New-York daily tribune., 1844-02-21
The Hardware Memorial.
To The Editor Of The Tribune:

cnantS were intentionally ueceptl't, upposeu ~
emanated from an anonymous writer. who, hiding
himself behind Bar Iron and Brass Battery Kettles,
could fire his ar-guns. loaded with base nsnuat1oiS,
at men much better than himself, TO deprive them ol
| their good name, merely because the truths they
stated initiated against his favorte theory could
not of course suspect that the respectable Editor OF
a respectable journal would call so many of his TEL
low-citizens by hard names, and make an lnslnuaon
| like the following. lquote your own words: . SO
much pound is choaker, and which cannot be
| manpuvered,a and against which Custom House oaths
are of little avail And all this merely because
they did not possess mesneric foresight, as to
| company their Petition with every reflection that
| might pass through the editors mind after their
statement came to be scanned by him.
! should like TO know whether ii is "qubb!en
vour part TO call these Memorialists these foreign
| Gentlemen ~ | am inclined TO think that some at
| least of these signers, were here before yuA
| born and that you will find only about one-twenti-
eth of them to be forei grers.
You say the Tariff was substantially arranged in
Nav or Jane Did any expect it to pass Was ii
not materially altered at last and did II not after
all pass, by the skin of its teeth?
| would not charge you MIR. Editor as you do
me, with quibbling but it is little singular that
when show that an article has risen which you
sert has fallen, you reply " We are glad of it. TO
| receive this as an argument one must possess his
soul in patience would not Of say, for it
il is not courteous, hatit is easy TO quibbe out of
any dilemma.
You say Railroad Iron has not fallen simply be-
cause there is little or no home production" And is
there no home production OF Bar Iron Answer
| This question canddly-Has not Bar Iron risen since
This Tariff was passed Suppose we state how
much more the Blacksmiths, Farmers and others
| nav in this country for Bar Iron than they do in
England, and if they donot pay all the duty and
little more. For instance the cost of Bar Iron in
| England is GA II 6 per ton
Which at 81 so the sterling is-.-------.. $22 20
| Other expenses and profits Observation-Disclosures so
The present price here is. S54 90
According to your arithmetic, if you put further
duty Of s54 the Iron would be sent here and given
to us for nothing.
Yon have said great deal about our deception
bu, YOU have not shown that we have Intentionally
| stated one duty wrong. Had you chosen to make
| your remarks about Screws without callngOur II
cures in question, and vihfyingng us we should
| pass them by in silence.
As il regards the pound sterling and the ex
changes If / chose could show by your own bril-
hant writers on Political Economy (Niles, Carey,
&C. that our country was once getting ruined by
the very difference of exchange which YOU now
assure rs does not exist. The hue and cry in their
dav was that the 6 and per cent. exchange was
sapping ell the resources of the country, while
side maintained, as do now, thar exchange was
then about par.
Before quit, may remark that you were rather
unfortunate in stating yours of the 10th instant,
that Shovels, Axes Augers, Brass, Brass Wire Nor
folk Latches sc. &C. had fallen since the Tariff as
on these articles the duty has been very little in
creased it being 80 per CT. but % Hollow same
prices as IL This also is unucky for your the
ory. for on this is imposed the high duty of 45 per
cent and bv your doctrine ought to have fallen
than the other
But now it appears thata new opponent has risen
ND under the name of g Amerlcus'--very friendly
indeed to Join you-n calling the memorial decep
tive.
This writer may try to hide himself behind trel
lis work of iron wire but thats easily seen through
His wire-drawn epistle shows concluslyely, where
his interest lies when he asserts that most OF the
sgners put their names to the memorial without
consideration Suppose his assertion was correct
that no iron wire had been imported for FIVE years,
what does prove, except that the duty is prohlbl-
tory | repeat, what revenue does the Government
get from prohibited iron wire?
For the benefit of your correspondent would in
form him that in Hamiltons celebrated Tariff for
tie promotion of manufactures, iron wire was ad
mitted free.
This defending the hardware merchants, Mr.. Edi-
tor is rather an expensive affair to me, both in time
and money, having to pay well for every insertion.
You lay so heavy duty upon admitting into your
columns the productions of us foreigners, while you
admit the articles of natires free, that shall proba-
bly, hereafter consider your charges prohbitory.
I NAV try to smuggfe something in under the guise
of dsinterested and friendly manufacturer, such
as Americus for instance, in which | shall no
longer sign myself FAIR PLAY.
n B. Your side have q great care that the poor
people shall not cut themselves with Peter Pin
dar's razor; but you have objection to spicing
| their custard with wooden nutmeg.
IL The above article in farther defence of the
| Hardware Importers Memorial for reduction of
the Tariff is inserted because it is paid for, and
not that we think it casts any new light upon the
subject Could we find room we would like to
review it item by item, but that cannot be neces-
sary. AS the memorialists have thoroughly re-
| vsed their original statement, and approximated
it considerably to the truth, we do not care to dis
cuss farther its original errors Briefly, then, we
have called 10 hard names, though we have ex-
posed Misrepresentation and suppressions of the
truth. AS to those foreign gentlemen the quib-
| Bile is entirely on the side of our opponents. That
many worthy American houses signed the Me-
mortal to Congress we know; but we say again
that they did it without due consideration, and
could not be induced to do it now while the origin
| and impulse of the proceeding was British. 1t
| is in effect statement of British manufacturers
| and their agents here, designed to induce an
American Congress to leglslate away the Protec-
| ton of American Industry.
That every one knew in May and June, 1912,
that new and higher Tariff must be imposed
| that year. we repeat, and that goods were import
ed and prices adjusted in view of that fact.
That Bar Iron and few other articles are
| somewhat higher on the seaboard (not the whole
country over now than they would be in the alb
/ t. la.. /