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On True Political Economy
(The Whole-Hog Book)
John Wilson Bengough
1908
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Notes and Links
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| CHAPTER XIII:
AS TO HIGH PAY FOR WORK |
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| Is it true that if goods from o'er the sea are let
in free, the high wage now paid in our land will go
down, since the goods thus brought in are made by men
who get a low wage? "Yes, of course!" cry some, and so
they vote to keep up the high wall. But, all the same,
it is not true. Nor do those who raise this cry show
real faith in it, for (in the States) they are most
fain to keep out the goods of those lands that pay the
best wage — such as John Bull's land — and
are not so much in dread of the goods of lands like
Spain or China, where the pay is so poor. |
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A low wage does not at all times mean a low cost
of the thing made; the men who work on farms in the
West are paid far more than the same class in the old
land, yet wheat from the West does not cost so much
as Mr. Bull's wheat. There is a cause for this, but
we only say here it is not to be found in the size of
the wage paid.
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wages,
new
country, |
| Once more, how comes it to pass that goods made in
a high wage land can be sent to low wage lands and sold
there at less than the home goods made by "cheap"
men? |
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| If a low wage land is to be held in fear by lands
where a high wage is paid, how comes it that in the U.
S. the slave States did not swamp the free States with
their trade? and how is it that John Bull, who pays the
best wage in the East, leads the whole trade of that
part of the world? The truth is that a high wage as a
rule means a low cost of the goods made, for it means
brains and skill in the men who do the work. The wage
paid is but a part of the cost. In the low wage hand
work is done in such crude ways that, tho' the pay be
poor, the goods in the end are by no means cheap.
Brains and skill find out new ways by which as much
work can be done in an hour as would else take a day,
and goods thus made are cheap in the end, though a high
wage be paid. |
talent,
capital |
| It must be borne in mind that brains and skill
count for much — far more than mere strength of
arm. A fool and a smart man if of the same strength may
do just the same day's work with a spade, and it would
not be wise to pay one more than the other. But in a
form of work that calls for thought and skill, as well
as strength, the smart man would do much more in the
same length of time, and if he were paid more it could
not be said the cost of the goods was more. Where men
get high pay they live well, and where they live well
they do the best work; that is the law at the base of
the whole thing. |
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| True, a Boss here and there who can force down the
wage of those who work for him in a land where pay is,
as a rule, high, will gain by such a scheme; but if it
were done by all, and the whole rate of pay were cut
down as low as it is in the Far East, it would mean
that the land as a whole would sink to the plane of the
low wage land. |
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A fall in the rate of pay all round in any land
means what? It just means that the share of the loaf
which goes to those who make it is less than it was.
Say they got one half as things were, they now get
one third though the whole size of the loaf is the
same. Where, then, does the share they
lose go? It goes in the form of more rent to those
who own the land!
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all
benefits... |
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CHAPTER XIV:
DOES A POOR LAND NEED A WALL
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| Here are two lands side by side. In one there are
mines and rich fields and streams on which boats can
run, and all that one could wish for, so that it is a
great place for trade. The other has few of these
gifts. In such a case, say some, the poor land must put
a tax on goods or the rich land at its door will kill
its trade. Now, is this the case? It is not. There is,
in fact, no land that has in its own bounds all things
to meet all the needs that may rise; or that can make
all forms of wealth at low cost. The best land on earth
is sure to be weak in some points, and there are no two
just the same. In points in which some are weak others
are strong. That is to say, each land finds that some
lines of trade will pay well; some will pay less, some
not at all. Good sense would say, give chief care to
those lines in which your work tells for most, and then
trade the goods thus made for the things you need but
could not make at such low cost. Thus, both sides to
the trade will gain, for in each case they "make the
most of their chance." Is it not mad, then, to put
clogs on trade, and so have to do at a loss what could
be got through trade at a gain? Is it not a
queer thing, too, that while men in a poor land say
they must have a tax wall to shield them since the land
is poor, men in a rich land, (one that has all the
gifts a land could ask for), call for a tax wall so
that they may work out these gifts? |
natural
resources, natural
opportunities, marginal
land, |
| The cry is a wrong and false one in both. |
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| Free trade brings gain to both rich and poor lands,
for by this means they give each to each the aid they
need, as in the case of the blind man and the lame man
who gave aid of eyes for aid of legs. Free trade will
give each land more of the things it wants than it
could get by the same toil if each did all its own
work, just as two men, one of great skill and one of
small, can, if they work at a job and each do the parts
he can do best, do more than twice as much as one of
them could do in the same time. |
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| As has been said the toil and time it takes to make
a piece of goods of any kind does not fix the real cost
of the thing. Say a man made a coat with one day's
work, and that a day's work is worth one pound. Is the
cost of the coat one pound? Ere we can say this we must
ask if this man could make coats with more skill and
speed than he could make aught else? If it should turn
out that in the time it took him to make one coat he
might have done work in some line in which he had more
skill or more chance, which would have been worth two
pounds, then we must say that the real cost of the coat
was two pounds, and he has, in fact, lost one pound for
that day. This is the law of cost, and
a tax on goods which acts as a clog on trade that must
tend to force folks to pay more than they ought for
what they want, or, which is the same thing, to give
more of their time and toil than they need for that
which they get. |
talent,
technological
progress, natural
resources, well-provisioned
ship |
| Free trade is trade of free will, and it would not
go on at all but for the fact that there is gain in it
to both sides. As 'twixt rich and poor lands, the poor
stand to gain more and not less than the rich. |
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| We hear it said by some that Free Trade would be
all right if all lands would go in for it, but for one
to take up that plan though all the rest kept up their
walls would be to court ruin. Look at this and see what
it means. It means that if we take down our wall it
will be a gain to those who send goods in, not to us
for whom they are sent in. So we take up the cry "Find
out what they want you to do — and don't do it!"
And we say, "Since such and such a land shuts our goods
out, would we not be fools to let their goods in?" |
civilization,
peace |
| These cries spring from the thought that goods sent
out are gain, goods brought in are loss — or,
what you sell is gain, what you buy is loss — the
mad idea we have just dealt with. They are no more wise
than the cry "Bite off your nose to spite your face"
would be. A tax on goods thwarts those who would buy
and hurts them more than it does those who would send
them the goods they want. And how can it be good sense
for a man to knock his own head to get even with one
who has dealt him a blow? No one but a child could
think thus; nor is it more wise for a state so to act;
and it acts just in this way when, for spite, it takes
up a plan which brings loss to its own folk. |
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| It is like this: Here, let us say, are ten men who
live on an isle, and find that it suits each one to
trade with all the rest. In this way each makes the
most of his own work. Now say that nine of the men,
through some wild freak of mind, see fit to burn up one
sixth of the things they thus get in trade. This would
be a hurt, no doubt, to the tenth man, for the loss of
wealth by each of the nine would, of course, leave them
less to trade with him. But would he not add to this
hurt if he should say, "Well, since these fools act in
this way and so do me harm, I will get back at them on
the same line; from this time I, too, will burn a sixth
of all I get in trade." |
deadweight
loss |
| A queer tale, you say. But not so wild as you may
think. To thus burn up goods is mad, true; but to lose
them in any way when you need not lose them, is just as
mad, is it not? Let us bring this tale of the ten men
on the isle to the test of facts. Here let us say, is
the U. S. The homes of that land need things of such
and such a kind, and so there is a call for that class
of goods, which are made in John Bull's land with much
skill and at low cost. By the laws of Trade at once the
goods flow to the U.S. to meet the call there, and, to
pay for them, goods which John Bull can not make so
well, flow back. It is a square deal with gain to both
sides, let us say six bags of John's goods for six bags
of Sam's. But Sam at length goes in for the High Tax
plan and puts up a toll gate at his port. He says by
means of a tax he will keep out these goods, and so
have them made in his own land. They are in due time so
made, but now those who need them, if they bring them
in from John Bull's mart, must pay the tax, which, let
us say, is the price of one bag. They get five bags
where they used to get six, and if they buy in the home
mart, they get no more than five. Is not this the same
as to get six bags and throw one in the sea? John Bull
is, no doubt, hurt by such a plan; he will not be able
to send so much goods, and so will not be able to bring
back so much in trade from Sam's land. The tax may be
put up so high that he can send no more goods of that
kind at all, but he will still get what he needs and
what he can best get from Sam's mart. We say "what he
can best get" there; by which we mean what it will pay
him to get there more than it would to make; or such
things as grain, of which he can not grow a great crop
in his own land. John, as a wise man, says, "To be
sure, this tax of Sam's hurts my trade with him, but I
still have the world at large to trade with more or
less, and I will try to make it more. But I must have
food, and if needs be, I will get it, or the main part
of it, from Sam, as of yore." |
tariffs |
| But think you he would be as wise a man to say,
"No! Sam, by means of this toll-gate, hurts my trade,
and makes his own folks throw one bag of goods out of
each six into the sea. I will meet him on his own
ground; a blow for a blow is my rule, so I, too, will
put a tax on goods and thus force my folks to throw a
sixth of what they buy into the sea!" |
waste |
| God has made all men of one blood, says the Good
Book; and no man can say "I do as I please and it is
nought to you." Yet the world is so built that, in the
end, the man who does good gains by it, and he who does
ill wounds his own soul most of all. Those who say that
our land should take up the high tax plan —
though it is a bad one — since all other lands
have it, are as wrong as if they should say, tell lies,
since men as a rule are false; use strong drink since
so many get drunk; spurn books, since the great mass of
men care not for them. |
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CHAPTER XV:
CART IN FRONT OF HORSE
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| It must be clear to all fair minds that if there is
to be a shield at all, it must be spread o'er the heads
of all the trades at which men work. It must be for the
farm, the mine and the sheep-fold, as well as for the
mill. But, as we have shown, the wit of man can form no
such shield; that is to say, can not so fix a tax on
goods as to help all and hurt none. So, what it comes
to in the long run is, that the trades that can swing
most votes get the most aid. It is a wild rush at the
trough and the strong hogs will beat the weak ones. The
plan, in truth, hurts more trades than it helps, and
must do so. Yet the old cry goes on just the same
— "We must have a high wall if we are to build up
trade!" and those who raise the cry point to the States
and say, "There you see the proof — mark what it
has done for that land! If it were not for the high
wall Sam keeps up, his land at this time would be just
a lot of farms!" |
special
interests |
| Is this true? No. Why, then, do scores of men who
seem to have good sense hold such views? They have
heard this cry so long that they have come to take it
as true, and have not sat down to get at the facts of
the case. |
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| Mills and works of all kinds grow up where there is
no wall; a high tax does not shield, but stunts and
hurts them. This is the truth, and there is proof for
it in the facts we may see round us day by day. |
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| There were in the States scores of Mills and such
Works long 'ere the high tax plan came in vogue. There
is the same law of growth in this, as in a child, from
the small to the great; first, the rude stage; while
the land is poor and new and has few in it, it will
have but the rude sort of works, such as the state of
life calls for, and the sort of earth or wood to be had
at hand will serve to set up; bricks and such rough
goods will be made. As the crowd comes in, and the
scale of life goes up, new calls will be made and met
by works of a kind more in line with the new state of
things, and in the end, with dense crowd, large towns
and great wealth we will find all lines of Works, from
the rude to the height of high art. |
the
Savannah, civilization,
community |
| All that is said to prove that it is the growth of
Mills that brings wealth to a land, and not growth of
the wealth of land that brings mills, can be brought to
prove that it is the growth of stage art that builds up
towns, and yet we know that it is the growth of a town
that brings the stage. A small place has no show at
all; as it grows in size and wealth it has first a hall
in which there are shows from time to time; then it
gets a show each week; at length it can keep up a show
each night, and a play house is built, then two of
them, then three, and so on, till, as in the case of
New York, you may count them by the score. But it would
be just as true to say that it was the growth of the
stage that made New York what it is, as to say that it
was the growth of Works (due to the high tax plan) that
made the States what they now are. It is a clear case
of cart in front of horse. |
the
Savannah, urban land
values relative to rural |
| But if it is true that Works spring up by force of
needs as they rise from time to time, and keep pace
with the growth of wealth, what is the need of a tax to
"nurse" them? If you could not get the men in a small
place to bear a tax to keep up a play house for shows
that thus the place might be "built up," how comes it
that they do not kick at the tax put on goods to "build
up" the land they live in? |
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| There is in short, but one safe thing for
those who rule the State to do, and that is to keep
their hands off trade. Just let them stand to
one side and give it free scope; each move they make to
"help" it can but do it harm, for at the most all that
law can do is to help some trades at the cost of all
the rest. There is no more need to nurse and guide
trade than to teach birds how to fly and when to go
south and when to come back. God, who has set a law in
the bird by which it acts, has not left the race of man
void of such a sense for trade as a bird has for
flight. |
command and
control |
| A free field in which a man can make the most of
his time and strength of hand or head — that is,
work in the line in which he can bring forth the most
— and then have his choice as to how and where he
will trade what he thus makes — that is the right
plan. To fence him in with tax bars, and force him to
work in lines that would not be his free choice, and
that do not pay so well, and this in the name of "aid,"
is no wise plan. True, such a plan makes more "work,"
and if it were "work" that was to be sought, all would
be well. But no sane man 'wants work, he wants the
things that are to be got by work. This point should be
borne in mind. |
free
market, free market
capitalism |
| The word "free" is the word we prize most of all
the words in our tongue. Men shout it, and sing it, and
write it in gold. Let us be free or let us die! they
cry. Free to think, free to speak, free to pray in the
way we think right, free to come, free to go. But lo!
they stop short at Free to trade. |
freedom,
liberty |
| This, they think, is not one of the rights of man.
The word so scares the mass of men these days that when
they hear it they seem like to take a fit.
Strange! |
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