Tariff Revision and Protection for American Labor

• Author: John R. Commons
• Published date: 01 September 1908
• Date: 01 September 1908
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271620803200208
• Subject Matter: Articles

TARIFF

REVISION

AND

PROTECTION

FOR

AMERICAN

LABOR

BY

JOHN

R.

COMMONS,

A.M.,

Professor

of

Political

Economy,

University

of

Wisconsin,

Madison,

Wis.

For

nearly

seventy

years

the

effective

arguments

that

have

sustained

the

protective

tariff

have

been

the

home

market

for

farmers

and

a

high

standard

of

living

for

wage

earners.

The

first

depends

on

the

second,

for

without

a

purchasing

power

of

Ameri-

can

labor

greater

than

that

of

foreign

labor

the

home

market

is

not

much

better

than

the

foreign

market.

The

standard

of

living

is

the

really

enduring

justification

of

the

protective

tariff.

The

tariff

prevents

the

competition

of

foreign

low-standard

labor

and

draws

a

charmed

circle

within

which

American

labor

may

gradually

work

out

its

own

higher

standards.

Now,

it

is

an

important

fact

that

the

principal

leaders

and

advocates

who

framed

the

pauper

labor

argument

two

or

three

generations

ago

and

who

won

its

acceptance

by

the

country,

did

not

believe

that

the

tariff

alone

would

bring

about

a

high

standard

of

living.

They

looked

upon

the

tariff

merely

as

defensive.

It

needed

to

be

supplemented

by

positive

efforts,

by

voluntary

organizations,

-by legislation,

within

this

country.

In

fact,

the

tariff

was

to

them

simply

the

means

by

which

these

domestic

efforts

could

be

guaran-

teed

a

free

field

for

successful

experiment

and

adoption.

Matthew

Carey,

from

1820

to

1840,

did

more

than

any

other

American

to

establish

the

tariff

on

a

protective

basis

in

the

interests

of

labor.

His

indefatigable

investigations

furnished

the

arguments

for

peti-

tions

which

manufacturers

sent

to

Congress;

for

reports

of

Con-

gressional

committees;

for

speeches

of

Congressmen ;

and

he,

more

than

any one

else,

changed

the

tariff

argument

from

protection

to

capital

to

protection

to

labor.

Yet

Matthew

Carey,

although

an

employer,

was

prominent

in

the

labor

agitation

of

the

’thirties

and

in

his

support

of

the

labor

organizations

of

that

period.

He

aided

and

defended

their

strikes

and

brought

down

upon

himself

the

blows

of

the

free-trade

organs,

which

rightly

identified

his

protectionism

with

his

trade-unionism.