BENEFITS OF TARIFF PROTECTION. 55 



CHAPTER XII. 



BENEFITS OF TARIFF PROTECTION. 



INDEPENDENCE, Warren Co., Ind.,July 8, 1875. 

 To the Editor of the Inter- Ocean : 



I see, by an answer given in last week s issue, you favor a Protective tariff, and 

 claim that the masses are benefited thereby. 



1. If. you please, show me and many others if the Western farmers, mechanics, 

 or merchants are benefited by it. 



2. Does it not give the Eastern capitalist and manufacturer great advantage in 

 selling their goods at higher prices ? 



3. Do not we, as consumers, eventually pay the duty on our own as well as for 

 eign goods ? 



4. Has not Protection by high tariffs been the hue and cry ever since the early 

 days of Henry Clay, and that by the Eastern manufacturer ; and we, as old 

 Whigs, were dragged into the Protective belief, because the great orator advocated 

 that doctrine ? OLD- FASHIONED REPUBLICAN. 



A LL classes have been benefited by our Protective system. Under 

 r\ it the laborer has had steadier employment and higher wages, 

 conferring larger purchasing power. Owing to this the merchant has 

 been able to sell more goods, and to realize a greater aggregate of 

 profits. Such increase of prosperity among those not engaged in 

 agriculture has enabled them to buy and consume a more copious 

 quantity of farm products, thus reducing the surplus, which, to ob 

 tain sale, must seek a foreign market, and helping to carry up the 

 price by reducing the supply. More specifically, we may answer 

 in the language of an editorial article in the Chicago Evening Jour 

 nal, July 12, as follows: 



Before a single cotton-mill existed in the United States, imported cotton 

 cloth, of an inferior quality, sold for 22 cents a yard. When a Protective duty 

 of 8 cents a yard was imposed, and cotton-mills built, the competition between 

 the English and American manufacturers soon reduced the price of cloth to 7 

 cents a yard. So, too, before delaine-mills were built, imported delaines sold at 

 50 cents a yard, and in 1856 the competition between foreign and home manu- 



