Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1845-08-15


AfintO the matter: 'Whatare the articles upo
which the British tariff has lately abandon
led, or at least greatly relaxed, its hold!-
They are principally raw materials neces
sary to the manufacturing interests Of tina
country. Her manufactures, therefore
are VIRTUALLY protected to the amounted
:, the duty remisel. In thisfespeetwe canno
follow her example if we would; for W,
, have no similar duties to remit. The mex
stcp which Great Britain will take towards
free trade will, most probably, be all aban
dOnment 1of her system of corn laws; thi
will be another boon to the manufactures
and tits a wonder how so apparently uH
just and oppressive q tax as one upon
bread can SO long have been maintained
Buehere, again, there is nothing VI the
United States to take pattern by; lor we
need 10 bread fromany coz tntry.
Theproduce FOR the British tariff ofl84g
was, on IAN average, about G28000,G ,G00
sterling. a0fthis amount G21 100000 was
levied on seventeen articles; and Of this
.ilulter amount & 100000 was raised upon
raw materials Nsed in British manufactures
Or on articles partly manufactured, and
the remaining E20,000,000 was produced
by articles not in any way competing with
the manufactured, bot Of necessary and
general consumption. Now, in the ,mo-
difcatiOn of the British tariff OF 1872,
which took place this present year, the
greater partot the one ionivehundped
thousand pounds which operated against
The mGnHJathwer .has been repeated, while
the tWcity miiiioty Qf pouRds upon articles
of general consumption has b"en very
nearly all retained. Our opponents will
not askus to initiate this step in the Brit
ish free trdde march, for they say &EGtour
manufacturers already receive too much
protection, and that.the general consumer
is too heavily taxed.
Thus, then, it appears thGtwe differ en-
.tireIy in our commercial position from
Great Britain, and also, if we were incIin-
ed to initiate her in tie rpIayations she is
making in'her commercial code, we could
not do it, because we have no similar du-
ties TO remit.
Thegleat extent and variety of our roll
furnishes our people, it may be said, with
all the necesaariea oPIife. I'VE raise a,su-
of bread8tufts and proVi-,
scns'of all kinds; we produce plenty of
cotton, of tobacco, and OF rice. aOf wool,
it is true, that last yea" we imported u
quantity, valued at S35O,000; but the ne
ceSstiy Of so doing is every year dimnish-
ing. We need no importation Of iron.l
copper or lead, Of salt on coal, OF timber
for house and ship building, of tar, pinch,
or turpentina, Of ashes OF lime, or OF mar
bic. We need supplies from othcrrcoun-
tries of tea and of coffee; these are nsges.
saries oflile, and we admit them free Of
duty. We do not raise either sugar, or
hemp, flax enough for ourownconsump-
ton, and we importthem undera moder-
ate tax. We have to depend upon for
eign countries for wines, many varieties
,of distilled liquors, for silks, and for spices.
These nre Injuries, and we tax them more
heavily. We have begun the monuIrc-
tUre Of cotton and wool, Of hardware and
cutury,of gIass and Of cNrthcnware, but
have not advanced enough therein to be
independent OF foreign nations. We pro-
tcCt our infant manufactures in the only
way we can protect them, Try the imposI-
lion ofrr rrlsonabIe duties upon the same Al
licIcs when brought from foreign countries.
Is our commercial relation 10 any other
country injured by our present systenA is |
the balance Of trade turning agains! us!--
Istho price Of any article Of consumption
pcrccplibIy or materially advanced by ic!
TO all these questions we unhesjlatlngF
answer, NO; and if the converse interroga-
tories were put, we should as unhesitat-
ingIy answer, Yes.
This il our position. 1t is prosperous,
Il happy onr; and we are deslrous that il !
should not be interlered with. The policy !
of Grea, Brlainras to commercial matters
has no applichtion'to that position. lmone
rhing only we wish to initiate her, and
that is,to protect and encourage home IN
dustry and domestic manufactures; and |
we shalI best DO 30, in our opinion, by
holding on to the tariff and going. steadily
on in our present course.