On True Political Economy
(The Whole-Hog Book)

John Wilson Bengough

[A booklet published in 1898 by the American Free-Trade League, Boston. The original contains numerous illustrations not reproduced here / Part 1 of 4]

CHAPTER I

The Bull In A Fix

"As I sit down to write, I glance out, and in a field I see a big black Bull. He is tied to a stake and he has gone round and round till he has his nose close to the post, and there he stands and roars and paws the ground. Poor chap! He has lots of strength, but it does him no good. If he but knew it, he could, of course, turn, and go round and round and thus get the rope loose. But he has not the head for that.

"I see in this Bull and his sad fix the type of those who toil yet go in want. They, too, are in a wide field, where there is no lack of wealth, and they want all sorts of good things for which they would be glad to give their work; but they can by no means get more than will just keep them in life. They, too, paw and roar as we may say, for we hear the cry of the poor all through the land. But, like the Bull, they know not how to get free. They have not the wit to see their way out of the snarl nor will they, as a rule, give ear to those who could teach them how. Yet, till they know the truth, they can not be made free, for you can not drive men out of their fix as you can a Bull.

"The Bull in the field got tied up in this way by his own act; and so did the men of toil fix their own fate in the way we see it. They have the strength; they have the votes; they are the ones who rule in all lands we call free, so it is all their own fault. Theirs has been the lack of sense, and theirs it is to undo the evil. But this they can not do till they see just what is wrong and how it is to be made right. What they need is light. When once they see their way out we may trust them to get out."

Why do men work? That they may have the things they need, which we lump in one word and call their Wage. A fair wage is "that which the work is worth," and the one end and aim, both of those who urge Free Trade and of those who urge the High Tax plan, is the same -- that those who work may be sure of fair pay. But both plans, since they are at odds, can not serve that end. One of them must be false and wrong.

What is the truth, and is it to be found? Some say no; it is too deep and dark, and is a thing for the Schools. But that is not so; it is a thing for plain men who can think straight. How do the rules taught by Christ bear on the life of a land? We see quite well how they bear on the life of a man -- His laws are known and read of all, and it is not hard to tell a good act from a bad one when we see it in the light of Christ's law. Why, then, should it be hard to see what is good or what is bad in the acts of men as a mass? The wrongs we find in the world are the fruit of the laws which states have set up. Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong, and laws that men pass can not make right wrong nor wrong right, and it is clear that if the fruit of a law is bad that law can not be a good one, say what we will.

In this Book (though it is but a small one) we mean to trace this thing clear through from end to end. This is not done in books of the kind, as a rule. They stop short when they have shown that "Free Trade" is the best plan by which to get the fund for the strong box; or when it has been made out that to put up a wall and a High Tax on goods is the best plan to make work, and thus give men a chance to earn wealth. Let us ask two things: If Free Trade is a good thing as far as it goes (in, say, John Bull's land), why would it not be more so if it went the whole way? And if it is a good thing to put a tax on goods, why would it not be more so, if the tax were made twice as high?

You see, both sides stop short of the "whole hog," so to speak. This book is a small one, to be sure, but it is a Whole Hog book.

CHAPTER II

CLEAR THE GROUND

We note in the first place the plain fact that most lands go in for the High Tax scheme. But to say that this proves the case would be to say too much. Most of the world bows down to sticks and stones, but that does not prove their faith the true one. Is the faith in the "tax on goods" a true one? That is 'what we are to find out. Some part of' the strength of this plan is due, no doubt, to the fact that it pays well in the case of a few, and, of course, these are bound to work for it; and it gets strength, as well, from the feuds and wars that go on in the world. In view of these things, we must be on our guard and go slow and sure, step by step. It is but fair to note, too, that there is not in the world at this hour one case of a land that has true Free Trade -- that is, no tax on goods at all.

Most of those who work for their bread feel that they do not get all they ought to get; and some of them see quite well that the cause of this is the fact that there are more men than jobs, and they are fain to vote for the plan that claims it can shield them from such a state of things; such, they are told, is the aim of the "High Tax Plan." No such claim seems to be made by those who talk for Free Trade; they do not pose as the great friends of Toil. They seem to have, in truth, hard hearts, for they' talk of God's law as the real cause of Want; and on the same ground on which they fight a tax on goods they fight all laws to fix hours of work, rates of pay and so forth. The truth is these men are for Free Trade so far as that has to do with "buy and sell," but they do not seem to think the term has aught to do with the right of a man to work, or how to share up the wealth in a fair and just way when it has been made. Thus, you see, they leave out one half of the truth. It is not strange that, thus set forth, Free Trade must seem the foe of toil, and earn the ill-will of those who work. But, to be fair, we must see to it that we set forth true Free Trade side by side with the true High Tax plan; as only then can we come to a just view of the case.

The High Tax plan claims to "shield" those who work. But why, we ask, should this class need a shield? The old, the sick, the lame, and such, are the ones who need care and help, but why talk of aid for those who work, and who must, of course, be the well, the young, those with good brains or strong arms? Does this not strike you as queer, in the first place? If there is a thing that a grown man hates it is to be made a child of. If those who do the work of the world need to be "kept," as it were by whom are they to be so kept? It must be by those who do not work, that is to say, by those who live by alms or by theft, for there are but these three grades of men in all the world, those who work, those who 'beg and those who steal. Think it out, and see if you can name one more class. Is it not plain that since all must live by means of food, clothes and roofs -- that is, "wealth"-- and since all wealth on earth is the fruit of work, it must be that those who work "keep" those who do not? Let those who toil think this out, too. Adam was the first son of Toil, but there was no one to "shield" him, was there? The fact is that those who have to live by the sweat of their brows have been made game of by the use of a word which we may well call a trick term. That word is "Protect." It is a good, true word in its right place. It means to shield, to keep, to bless. We all feel that it is a right thing for a man to pro-tect his house, his dear ones, or the land he lives in. That is the true sense of the word. So some cute head hit on this term as the name of the High Tax plan. But it by no means stands for the same sort of thing in that case. In its fair and right use the word means to ward off ills, and to do this for one and all. But does the High Tax ward off ills when it keeps out goods? And does it help and bless those who want the goods when it thus keeps them out or makes them dear? And does it deal with one and all in the same way? What would we think of a man who, as the head of a home, should shield his big boy and give no care at all to his babe? Yet this is the way in which the High Tax plan works and must work, as we shall see. And if so, you will grant that to call it "Protection" is to use a trick name. Do not let a mere name fool you. See how it works; that is the real thing. Put the mere name out of mind, and go on and see what there is' in it. Two facts may be found side by side, but it may be there is no real link 'twixt them. A man gets more of a wage in the States than he could get in John Bull's land, that is one fact. Sam goes in for Pro. and John for what he calls Free Trade (but which is Free Trade with a string to it). That is fact two. Well, what then? Is it safe to nail it down at once as a truth that the High Tax is the cause of the high wage and Free Trade of the low? By no means. The high wage in the States does not prove that Sam's plan is sound any more than the great growth of trade in the old land proves that Bull's plan is the right one, for there are other facts which may have to do with it. There are, in short, such hosts of facts that bear on the weal and woe of man, that we must sift them out with care, or we are sure to go wrong. Now, first of all, we must get to know: (i) What "Protective Tariffs" are, and (2) What they do. If we start with what we know to be true, and are quite sure of and then go on step by step with due care, we may trace this thing out through all its twists and turns, and reach the real truth. That is what we now set out to do) and all we ask of him who reads is that he will not trust to our mere "say so," but bring each step we take to the test of his own good sense.

CHAPTER III

FOR ONE AND ALL

Let us, then, first take a look at the High Tax scheme as a whole, ere we take it up bit by bit. What is the idea? It is this: To put such a tax on goods that seek to come into a land, as will tend to keep them out, so that those who make goods of the same kind in said land may "have a chance." The thought is, at base, that each land by rights ought to serve all its own needs; or at least make all the things it can make, and that such things should not be brought in from strange shores, where they may be made by men who work for a less wage. Thus will both Boss and Man have a fair show, the Boss for good trade, and the Man for a good wage.

Now, is this a true and sound idea?

One test of a truth is that it fits all parts of the earth and all times. Will the plan just set forth stand this test? Is it, in short, a law of God?

If you say yes, note where this leads you. All lands should bar out the goods of all other lands if they would not go to ruin. If true for any one land, why is this not just as true for each part of that land, each town, yea, each house, till at last you come to this -- that each man should make all his own things. That, you say, is mad talk. It may be, but is it not what your "law of truth" leads to? If it is mad, the fault is with your law. It means that you dare not go where it leads; in short, it will not stand the test we spoke of. If you still hold to it, you are bound to say that you think a reign of Peace and Love, in which all men of all climes would be as friends, and' give their gifts each to each, with no walls to bar off land from land, would be a bad thing for the race -- that trade would die, and ruin sit on the wreck of the world. This is the bog you run into on that line of "truth." Well, what say you? It may be you say "No; I do not think peace and love would be bad for the world. Still, I am for the High Tax and hold it to be the true plan; but you must not go too far with it." But this will not do. The fact that you must stop at some point in go far with it." But this will not do. The fact that you must stop at some point in this way proves, as we say, that your path is a wrong one from the first. A straight line from the true can not lead to the false. Note the fix you would be in, if with the faith you hold in the High Tax, you went to preach to a tribe of wild men. You would first set forth the love of God, and how men should love and serve each other and do good, even to those who hate them; and then you would go on to say that by die laws of this same God each tribe must build walls to bar out trade on all hands. Don't you think, now, this thing of walls and bars is more like a scheme which man has got up, and has no base in any law of God? Or would you say that what is true of a man is not true of men-that in one sphere love is the true way; in the other strife is the true way?

Note once more: You hold to the High Tax plan as the true one. Yet you do not feel that you have done a wrong when you dodge such a tax on what you have in your trunk when you land from a ship. You feel that, as you bought and paid for the thing, it is your own, and you will not pay a tax on it if you can help it. Men who would not steal so much as a pin feel this way, as you know, and it proves that in their hearts they hold that such a tax is not right or just. To break laws of this kind is thought a joke, not a crime; and what are the fruits of such laws but spies, fraud, bribes and false oaths? Do the laws of God bring forth such fruits as these?

Then, mark how the High Tax idea is at odds with the good sense of man. What would you say of a man who should choose a site for a new town on the score that it was hard to get at? Yet that would be good for the town, would it not, on your plan? You do not praise Cap. Kidd with his black flag, yet if the thief on the high seas made loot of all goods that were on the way to ports where goods of the same kind could be made, would he not do the work now done by the High Tax? How comes it that you share with your Free Trade friend his joy when new roads are built, and new ways found for the growth of trade through the world? If the High Tax idea is the true one you ought to mourn. How comes it that you are as keen as he to see an air ship made that will fly like a bird? Should that come to pass what good will your walls be then to keep out trade? You will have to roof in the whole land. Your cry is "down with the cheap," and you take up the cry, "cheap goods make cheap men." That is why you say we need the wall to keep out the goods made by ill-paid toil. But why do you not act on this view, and break up each new machine that is made which saves work and so makes things cheap? And why do you not stop up gas wells that tend to drive out coal more than the tax on coal does? And why do you talk as though the great thing was to "make" goods, not to get them for use? Are you not at war with plain sense on all these points?

CHAPTER IV

TRADE KNOWS NO FLAG

Men trade as fish swim and birds fly; Trade knows nought of what we call states; it has, to do with men as men, and makes no note of flags at all. We see two Lands side by side each with its own flag and with walls to keep out cheap goods. The idea, of course, is that if these walls were not there it would be bad for both Lands; Trade in each would fall off, men would be thrown out of work, and so forth. Each needs a shield to ward off such ills from its own Trade. But at length it is thought best that they should join and have one flag. This is don by a scratch of a pen; the two Kings sign their names and one steps out. What has this pen scratch to do with Trade? Not a thing. Yet lo! the first move that is made is to pull down the walls. How comes it that a scratch of a King's pen can so change the facts on which the walls were built, if they were facts? There is no change in the Trade of the two lands, though they now have the same flag and King, and if, ere this was done each had need of a shield, they need those shields just as much now. But, of course, good sense tells them 'that the folk of any one Land ought to have Free Trade in their own lines, and since the lines now go round both the joint states they act on this idea'. And of course they find it good for all. But, if so, it would have been just as good for all when they had two flags.

Look at the U.S. All the States which make up that great Land have Free Trade each with each, as they all own the one flag, but the States as a whole keep up a high wall all round the shores. Now, is it not clear that if Free Trade is good for each State, it would be just as good for them as a whole? And can you doubt that if they broke tip and each had a flag of its own they would start at once and put up walls, just as though Trade made note of such a change? The fact is, as all must know, that Trade pays no more heed to the bounds of States than do birds as they fly or fish as they swim.

The claim would seem to be that the High Tax is the true plan for each land, but when two or more lands see fit to join in one, this does not hold -- Free Trade is then the right plan. What, then, will be the fate of this great "truth" in case the time should come, which the poet has sung, when there shall be but one great state, and all men shall join hands? This "Truth" will then make its last bow and leave the' world. A strange thing for a Truth to do! Can that be True, which, when the full reign of Peace and Love sets in, there is no need for, and no place for? Can that be a Truth of God which only works well while men are in the low plain of strife and hate and war?

All that can be said for a wall round any land can be said for a wall round any town in that land; nay, for a wall round each house, if not each man in that town. And yet, this would be just to go back to the days when men were wild. The fact seems to be that the, plan is a wrong one -- that, in short, it is not true but false.

CHAPTER V

TRADE

Once more, note that this plan is to shut out from our shores all those lines of goods that might be made at home, and let in only those that could not be made by our own folk. Please mark the word "goods." This is the word we all use for the things that we thus strive to keep out -- not ills, or wrongs, but "goods." It is well to make note of this, for men speak of trade in the terms they use for war and storm and such dread things. We are told that 'if we do not shield our land by a wall, goods will "swamp" us or "flood" us; that we must "fight" for our own trade, and not stand still while our "foes" dump' cheap goods on our shores and thus ruin us, and so forth.

Now, what is Trade? It is not like hail, flood and storm; it is a law of man's life as much as his breath, it is the free act of man; the act that marks him off from the brutes. There can be no such thing as trade if there be not men who want to and who try to trade.

Men o'er the sea seek to trade with us, that is, to give their goods for ours. How do you look at this as a High Tax man? You say they seek to take the bread out of our mouths. Is that so?' Let us look at it a bit. You can lead a horse to a trough, but can you make him drink? And if he won't drink do you need to put a bag on his mouth? These men may wish to send in goods, but if no one cares to buy them, do you need a high wall to keep them out? But there are those in our own land who do want to buy those goods. These are the folks the High Tax hits; these are our "foes" in the case! When we are at war our foe tries the first thing to close our ports. Why? So that we can not get the goods in that we want. He thus deals a blow to our land and he aims it, you see, not at those who send the goods, but at us, who want to buy them. His hope is to starve us out. This is the act of a foe, and just what we might look for, but what say you to the same act on the part of a friend? Yet this is what the High Tax plan comes to, and it seeks this end by a tax on the goods we want, to make them so dear that they will not be brought in. Of course, this harms those who would send the goods, as it hurts their trade, but its chief hurt comes to those who want the goods and can not now get them, but must buy at home and pay far more for, it may be, worse goods. Is this not a queer thing, that we seek to do to our own land in times of peace what our foes seek to do to us in times of war? And please bear in mind that the goods thus sent to our shore are not goods sent in on sale or chance of sale. No. All that are sent in have been bought ere they are sent -- bought by those in our own land who want them. And thus it comes to pass that the men who vote and shout for the High Tax plan one and all go in for Free Trade when they want to buy goods, and will do their best to dodge the High Tax though they help to put it on.

Why does the man who keeps a shop send for goods to the man who makes them o'er the sea? He does not want all those things for his own use. No. There are calls for them from those who live in the place where he has his shop. Why these calls? To meet wants that come up day by day and hour by hour, and which each sane man seeks to meet with the least cost. No man will give five bob for a hat if he can get as good a, hat for half that price, which is the same thing as to say no man will give two days' work to gain what he could get for one day's work. He acts in this way by a law which lies at the root of his soul; and by a law just as deep he seeks to trade. As blood flows through the veins of a man, so trade flows through the veins of a state or a town. It is trade that makes men what they are, and what they have grown to be since the days when they dwelt in trees and in caves, and each man sought to meet all his own wants by his own act and skill. In our day, when each man makes but one form of wealth, or some part of that one form, and trades what he makes for all forms of wealth he needs (that is, gets his wage in cash and buys what he wants), he can live what we call a full life, and trade is the blood of that life. So it is plain that just in so far as you thwart trade, or by any means tend to block it, you by that much drive the race back to the old low plane from which it came up. Trade is the life of the race and the lamp which sheds the light of help and peace through all the world. We can not have too much of it, nor can it be too free. If God did not mean trade to be free as air He would have so made the world that each tribe -- or each man -- would live in a lone way and deal with no one, but we all know the world is not built on that plan. The whole trend of things is to bring in the day when each shall be for all and none for self. In the face of this well known fact what can we say for such a plan as this of a High Tax on goods? Take this case: Here is a man who sees fit to trade a horse he does not want for two cows he does want. Now, what sense would there be in a law that would say to this man, No, you shall not make such a trade, it is best that you raise your own cows, and let your friend breed a horse of his own. Yet that is just what the law does say to a man if the cows are not on his side of the line that parts his land from the other!

Just as a man's lungs and heart work while he walks or while he sleeps, and with no thought or care on his part, so is it with trade, which is the breath and blood of the whole race of man. He would be a fool who would twist a rope round his neck to help his lungs, or a band round his arm to help the flow of his blood, or cram things down his throat which he did not need to "'build up his health." But would he not be as wise as the man who thinks to help any land by ropes and bands of tax tied round Trade, or who seeks by force to make Trade go in lines it would not else choose to go in?

CHAPTER VI

HOW THINGS COME

"Ah, Dame Jones, where did you get this tea; it is "very good!"

"I made it."

"Yes, I know; it came from your tea-pot. But I mean where did you buy it?"

"I tell you I made it -- in China."

And she was quite right, though she had not been in the Far East. It was this way. Dame Jones sat down and made some pairs of socks (though with the aid of the man who bred and fed the sheep, the man who took the wool to the mill, the man who made it into yarn, the man who put it on the cars, the men who ran the train, the man who with his team took it to the store; and so on till it was in the shop where Dame Jones bought it). She sat down to knit, and from the yarn she made some pairs of socks. That fact is what made the tea grow in China, for if Dame Jones and more of her kind did not want tea none would be grown. So she was right to say she "made" the tea.

But she did not make it more than each of the men I have set down, for she would not have got the wool to make the socks but for their part in the work. They, as much as Dame Jones, you see, produced the socks; and as to the tea, it was not brought forth by the man who grew it in the East. He was but one of a long line, for what good is tea in a field to Dame Jones? It is only in the first stage. It has to go through a lot more hands; for we must count the work of those who pick it, clean it, pack it, ship it, sell it, store it, team it to the shop, and hand it out to the good Dame. That is quite a crowd of folk on land and sea; and each of them has a part in it; nor must we leave out those who in any way serve these while they do the work, shave them, mend their clothes, preach to, or teach them, and so forth. In short, all who do work of head or hand that is of use to the world are producer and that takes in all but those who beg and those who live by theft or fraud. To produce is to bring forth and to bring to. Please make a note of this, for those who keep shops, buy and sell in the marts, and serve in all such ways, are not as a rule thought of when we speak of "work men." The term labor is thought to mean only rough forms of toil. When you find the word toil or work in this book, bear in mind that it means all forms of work that are of any use in any way.

CHAPTER VII

THE TAX TO RAISE FUNDS

A tax may be put on goods so as to get funds to pay the cost of the State; or it may be put on so as to keep goods out, and thus to "help trade." The Tax may thus be low or high. The State must, of course, have funds to live on. But this does not mean that it must put a tax on goods. This is not the only plan to be found, nor is it the best.

A tax on goods is, and must be, what we may call a "twist" tax -- one that is not paid straight, so that the man can see it when he pays it; it is and must be hid in the price of the goods he buys. A tax on a house is straight; that on a hat is not. And in no case can a twist tax be made to work out in a fair, just way. It is one of the worst plans that could be thought of.

In the first place see the great cost of it. You must have guards to watch the shore and a whole army of chiefs and clerks to keep track of goods that come in, so that when all is done it may cost one-half the tax to get the other half.

In the next place it is a mean plan, for the men in charge must search each box and trunk and act the spy all the while. And then, as no man thinks it wrong to dodge the tax on what he has paid for, it leads to tricks, and false oaths, frauds and bribes. All that the plan costs goes to swell the price of the goods brought in, and the man who at last buys them pays the whole shot, though he does not know just how much it is. This plan bears with more weight on the poor man than on the rich, which is the worst of it, for, to get funds by this means the State has to tax these things that are in most use, such as tea -- so much on the pound, and, as a poor man drinks as much tea as a rich one, he has to pay out of his small wage as much as the rich man out of his great wealth. This is by no means fair, but we need not think it strange when we know that our laws are made for the most part by and for the rich. The scheme is a shrewd one, no doubt of that. If, when a man went to the shop to buy tea, and paid the true price of it, he was then made to plank down the tax as well there would soon be a nice row. He would want to know why the tax was so high and where all the cash went. But, as it is, he does not see the tax. This is the plan by which, as the wag said, though you can pluck the geese you raise the least squawk.

This style of tax helps the rich in this way, too -- it makes it so in Some lines of trade, that none but those who have large funds can start at all. Take the tax on cigars. A good hand at the trade could set up in a shop of his own at the cost of but a small sum, if it were not that the law stands in his way and so ties him up with red tape that he can not move.

It is a strange fact that the big men who bring in goods in a large way and pay the tax on them do not kick at the tax, nor want it off. You do not hear them cry nor squeal. Why? Well, you see, they add the tax to the price, so they get back what they have paid; but more than this, they get a gain on the tax as well as on the cost of the goods. The shop man to whom they sell does the same, and you, who use the goods, pay the whole charge.

As a plan to get the fund to run the State that of a tax on goods will not do. See at the foot of this page what is said by men who are by no means for Free Trade.

"Tariffs for revenue should have no existence." -- H. C. Carey, Past, Present and Future, p.472. "Taxes for the sake of revenue should be imposed directly, because such is the only mode in which the contribution of each individual can be adjusted in proportion to his means." -- Prof.. E. P. Smith, "Political Economy," pp. 265-8. "Duties for revenue … are highly unjust. They inflict all the hardships of indirect and unequal taxation without even the purpose of benefiting the consumer." -- Prof R. E. Thompson, "Political Economy, p. 232.

PART 2