A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY.
At this moment, when all minds are occupied in endeavoring to
discover the most economical means of transportation; when, to put
these means into practice, we are levelling roads, improving rivers,
perfecting steamboats, establishing railroads, and attempting various
systems of traction, atmospheric, hydraulic, pneumatic, electric, &c.;
at this moment, when, I believe, every one is seeking in sincerity and
with ardor the solution of this problem--"_To bring the price of
things in their place of consumption, as near as possible to their
price in that of production_"--I would believe myself to be acting a
culpable part towards my country, towards the age in which I live, and
towards myself, if I were longer to keep secret the wonderful
discovery which I have just made.
I am well aware that the self-illusions of inventors have become
proverbial, but I have, nevertheless, the most complete certainty of
having discovered an infallible means of bringing produce from all
parts of the world into the United States, and reciprocally to
transport ours, with a very important reduction of price.
Infallible! and yet this is but a single one of the advantages of my
astonishing invention, which requires neither plans nor devices,
neither preparatory studies, nor engineers, nor machinists, nor
capital, nor stockholders, nor governmental assistance! There is no
danger of shipwrecks, of explosions, of shocks of fire, nor of
displacement of rails! It can be put into practice without preparation
almost any day we think proper!
Finally: and this will, no doubt, recommend it to the public, it will
not increase the Budget one cent; but the contrary. It will not
augment the number of office-holders, nor the exigencies of State; but
the contrary. It will put in hazard the liberty of no one; but on the
contrary, it will secure to each a greater freedom.
I have been led to this discovery, not from accident, but from
observation, and I will tell you how.
I had this question to determine:
"Why does any article made, for instance, at Montreal, bear an
increased price on its arrival at New York?"
It was immediately evident to me that this was the result of
_obstacles_ of various kinds existing between Montreal and New York.
First, there is _distance_, which cannot be overcome without trouble
and loss of time; and either we must submit to these troubles and
losses in our own person, or pay another for bearing them for us. Then
come rivers, hills, accidents, heavy and muddy roads. These are so
many _difficulties_ to be overcome; in order to do which, causeways
are constructed, bridges built, roads cut and paved, railroads
established, &c. But all this is costly, and the article transported
must bear its portion of the expense. There are robbers, too, on the
roads, sometimes, and this necessitates railway guards, a police
force, &c.
Now, among these _obstacles_, there is one which we ourselves have
lately placed, and that at no little expense, between Montreal and New
York. This consists of men planted along the frontier, armed to the
teeth, whose business it is to place _difficulties_ in the way of the
transportation of goods from one country to another. These men are
called custom-house officers, and their effect is precisely similar to
that of rutted and boggy roads. They retard and put obstacles in the
way of transportation, thus contributing to the difference which we
have remarked between the price of production and that of consumption;
to diminish which difference, as much as possible, is the problem
which we are seeking to resolve.
Here, then, we have found its solution. Let our tariff be diminished:
we will thus have constructed a Northern railway which will cost us
nothing. Nay, more, we will be saved great expenses, and will begin,
from the first day, to save capital.
Really, I cannot but ask myself, in surprise, how our brains could
have admitted so whimsical a piece of folly as to induce us to pay
many millions to destroy the _natural obstacles_ interposed between
the United States and other nations, only at the same time to pay so
many millions more in order to replace them by _artificial obstacles_,
which have exactly the same effect; so that the obstacle removed and
the obstacle created, neutralize each other, things go on as before,
and the only result of our trouble is a double expense.
An article of Canadian production is worth, at Montreal, twenty
dollars, and, from the expenses of transportation, thirty dollars at
New York. A similar article of New York manufacture costs forty
dollars. What is our course under these circumstances?
First, we impose a duty of at least ten dollars on the Canadian
article, so as to raise its price to a level with that of the New York
one--the government, withal, paying numerous officials to attend to
the levying of this duty. The article thus pays ten dollars for
transportation, and ten for the tax.
This done, we say to ourselves: Transportation between Montreal and
New York is very dear; let us spend two or three millions in railways,
and we will reduce it one-half. Evidently the result of such a course
will be to get the Canadian article at New York for thirty-five
dollars, viz.:
20 dollars--price at Montreal.
10 " duty.
5 " transportation by railway.
--
35 dollars--total, or market price at New York.
Could we not have attained the same end by lowering the tariff to five
dollars? We would then have--
20 dollars--price at Montreal.
5 " duty.
10 " transportation on the common road.
--
35 dollars--total, or market price at New York.
And this arrangement would have saved us the $2,000,000 spent upon the
railway, besides the expense saved in custom-house surveillance, which
would of course diminish in proportion as the temptation to smuggling
would become less.
But it is answered: The duty is necessary to protect New York
industry. So be it; but do not then destroy the effect of it by your
railway. For if you persist in your determination to keep the Canadian
article on a par with the New York one at forty dollars, you must
raise the duty to fifteen dollars, in order to have:--
20 dollars--price at Montreal.
15 " protective duty.
5 " transportation by railway.
--
40 dollars--total, at equalized prices.
And I now ask, of what benefit, under these circumstances, is the
railway?
Frankly, is it not humiliating to the nineteenth century, that it
should be destined to transmit to future ages the example of such
puerilities seriously and gravely practised? To be the dupe of
another, is bad enough; but to employ all the forms and ceremonies of
representation in order to cheat oneself--to doubly cheat oneself, and
that too in a mere numerical account--truly this is calculated to
lower a little the pride of this _enlightened age_.