Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1831-11-24


establishments of which have appeared
in Western Pennsylvania alone, since the
last Tariff act.
The influence of prote ction upon wool,
while il has been most beneficial upon the
farming states, has had no tendency that
we are aware Of, to injure the plantation
states. The number Of sheep in the u
nited States is computed at about twenty
millions; and their increase ut about five
millions since the act Of 828, which gave
q great impulse to the stock. The far
mers Of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Chic,
New-York and the other wool-growing
states have an interest in this national
property, taken at fifty y-five cents per lb.,
nearly equal to the capital Of the planta-
tion states in the cotton crop of this year,
reckoning it at thirty millions of dollars.
There is no doubt that, within three
years to come, the farming capital in
wool will be more valuable than the plan
tation capital in cotton. Without pro-
tecting duties American wool would be
reduced one half in quantity and in price.
The large hocks which now cover the
immense and incxhaustible pastures of
the United States, most Of them more or
less of the fine Spanish breeds, would be
again slaughtered, as has been heretofore
the case, for want of due protection, and
this great capital in fleece sacrificed to
that Of cotton with enormous loss to one
interest, and with no possible advantage
to the other For, like every thing else,
woollen goods have fallen from twenty to
twenty five per cent since the last tariff.
The immediate effect OF that act, by cal
ling large number of additional cloth
icrs into active enterprise, was to cause
a decline in prices, ruinOus to many of
those before engaged in the occupation.
Under the influence of the improvement
in the price ofwool, woollen manulactur-
ers have rallied again, but, at least as
respects them, the charge of monopoliz-
ing price is cruel mockery. The ad-
vantages of the Tariff, in its operation
upon wool, have thus far been confined
almost exclusively to the farming inter
est; the manufacturers have yet all their
way to win, and the effect Of that COM
petition, which is the result of protection,
cannot he known until it has had longer
time for operation.
The finest cotton and woollen manu-
factures are not much made in the Uni
ted States, but we may assert without
fear of contradiction, that nine tenths of
the American people, who do not affect
foreign luxuries and fashions, may be
clothed with woOllen, cotton, fur, and
le ather fabrics of their own country, bet
ter and cheaper, than either could have
been obtained abroad if the tariff had
never been enacted. ihe greatest mis-
takes prevail in this respect; it is contn-
ually said, that hats, coats, boots and 9TH
or articles Of dress, are dearer here than
elsewhere. Such is not the case with
all those who are Independent Of foreign
fashions. Those who enjoy superior
wealth and study superior elegance, arc
at liberty to crafty their caprice, at that
additional expense, which such gratifi-
cation costs in all countries--in none
more than in Great Britain, where the
opulent and noble are in the habit of pay
ing more eXtravagantly for French, Ash
attic and other luxuries than some of our
opulent citizens choose to pay, in like
manner, for luxurics imported from "a
broad.
Whilst we assert that it has been the
effect Of the protective system to ben
eft the consumersby giving them manu-
factures cheaper than they had them be-
fore, we are willing to admit that prices
have had correspondent fall in the same
articles abroad; but this fall of price a
broad has been the result of the compe
tition of American labor. II is impossi-
BILE to advert to the fact that the United
States export to foreign markets six times
the quantity of domestic manufactures
that they exported in 1920, and at pres
ent furnish incomparably the largest
share of the home demand, without per-
ceiving the tendency of such competi-
ton to reduce the price of the same arti-
Gle amongst all those nations who aim at
supplying us.
But we hold 1t to be common error
to consider the comparative cheapness OF
the foreign and domestic commodity a
test of the value Of the system. Even if
it we're true that the domestic product
were not reduced in price, and were to
be procured only at higher cost than
the foreign, still the benefit of the system
would be found in the fact that it enables
the domestic consumer to afford the high
or price for the manufacture, and there
by to furnish himself on better terms than
he could have done when obliged to de-
pend upon the foreign imported commod-
ity-that, in other words, the increase Of
price, if it has taken place, cannot be
Al. -. .o.,.n. &c Tho