The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1842-05-17

orded, the price, instead of being augmented,
was actually reduced. do not recollect a sin
gle exception. The European monopoly of
supply was broken down, and their fabrics had
to encounter in our markets the competition
arising from the skill and industry of American
manufacturers.
Well: but il has been asked, if an increase of
duty produces diminution of price, why do
the manufacturers ask for an increase of du-
ties? will answer the question. By increas-
ing the duty, you compel him to submit to a
reduction equal, or nearly equal, to the duty;
but to such q reduction they cannot submit but
from necessity. A diminished importation eD-
sues, and a vacuum being thus created in the
market, it is filled by the rival fabrics of the
American manufacturer, who in his turn, finds
his compensation for the reduced price in his
quiet possession ola greater portion of the A
merican market, and in the steadiness of that
market.
There is the whole theory of the matter.
There is no mystery, no inconsistency; the case
is perfectly clear: and facts prove it to be Just
as we told you in 1924, that it would be.
l know no wiser course for statesman than
to recur to history, and thence to draw his less
ons as to future policy. | wish had time to
trace the course of this matter from the days of
the revolution to the present hour: could
show that in every period of our history, when
commerce and manufactures have been neglect
ed, or left to the unfriendly operation of foreign
legislation and foreign regulations, national dis
tress s. embarrass ment have uniformly follow
ed-there has ever been dram of specie and
a heavy foreign debt. But am warned by the
lapse of time that this will not now be practi-
cable. Let me call the attention of the Senate
only to few facts, which marked a period re-
markably like the present: refer to that be-
tween 1916 and 1Sl9.-The country was then
oil b,,t;a IOty
and precisely similar embarrassment was ex
perienced to that which we now feel. Let me
call your recollection to some of the facts as
they were well set forth in memorial presented
recently to Congress from Cincinnati:
Your memorialists find in statistical represen-
tations made by the cities of Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh, in 1919, the following facts:
l. That from 1916 to 1919, the number of
hands employed in the manufacturing and me
chancal branches of business in Philadelphia
diminished from 9,672 to 2,1S7, or less than
one fourth. That the number of persons di-
rectly and indirectly thrown out of employment
in district of forty miles diameter, were TWEEN
ty thousand.
.. That in Ptsburg, in the same period, the
number of hands employed were reduced from
1860 to 672, and the manufactured product was
reduced in the same proportion.
At the same time that the manufacturing es-
Establishments were thus laid in ruins, a memoir
ial sent to Congress states that agriculture was
equally depressed. In many places of the in
terror agricultural produce was entirely unsafe
able. The rate of duties under which this
widespread disaster was produced was TWEEN
ty per cent on iron and glass, and twenty five
per cent on fine cottons and woolens; higher
average than that (twenty per cent? to which
by existing laws, the entire tariff of duties
mist N n few months he reduced.
BY the tariff of 1924 and 1923, the duties
were raised to an average of double shat a
mount. The consequences are within the OBJ
servation of the whole people. Manufacturing
industry became stable, new branches were de-
veloped The balance of trade became more
favorable, and the country, for series of
years, continued in a state of uninterrupted
prosperity.
No portion of the industry of the nation was
more benefited by the change than that of ag-
riculture. The value of corn, pork, flour, and
every species of Western produce. was in the
Miami country, permanently increased nearly
three-fold. 7 he manufacturing establishments
in the North, as well as many in the West, be-
came increased consumers of surplus products
We give but two examples, as sufficiently illus
trating the general effect. New England i'm
ports from other States, especially the West,
scarcely, if any less than one million five hun
dred thousand barrels of f1our-probably more
This fact your honorable body may ascertain
by calculating at the established proportions,
the consumption ofthat article by its inhabi-
tants, anil deducting from that quantity the
very small amount of grain raised in these
States. Two ports alone imported in lS4l the
following quantities.
Boston in 1S4l 574, 1888 bbls
Providence in 1871 $3.50 "