Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

upon imports. But why have our tariff laws been so framed as to prejudice and destroy one great interest while fostering others? Why have our people looked on with indifference? Why have our law-makers been inert, while our ships have been disappearing from the ocean? The answer must be found in the lack of broad and comprehensive statesmanship in Congress and in the Executive branches of the Government. There are, I am happy to say, indications that the public mind is being awakened to the importance of having something done for the restoration of American shipping. Over-production in manufactures for the home demand, the want of foreign markets for the surplus, are awakening public attention in this direction. The party of the future will be that party which, comprehending the interests of the whole country, fosters all alike, or relieves the people altogether from the burdens which a partial policy now imposes. If protection is to be the continued policy of the Government, ship-building should be encouraged, and maritime interests protected, as well as manufactures. If restrictions are to be removed, and taxation for revenue only is to be the policy, the shipping interest, largely relieved from the burdens now imposed upon it, with fair compensation to steam-ships for carrying the mails, will take care of itself. It will be a proud day for the United States when American ships share with those of other nations in the business of the seas, and the American flag is seen again in ports from which it has been long banished. On one point there should be accord between men of all parties: if by reason of the tariff or any other cause we cannot profitably build ships, we should not be prohibited from buying and putting them under our own flag. It is urged, I know, that the building of ships could not be a profitable industry in the United States, even if the duty on all articles which are used in their construction and outfit were taken off, by reason of the cheaper labor on the other side of the Atlantic. If this were a fact, which I do not believe, what justification can there be for keeping on the statute book the law that prohibits citizens of the United States from buying foreign built

ships and putting them under our own flag? If we cannot build ships, why should our citizens be prohibited from purchasing them? In no country in the world except this great, free country of ours, does such a barbarous prohibition exist. If we need ships and cannot build them, why should the right to buy be denied?

The following sentences are selected from some rather extended remarks, which I made in my report as Secretary of the Treasury to Congress, in 1866, upon the subject of American shipping :

"No single interest in the United States, although it may be fostered by legislation, can long prosper at the expense of other great interests, nor can any important interest be crushed by unwise or unequal laws without other interests being thereby prejudiced. The people of the United States are naturally a commercial and maritime people, fond of adventure, bold, enterprising and persistent. Now the disagreeable fact must be admitted that, with unequal facilities for obtaining the materials, and with acknowledged skill in ship-building, with thousands of miles of sea-coast, indented with the finest harbor in the world, with surplus products that require a large and increased tonnage, we can neither profitably build ships, nor successfully compete with English ships in the transportation of our own productions. It is a well established general fact that the people who build ships navigate them, and that a nation which ceases to build ships, ceases of consequence to be a commercial and maritime nation. Unless, therefore, the cause which prevents the building of ships in the United States, shall cease, the foreign carrying trade even of our own productions, must be yielded to other nations. To this humiliation and loss, the people of the United States ought not to be subjected. If other branches of industry are to prosper if agriculture is to be profitable, and manufactures are to be extended; the commerce of the country must be restored, sustained, and increased. The United States will not be a first class power among the nations, nor will her other industrial interests continue long to

:

prosper as they ought, if our commerce is permitted to languish.'

The causes of the decline of ship-building referred to in these extracts were, higher prices of labor and materials in the United States than in Europe, and the Tariff. One of these causes has been much modified. Skilled labor has become abundant in the United States within the last twenty years, and greater progress has been made in labor-saving machinery on this side, than on the other side of the Atlantic. If all the materials which are needed in the construction of ships were relieved from import duties, the other cause of the decline of shipping would be also modified; but so much ground has been lost by delay, and so strong has become the European monopoly of the ocean traffic, that something more is required to build up ship-building in the United States.

Not only should ship-building materials be admitted free of duty, but United States Steamship Companies should be liberally paid for the transportation of the mails. We should, in this respect, do what other nations have done to build up and sustain their maritime interests;-but we must not stop here. All efforts to induce investments of capital in ships will be unavailing unless foreign markets are secured for what we have to sell. Trade is essentially barter, and there can be no barter as long as trade is fettered with unequal duties on articles to be exchanged.

This leads me naturally to say something upon a subject which ever since the formation of the Government has been fruitful of discussion-the tariff. That in the infancy of our manufactures, protective laws were needed, and that the country has been in times past, greatly benefited by these laws, is admitted by the advocates of tariff reform, if not by free traders. Without Government protection against the competition of British manufacturers, capitalists in the United States would not have engaged in manufacturing. Great Britain, early in the present century, became the work-shop of the nations. From 1831 to 1870, she controlled the manufacturing of the world. She had more capital than any other nation, and

her people were more skilful in the use of machinery than the people of the Continent. She had also, what they had not, an unlimited supply of coalthe great factor in manufacturing, and if not the inventor of the steam-engine, she was the first to utilize it. She was also the leading maritime power of the world, and consequently possessed the facilities for sending her goods to all ports that were open to her ships. To make the most of these advantages, she adopted the principle of free trade. By it the raw materials which she needed were admitted free from taxation and paid for in productions of her mills. By this means she had obtained a manufacturing ascendancy too formidable to be competed with by capitalists of the United States, without government aid. It was to free the United States from dependency upon Great Britain, for the goods which were needed, and of which they might be deprived in case of war between the two nations, that our protective laws were mainly advocated. These laws were for many years simply revenue laws with incidental protection. They were afterward so changed that protection became the object and revenue the incident.

"I

"I am in favor of a judicious tariff," said John Quincy Adams, in a conversation with Henry Clay and others. am in favor of a judicious tariff." "And I," said Mr. Clay, "am in favor of a tariff, judicious or not." Congress has of late years been altogether with Mr. Clay, and adhered to protection until it has become burdensome upon the people-depriving producers to a considerable extent of the benefits of foreign markets for our surplus of agricultural productions, for which at remunerative prices there is insufficient demand, and what is worse than all, our protective tariff has created a demand for laborers, which has brought over immense numbers of foreigners for whom already there is insufficient employment, and who are consequently restive, and may become dangerous.

Conceding that protective tariffs were needed to induce investments in home manufactures, and to sustain them when they were too feeble to compete unaided with Great Britain, it is clear to my

mind that our tariff laws should have a thorough revision, for the purpose of accommodating them to the changed condition of the industrial interests of the country. Protection was originally and properly advocated on the ground that without it manufacturing could make no headway against the crushing power of British capital, and on this ground only. Thirty years ago, few if any of the advocates of protection were bold enough to advocate it as a permanent policy. It was to be temporary-not perpetual. When the expenses of the civil war began to require immense revenues, the tariff was largely increased, and a patriotic people submitted to the additional burden thus laid upon them, because they had resolved that the Government should be sustained. Not only was the tariff increased, but an excise system was adopted under which almost everything that could be reached by the tax collectors was heavily taxed. Nothing more was heard about protection. Revenue was what was needed and taxation was chiefly submitted to, not only for revenue, but to give credit to the immense loans that the Government was obliged to resort to, and it so happened that these taxes, heavy as they were, and indiscriminately as they were levied, neither diminished production nor checked importation. On the contrary, both were increased. So great were the necessities of the Government in the prosecution of the war, that exist ing cotton, woollen, and iron mills were worked to their full capacity, and new ones were created, while at the same time foreign importations were greatly stimulated. To pay for needful supplies, immense sums of money were required, and this requirement was met by the issue of Government notes, so that in a great and destructive war-the greatest and most destructive that has ever been carried on-the loyal States seemed to be highly prosperous, and the burden of taxation was not felt.

When the war ended the paper circulation of the country (money as it is improperly called) instead of being reduced as it should have been, was increased, and artificial prosperity continued until the crisis of 1873, put a temporary end to it. The terrible de

pression which followed this crisis was, however, of short continuance. The spirit of the people was too elastic and buoyant and energetic to be long depressed. Millions of debts were wiped out by the Bankrupt Act. The Government notes were not called in. Bank notes practically irredeemable, were abundant, for both of which employment must be found, and this employment was found in the construction of railroads, many of which were built not for business which required them, but for the business they were expected to create. So capital went into railroads in amounts that would have been ruinous, had not short crops in Europe, and abundant crops in the United States, greatly increased railroad traffic and created balances in our favor which were settled by importations of gold.

All this is now being changed. Manufacturing of all kinds has been overdone. Mills have been built where they can never be profitable, no matter what governmental protection may be given to them. Our agricultural productions are declining in value. The tariff is gradually shutting up foreign markets against our manufactured goods, and favorable crops in Europe are diminishing the demand for our bread-stuffs. Foreign nations, upon whose productions heavy duties are imposed, buy of us only what they greatly need, and cannot dispense with the use of, and these articles are chiefly limited to cotton, wheat, corn, tobacco, petroleum, beef and pork, and our markets for some of these articles are in danger. India is becoming a formidable competitor in the great wheat market of Great Britain, and petroleum from Russia is competing with the petroleum from the United States, in the markets of which, on this article, we have had for years the control.

To remedy the evils which are now to be faced, wise counsels are needed in Congress. The attention of our lawmakers must be diverted from the making of Presidents and the distribution of patronage, to the economic questions upon the proper solution of which the permanent well-being of the people must depend. The most important of these questions are those which arise from the

decay of our shipping, and the want of foreign markets for our surplus productions. These, in fact, are the only really vital questions, except the currency question, before the country, and they ought to receive the most careful consideration of Congress; and if party politics could be subordinated to them, there would I think be but little doubt in regard to the conclusions which would be reached.

What is now needed in the United States, and needed more than anything else to promote general prosperity, is such a modification of our tariff as will facilitate exchanges with other countries. The protective policy must be abandoned. A revenue tariff we must have. Absolute free trade will be among the things hoped for, but not to be gained until the people are prepared to support the Government by excise duties or by direct taxation. The Government is mainly to be supported as it was before the late civil war by a tax upon imports which, although the most insidious, and in some respects the most unequal of all taxes, is, as it has always been, the most popular, by reason of its being felt only indirectly by consumers. Against such duties, there never will be serious complaint, and when judiciously imposed, separated as the United States are from European nations by the broad Atlantic, (neither Canada nor Mexico, nor the South American States can be formidable competitors,) they will afford all the protection that our manufacturers can fairly claim. In asking more than this, they are asking that the whole people shall continue to be taxed for the benefit of a few.

Much the larger part of the revenue required for the support of the Government and the payment of the national debt, must be derived from duties upon imports, and it will, therefore, be impossible so to reduce them that they will not be protective. A tariff for revenue which must necessarily be to some extent protective, is what is now required to increase and enlarge the foreign markets for our various manufactured goods, and our agricultural productions. Without these markets, our great industrial interests can never be permanently prosperous. Time will be

required to overcome what has already been lost, but it will be recovered, and more than recovered, if wisdom prevails in our national councils. That a country with sixty millions of people rapidly increasing in population, washed by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with thousands of miles indented with the finest of harbors;-with unequalled facilities for ship-building;-with a soil better fitted to produce cotton, tobacco, maize, cattle and hogs, than is possessed by any other country,-and with equal capabilities for the production of wheat ;-that such a country should be without ships to transport its surplus to foreign ports, is an anomaly in the history of nations;that in such a country, with manufactures of all descriptions well-established and skilfully managed, with plenty of capital and cheap money, manufacturers who have become enriched by our protective tariffs should claim more protection than a tariff for revenue will afford, is unreasonable and unjust.

The tariff ought to be carefully considered not only with regard to its burdens upon consumers but in its bearing upon commerce and navigation. The leading nations of the world have been commercial, and ship building and ship owning nations. Such were they in mediæval ages, and such they will always be. It was by such nations that trade was extended and civilization was carried into countries that had been degraded by their isolation. By such nations, in search of markets for their productions, the American Continent was discovered, and all other great land discoveries made. What has made Great Britain the nation she is the nation upon whose domain the sun never sets? Not her manufactories alone-extensive, varied, and profitable as they have been-but her manufactures, her commerce, and her shipping combined. Why have her merchants been able to take raw materials from all other nations in exchange for their manufactured goods? Is it not because she has exempted those raw materials from import duties? Why is her flag seen upon every sea? By what means has her supremacy as a commercial and maritime power been secured and maintained? Is it not mainly because her statesmen have understood the simple

fact that trade is barter, and have freed it from all restrictions.

In all natural advantages, the United States are greatly superior to Great Britain. While, including her colonies, her domain is more extensive, the territory over which she has absolute control is insignificant in comparison, and so doubtful is her hold upon her colonial possessions, that some of her wisest statesmen have thought that she would be stronger without them. In what respect is she superior to the United States? Not certainly in productions of prime necessity, not in cotton or wool, not in cattle, or swine, or grain of all kinds, not even in what may be called luxuries, such as fruits of all descriptions-not in precious metals, or even in iron or lead or copper, which are more valuable than the precious metals; nor in the inventive power and manufacturing skill of her people. In everything necessary for national growth, everything needful for the comfort and happiness of the people, the United States are vastly superior to Great Britain. In two things only are they inferior: in commerce, by which is meant free exchange of natural and artificial productions, and in shipping, without which in combination, they cannot take precedence of Great Britain, and become what they ought to be, and what, with wise legislation, they would soon become, the leading nation of the world, to which all other nations would be tributary.

Without freer exchanges and a revival of their shipping interests, the United States, no matter how rich and populous they may become, will never be a great nation in all that is needful for national greatness. No nation can be truly great that depends upon other nations for the means of transporting its productions to foreign markets, or lessens the demand for them by restrictions upon trade. A half century ago the United States were almost supreme upon the ocean. Now they have no rank as a maritime power. I am proud of my country, but I cannot help being humiliated by the consideration that our merchants must establish credits in London, in order to pay for their purchases abroad; and that our Government is compelled to maintain an agency in that city, for the pay

ment of its representatives in foreign lands, and the expenses of its ships of war in foreign ports.

There is in these times much discussion in regard to landed property, and it is claimed by even fair minded and intelligent men that land is the gift of God, to which none should have the right of exclusive ownership; that the manner in which it is held in all civilized countries is a wrong to the public, and the main cause of the poverty which is so generally prevalent.

That in some countries land is held in too large quantities by a comparatively few people, whose ownership is perpetuated by legislative or sovereign power, is undoubtedly true. In such countries there is little trade in land, and the ownership of a home, no matter how humble, is beyond the reach of the great mass of the people. The effect of this has been the creation of landed aristocracies, to the power of which labor has been subjected. Nothing of this kind exists in the United States. Here not only is there free trade in land, but the Government has been for years, by homestead laws and low prices at which its immense territories of fertile lands have been subject to entry, holding out the strongest possible inducements to industrious people to secure for themselves homes. Strangely enough, however, some of the most earnest opponents of the exclusive ownership of land are in the United States. In their opinion, as land was not created by man, no man should be the absolute owner of any portion of it; -that it should be held by the state for the benefit of all. To correct the wrong which land ownership is inflicting upon the public, these advocates of equal rights contend that land should be so taxed that the owner would be willing to surrender his right to it.

Land, it is true, is the gift of God, but it is by man's labor that it has been made valuable. It is admitted by the Land Reformer, that the improvements being of man's creation should not be taxed, but it is the improvements that have given value to the land, and it would be practically impossible to tax the latter without taxing the former. Most of the land in the United States,

« AnkstesnisTęsti »