The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-13 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN FREE TRADE TARIFFS.

It is now near some fifteen months ago that Mr. Web-
ster, the distinguished American lawyer and senator,
delivered a memorable speech at Faneuil-hall, in Phila-
delphia, in defence of native industry. He clearly showed
that the infant manufactures of the United States would
be strangled by competition with the matured establish-
ments of Great Britain. He showed that the policy of
protection had been sanctioned by the patriotism of
Washington, the sagacity of Jefferson, and the cairn sense
of Madison. He told the small tradesmen of Boston
that their labours would be superseded by the influx of
foreign produce, and that all those occupations in which
men with moderate means were masters, would be
swamped by the monied leviathans, and that, when too
late, they would behold masses of labour ground between
masses of capital. His warning voice was disregarded.
The Legislature of America, bitten by the free-trade
mania, determined to open their ports to British manu-
factures, in gratitude to Sir Robert Peel, who had opened
our ports to the agricultural produce of America, and the
beginning of the end is now being shadowed forth in the
distance, and not indistinctly. The New York corres-
pondent of the Times, who writes under the signature of
" A Genevese Traveller," in his communication of the
15th September, gives a most gloomy account of the state
of trade in the United States. He is fully competent to
form an accurate judgment on the subject ; he has re-
sided many years in the country, and has a very re-
sponsible duty to perform. Let our readers, then, ponder
over the following sentences, which we extract from this
letter :

" Everything in relation to business is in a state of un-
certainty; all present importations are made on a falling
market, while the season for commercial operations is ra-
pidly gliding away. Among the importers of dry goods,
the month of September is presumed to decide, in some
measure, the character of the season for business. It is
in this month that our jobbers generally make their largest
purchases. This is a class of dealers between the importer
and the country merchant. If any opinion is to be formed
of the business of the season, by the purchases they have
made, that opinion will be unfavourable. Their purchases
have been cautious and limited, principally at auction.
The auction sales of domestic manufactures, when com-
pared with foreign fabrics, have been large. Under the
influence of the new tariff, the manufacturers, in most
cases, appear to be panic-stricken, and are emptying their
warehouses, and sending the contents to public auction.
In most cases, sales are effected at a very great loss, com-
pared to the selling prices previous to the passage of the
new tariff. Whether, by reducing the price of the raw
material, and the wages of the labourer, &c., they can
obtain enough by these auction sales to replace their old
stock, is the great question. If they can, they will be sa-
tisfied to run their manufactories for a year or two, with-
out the expectation or hope of obtaining one cent. of pro-
fit, but jn the full belief Mat the next Congress will re-
peal Me present tariff law."
The italics are our own. But what does the whole ex-
tract denote but a downward career in prosperity ? Ame-
rican labour is about to be crushed under the giant wheels
of British machinery. Native industry is to be victimised
by Kee Trade, by a fearful competition ; and how are the
capitalists to stand their ground ? By reducing the wages
of their labourers. A notable scheme surely to give hap-
piness to a majority of the people. The bucks and swells
of New York are to be indulged in cheap foreign clothing,
just as Sir Robert Peel proposed that the idle rich among
ourselves should be enabled to buy cheap carriages from
Belgium. But what is the ultimate hope of the American
producers ? Why, that Congress should retrace its steps
and revive Protectionist principles, which is the very
policy of our own Conservatives in reference to domestic
agriculture. Thus on both sides of the Atlantic there
appear to have been settlements which settle nothing—a
pretty strong evidence that the world is not growing older
in wisdom.—Newcastle Journal.