Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1844-07-05

tent with present prosperity. and suffer not
ourselves to be bewildered by the fear of
evils, which may be fancied but cannot be
foreseen.
Ii is worthy Of notice, while on this point
that, whatever the practice of England may
be, the teachings of her popular writer's tend
10 the very doctrines inculcated by this re-
port. Authors are subsidized TO manufac-
ture free-trades theories for the foreign
market, and large sums are raised TO carry
on this new missionary enterprise Of dissem-
mating through the world those doctrines
of political economy which England is wise
enough to repudiate at home
England spares no pains to acquire an in
huence here. She aims to dictate our
economical theories, our commercial system
our legislation. She commends herself to
the North, by Boosting of her achievements
in the great cause of the abolition of human
slavery; and to win favor at the South, she
holds out the delusive hope that her in
fluence will be thrown into the scale of
universally free and unrestricted trade.
"But, sir, are we never 10 be in fact, what
near three score and ten years ago our
fathers declared US TO be of right, indepen-
dant of England Have we, in that long
space, learned nothing from our own ex-
perience. and is the utmost period of the life
of man too short to teach anything to a ma
toni Are not the counsels of the wise and
good, the dead and the living of our own
land, sufficient for our guidance For me,
sir, the examples and the teachings Of our
fathers suffice. look for no instruction in
the science Of our government TO British
writer's at home, or TO British renegades, or
alienated Americans here; and prefer the
palpable prosperity that can see and feel
to the airy visions of the most persuasive
theorist.
But it is time 10 look little more closely
at the bill under consideration, and 10 en-
duire into its real character and purposes
it is scarcely possible 10 cast glance at it,
without discovering that both its arguments
and its facts are derived from sources uli-
friendly to American interests, and more
disposed 10 color, dstort, or suppress, than
canddly to disclose the whole truth. You
are hearing the arguments and assumptions
of British importers from the mouths of
American statesmen. The hostility of the
bill to domestic labor is so thiniy disguised,
/ if, indeed, there be any attempt at conceal
] ~ oCCiIo a NOih vi
to point il out but so far as the policy it
incalcates can be referred TO any Ineligible
principle, it is this; to make show of pro-
lection to the raw material, by a slight re-
duction, or, as in the case of wool not
grown in this country, an increase of the
duties imposed by the existing law, and
then to neutralze this protection, by admit
ting the manufactured article at much
lower rate. The manufacturer can be in
duced to purchase the raw material only by
;he hope Of profit on the manufactured
goods. But if you admit the goods at such
rates that the foreign manufacturer can un-
derseIl him in our market, he will suspend
his operations, and buy raw material no
longer. 1t avails nothing TO the American
producer to protect his wool by duty of
thirty per cent, if you admit woollen goods
at the same, or lower rate of duty. You
destroy his market, by destroying the induce
meut Of the domestic manufacturer to buy.
This is too palpabe to require any elucda-
ton beyond the simple statement. Indeed,
so unequivocaly is the bill characterized by
unreenting hostility to American industry,
that it in general reduces the duties imposed
by the tariff of lS42 on foreign manu- features
luSt III pTOpOftiUU W tut diUOuHt vi IOIlUH Id
Dor expended upon them. This is point
of so great importance that desire TO draw
to il the special attention Of the Committee.
By the tariff of 1912, the highest duties
were imposed on those wares in which the
value Of the raw material bore the lowest
proportion to the amount of the labor re-
quired for their fabrication, and so far the
duty operated as tax on foreign and a
bounty upon domestic labor. The bill now
under consideration proposes to abolish this
Just and sautary discrimination, and in
effect TO give premium to the foreign la
borer. Thus, the duty on raw silk is re-
duced three and a half per cent, the duty
on iron four per cent, on manufactures OF
iron from four TO one hundred and seven
per cent. The duty on common wool
three cents per pound, on woolen goods
from five TO flty-seven per cent. The duty
on the simpler glass wares, one per cent. if
partially cut, sixty-two per cent; if cut from
one third to one half the length, one hun
bred and hiiy-six per cent, and upon the
largest sizes of crown glass two hundred
and thirty per cent To what principle, but
hostility TO domestic labor, can we refer a
system of duties which favors the admission
of foreign wares, in proportion as their value
has been increased by the employment of
foreign capital and foreign labor
The avowed principle of the bill, that,
namely, Of providing for revenue alone, is
not merely opposed to the doctrine of legis-
latve protection--it goes beyond this, and
was directly upon those interests which
most require protection. A revenue duty
must be so framed as to invite importation.
If you discourage the importation of par
tIcuIar article, you diminish or destroy your
revenue from IT, and if YOU aim TO draw the