OCR Text |
Show MCTS ABOUT FREE TRADE. Free traders who arc continually and vociferously crying out against tariff taxation appear never to have taken into consideration the very obvious and Incontrovertible fact that there is a greater volume of absolutely untaxed tiade in this country than Is enjoyed by tho people of any other nation on the globe. Great 111 itlan, which Is held up as a shining example of a successful trade country, Is after all only nominally a free trader. It Is true that nelthci its domestic nor foielgn tialllc Is subjected to a tariff tax; but, on the other hand, they are burdened with vailous small Imposts which arc necessary to produce levenuc sufficient for the support and maintenance of the government. An estimate of the domestic commerce com-merce of the United States during 11)02 has been made by the bureau of statistics of the treasury department, and tlie total is placed at 20,000,000,-000. 20,000,000,-000. Objection has been made to this estimate on the ground that it is merely a "guess," and a guess it certainly cer-tainly Is, as are practically all estimates es-timates of a similar character which arc not based upon actual and complete com-plete returns. Nevertheless it can be accepted as appioxlmately, if not absolutely, ab-solutely, accuiatc. Compared with this vast total of trade upon which thcic Is imposed no duty of any kind our foielgn commerce com-merce sinks to almost Insignificant proportions. Hut in our foielgn trade, for some season, the people generally display a deep and continuing Intel-est, Intel-est, so it is peitincnt to learn what proportion of that tiade is subject to tariff duties. Dining the six months beginning July 31, 1U02, and ending January .11, 100.1, merchandise to the value of 50S,078,GS7 was imported. Of this total goods to the value of $240,347,772 paid no duty at all, so that the imports actually taxed under the tariff law had an aggregate value of $357,731,916. These figures piove the fallacy of a very .prevalent popular belief that all merchandise imported into this country pajs tribute in the way of duties to the system of protection, when, as has just been shown, only a little more than one-half Is taxed. Small indeed Is the figure cut by the sum collected by the national customs officers when placed beside the $10,000,-000,000 $10,000,-000,000 which was approximately the volume of our Internal trade during the half jear coveied. Small as it Is, however, it Issullicient to achieve the beneficent end for which tariff duties are levied, that of protecting the American producer and American labor from competition with the cheap products of poorly paid foreign labor. Remove this protection pro-tection and the Inevitable result must be to Hood the American market with cheap foreign goods which, because of the smaller cost of the labor that produced pro-duced them, will drive out those of domestic manufacture. |