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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! |
all benefits... |
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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