VALUE OF A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 313 



goods cheaper than they are made abroad, ask him then, 

 why he does not sell them at a price at which they can be 

 shipped to South America, India or China, to compete with 

 those same foreign goods sent to those markets from Eng- 

 land, Germany and France? Why must our exports be 

 mainly agricultural, if our manufacturers can afford goods 

 cheaper than the foreigner? In addition to the 216,000,- 

 000 of dollars duties collected on foreign imports, there are 

 155,000,000 of internal revenue taxes collected, of which 

 whiskey and tobacco, the products of agriculture, pay a 

 large part. Of course these are luxuries, and we are not 

 obliged to use them, but it makes in all a total burden of 

 366,000,000 dollars to fall upon somebody, and it cannot 

 be a good thing. The principle is wrong to gather up this 

 vast sum, to distribute it again, who knows where? It may 

 be said that, if these 350 to 400,000,000 dollars a year 

 (the latter is Mr. Folger's estimate for the current year) 

 are gathered in taxes, the amount is all spent at home, and 

 that the country is not the poorer for it. 



Suppose this is admitted, does it not make considerable 

 odds to whom the money goes, for it does not get back to 

 those who contribute it? It goes from your pockets, first, 

 to a standing army of tax gatherers, and what is left, to 

 those whose coffers are already full. Do you know a farmer 

 who has become a millionaire by farming? You may count 

 them by dozens among those whose occupations and business 

 are protected, but not among the farmers ! The president 

 of the Singer Sewing Machine Company lately died, leaving 

 a dozen or more millions of dollars made from a business 

 eminently protected, and from machines mainly distributed 

 and sold among the working-people of this country. 

 From the increased cost by duties on steel, and other causes 

 involved in protection, these machines are too dear for prof- 

 itable export; but how is this met? These capitalists build 

 an immense factory in Glasgow, where, untrammelled by 

 tariff, and by using foreign labor, they can supply machines 

 to foreign work-people at one-half or two-thirds of the cost 

 of the protected machines which you have to buy. But for 

 the duty, you could import a Singer, or other sewing machine, 

 at two-thirds of the price exacted from you here, or less. 



