The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1831-1858, 1831-11-23

belief entertained. that il our own market be pro-
teefed against the formidable and incessant endeav
ors oil the British manufacturers control il. the
price ofron will before long, decline to from fifty
sixty dollars per ton. Such is the irefutable proof
OF all recent experience. Cut nails, which in
1916 sold for twelve cents per ID. sold for |
less than half that sum, under the permanent Sc
curity OF five cents per h., which has given our
manufacturers their own market "The United |
States, (says Hamton's report before mentonedl |
already in great measure supply themselves with |
nails. About one million eight hundred thousand |
pounds Of nails and spikes were imported into the |
United States, in the course of the year ending the
4th of September, 1870. A duty of two cents per |
Id. would, il is presunable, speedily put an end to
considerable importation. And it is in every
| view proper that an end should be put to it."
Bar Iron which sold at Pittshurg in 1929 a,
| Sl22, sells there now at Ss5. Castings which
were SOS are now $50 per ton. Such are the
practical results, proving the operation of the
tariffs on the market for iron. The duty, by the
| law of 1916, was inadequate to cause nothing
but ruin to those concerned and enhancement of
| price to the consumer. The act of 1918 was some
amelioration; the acts Of 1924 and 1928, which in
| creased the duty, decreased the price. Hammer
ed bar iron under duty Of twenty two dollars and
forty cents a ton is at Il lower price than when
under duty of nine dollars ton, and improved
in quality from five to ten per cent. by the greater
care and skill which more extensive investment
has naturally created under more certain protec~
destroy the American manufacture of iron, and
possess themselves Of market, have OCCASION
cd extensive bankruptcies amongst them in Eng
land, and reduced the price OF iron considerably
below tho cost Of manufacture; insomuch that
- convention Of iron manufacturers, recently held
there, resolved to reduce the quantity made tweH
ty per cent. throughout the United kugdoms.-
With the control OF our market they would niallf-
bly, regulate both the price and the quantity of the
iron in this country-thirty-one establishne nts OF
xrhi have in vi ia
alone, since the last Tariff act.
The influence of prote ction upon wool, while it
has been most beneficial upon the farming States,
has had no tendency that We aware of, to in
jure the plantation States. The number of sheep
IN the United States is computed at about twenty
millions and their increase at about five millions
since the act Of 1898, which gave great impulse
to the stock The farmers of Virginia, Pennsylva-
MIA Ohio New York, and the other wool growing
States have interest in this national property,
taken at ffty-ve cents per h.. nearly equal to the
capital of the plantation States in the colt crop
of this year. reckoning it at thirty millions of dol
lars. There is no doubt that, within three years
to come, the farming capital in wool will be more
valuable than the plantation capital in cotton
| Without protecting duties American wool would
be reduced one half in quantity and in price. The
large hocks which now cover the immense and
inexhaustible pastures of the United States most
of them more less of the fine Spanish reeds
would be again slaughtere as has been heretofore
I
capital in fleece sacrificed to that of cotton with
enormous loss to one interest," and with no posi-
} bic 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 calling large
number of additional clothiers into active enter
prise, was to a decline in prices ruinous to
many of those before engaged in the occupation.
/, Under the influence of the improvement in the
price of wool, woolen manufacturers have rallied
hnfa loaS fhann srbar Df
monopolizng prices is a cruel mockery The ad-
vantages of the Tariff, in its operation upon wool
have thus far been confined almost exclusively to
| the farming interest; the manufacturers have vet
all their way to win, and the effect of that compe-
ition, which is the result Of protection, cannot be
known until it has had longer time for operation.
| The finest cotton and woollen mauslfactures are
net yet much made in the United Sta ses but we may
assert without fear eft contradict ion that nine
tenths of the American people, " no do not affect
foreign Injuries and fashions, may be clothed with
woolien, cotton, fur, and leather fabrics of their
own country, better and cheaper than Ell Their could
have been obtained abroad if the tariff had never
been enacted. The greatest mistakes prevail in
this respect it is continually said that Ia is coats
boots and other articles Of dress are de arer here
than elsewhere. Such is not the case with all
those who are Independent Of foreign fashions-
Those who enjoy superior wealth, and stud supe-
ror elegance, are at liberty to CRAFTY their ca
price, at that additional expense which such a
gratihcation costs IN all countries-in nolIe more
than IN Great Britain, where the opuent anti noble
are IN the habit of paying extravagan thy for
| Frcnch, AsiatIc and other Injuries, than so me Of
our opuent citizens choose to pay, in like IN amer
for Injuries from abroad.
Whilst assert that it has been the effect of
the protective system to benefit tile consumers bv
giving them manufactures cheaper than they had
them before. we are willing to admit that prices.
have had correspondent fall in the same articles
abroad; but this fall OF price abroad has been the
no raFtf -f A. L
impossible 10 advert to the fact that the Ur tied
States export to foreign markets six times the
quantity OF domestic manuiac lures that they ex port
ed in 1920, and at present furnish incompa rably
the largest share of the home demand with
out perceiYing the tendency Of such a compe ition
to reduce the price of the same articles arlonrst
all those nations who aim at supplying us.
But we hold II to be a common error to consid-
er the comparative cheapness of the foreign and
domestic commodity test Of the value of the
system. Erea If it were true that the domestic
product were not reduced ia 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 CON mrner to
afford the highest price for the manufac ure, and
thereby to furnish himself better term, than he
could have done when obliged to depend upon the
foreign imported commodity-that in other words
the increase Of price, if il has taken place, can.
not be called tax upon the consumer, if the same
system which has increased the price has also in
4
creased ability to pay has occurred to a most bcne
| fetal extent, is evident in the invgorated CO ndi
ton Of our agriculture in the last three or .Tour
years, during which period the value Of the le.bor
Of the farmer and with it tho value OF his Ian d. it
is well known, has risen twenty or thirty per
cent. This augmentation IN the value of agri cul-
tural labor and capital be ascrbed to no other
/ cause than to the increase Of the manufacturing
classes, and to the rapid growth of our home mar
| ket under the protective system. During this pc
Rod there have been no wars to create dei 1and
abroad for grain. but tho contrary, all the
| producing nations have been exertng their ndus-
try 70 the utmost and maintaining rivalry gainst
our own citizens which would have visited them
with the most disastrous consequences it H. ey had
not found steady and valuable market at home.
Tho fact, too that agricultural products nave ris-
en- whilst manufactured goods have falle n furnish
the best proofs that the fall of prices are to be
mainly attributable to the competition OF domestic
labor.
| The loudest complaints of Cypress son pro.
cesd from the South, particularly fro u South
1 Carona but that these complaints are not
owing TO the tariff acts, is unqestiona5ly proved
BY the fact, that their public press their memo
| rails 10 Congress, and other mediums of CON
plant, were as much burthencd with Them be-
fore those acts, as they have been since In
tho acquisition of the extensive and feri lie ter
ritories annexed 10 tho United States by tho
purchase OF Louisiana the lands and pro petty
of the plantation States could not fail L; lie dc.
prcciated by vast accession of lands. at least
as fertile, for oil similar purposes But il is
lrna nil In ala