost ni!(i SI privilege), and IVs only oost Í1 50, tlie customer is ïiocesaarily forced tobayofB. TWá m "tooeotion," and tbs process r.dicatcJ l 'm e ouo wliereby B is "protooted" against A, Tho price of the protection, or that privilego tax which tlio exterior powe prescribes in its intormeddling with A and B's business transacties, falls, of conrse, aotively on U, the oonnamer, and ouly pa ]y on A, vinco the effect of "protection," quoad :j , irf mrrely to keep A from Belliug at all, but, quoad O, to forcé G to pay SI 50 to 15 latber than $1 to A. under penalty, 'ti lie triO buy fröm A. nf pajing 50 cents more than U askoJ bj This, thon, being the principie of "protection," we havo to note a very ab'e spéeofa upou the subject la'ely delivered in tlio Uouse by Mr. Marshall, the Democratie representativa from the Elerenth Cotigrcssional District of Illinois, a gentleman who wns recolectad to tlio Forty-first CoDgross frota the Fortieth, aiitt npproves himself worthy of a re-election frotn tha Forty-first to the Forty-second. Beginning liis argument with the statemeut that tasatimi s a ne8cssary powcrof governmont, Mr. Marshall proceeds lo Baj t bat all tasation, by custom dúos or othorwise, ahould be limiled by the solé eud of taxation - the necefsiiy of providii!r msini for the Support of the State, "Proteotion," he thon goes on to show, la a matter alien to the neccBsai-y ená of taxtttiou - being, indeed, a use of the taxing power, r.ot to provide revenue for tho St!e, but to subservo the persoaaí interesa of private men. Iu oxposi'iou of tliw statement ho sets forth the visvr ('f pi'ottíolion s herein btfore given, to wit, that tbe "proteotive" duty is n't paúl into the troasury by tlie foroigner, sinoo t.o very aim of tbat "proteetion" is tiiat the foreigner ehill be detoircd frotn bril bis wares to this country, but that t lio consumer, C, pays to tlie lióme manufaoturer, B, that dnty in the shape of inerouse of pricc, which 15, by "protec tion," i enabled to olap tipon bis wnres. This being Mr. .Marshull's first dis'inction- acd very ap'.i taken it s- ha next procoeds to sbotf tbat "protection," ur a protective tariíí, which, once for all, mean in these discussiont tLc sacie lliiog, is tho fcnetny of uommcrpO. ComiEerceisordinarily bald to signify business i[itercouiíe between foreigo countries. Tbat this intercourso bo as easy and full as possible - ibat the tropics, for instanoe, s!ou!d seaii ut pine apples and we senil the trapica ice - has the wido WOrld over, ben Leid as an ;uproved ínaxini ; and yot "proteotion," or the hampering or sbutting out f thiti exohange, is, as Mr. Blarshall very trell says, the tntagonizitig of oonimerce. As such an opponent of fice iuternatioual exehaogu, it subsarves the Bme eiids as do niouiituius, or maiblies, or dang -rous and rocky seas that is to say, the cuds cf hindruLce, delay, obstruction and exclusión. With tho uso of the compase, the stoarusliip, tho submarino telegtaph, the ease of coir.merce las been vvooderfully served ; and yet, if inimicul legislation foibid tho juet fruition of these great discovories, tlie world, po far as such legishition opérate, ia put back into that comlitiori of coinmercial pupilage which existed before tho marinar had tho noedlo to puido him ou tho wave, or thopoleocy ofstcaiu to mock the volutlc humors of the water and tviutl. Expcu.,üiu this viavr, Mr. Mumhall relatis how Carthage ofold,ncd Venice, Gcnoa and Portugal in moro modern days, ere great with unrectricled comuierce, but lell away v.'ith ha:npsred trade - the home of líannibal into nothngness, and the onco great powers of Genoa, Venice and Portugal into aleepj cities and a tenth rate etate. Pausing here for a moment to note how in tliiá field of commcrce as in other respeets, as Dotad by us somo fcw days tinco. Radical "progresa" is really retrogression into the blind errors uf thü past, we come to another of Mr. Marshali's positions, a corollury from the very nature of "protecúon," lo wit, that the exclusivo producís of foreign clitnes - as coffee, tea, silk, genis, fina wines and brandies, spices, and so on - pay but a revenue duty, or for the uiero purpose of tbe State ; no sueh things being produced bere, and there being, therefore, no home producer to irsist on "protection" in these respecta against foreign competition. But leaving these luxuries, and comiDg to theso noeessary articles produced or manuñtoturüd botb hero and ia other couutries - to vtoolen goods nnd clothing, eay ; to sah, toiron, to cotton fabrics - íiere, as it is well put, appears "the very devii of proteotiou in its worst and most objectionable form, with its borns and cloven foot expesed to pubüc indignation." ün tho thop girl's blanket shawl ; oh Iho woolen shirt which fenceB the working-rauu íroni the winter air ; on the salt with wbich the Western meat packers preserve their stock ; on all the daily usea of that iron which is really worth more than gold, "protection" presses most heavily. And just in these instances, in these caaes where all the industrious and tho poor are moet coneerned, it is that the tax, mis-called "protection," is most despotic against the ohcap gooda we might have, and most partial to the dear goods we must havo. "Protection" hides itself under the necessity of raising taxes for tbc support of tho government ; but this is tti-o vvay tbe thing really works : Of cvery dollar paid out by tho pcoplc for cottou fabrics, thirty cents go to tho "proteoted ' uiouopolist mili owner and threo aud a half ceuts only to tho Federal treasury. On every dollar for woolen goodá, but ton cents go to tlie government and sixty cenls to tho monopolist; on refiued irou, five oeuts to the treasury nud fifty-two cents to tlie "protected" forge; on iiicu'h wool bata and woinou'a balmoruls, oti all our ordinary blankets and carpeta, ron, stee], woolen goods, and cigai's, every fcinglo cent ot tho tax goes to tho "protected" classes and not u di:ne to tho treasury. Il ere thero is uot even a bare pretciisc of tho mocey going to tho . support of the governmeut, butthose who uc.-tlo in the fat places of "protection" get it all. Sueh isa blief view of "protection," which eearches, as it were, the very veins of the oppressed people, and, as if even to cut them off from any consolation under uffliution, will BOt perinit lliem to read so much ag a chapter in their Biblea without pajing to soroc "protected" horse-leecb, a duty en that good book of '25 per cent. In Sacrauiouto the favorito Sunday sport is goose-racing. 1