Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1845-04-19
From the Harrisburg Argus.
The Tariff

The Tariff.
In the commencement of our editorial career
we deem it our duty ro declare ourselves in ia
vor of the great cardinal measure of the Penn.
sylvania Democracy, tariff for revenue, laid
with sound discrimination upon foreign impor-
taions coming into competition with articles OF
American growth and manufacture. The pre-
sent tariff is based on this principle it was de.
signed TO supply the wants OF the Treasury, in
a just and economical administration of the Co
vernment, by raising the revenue mainly upon
such articles as are produced at home, and ad,
mtting duty free, those which are not. 1t is
not pretended that the present tariff is perfect
II will be found, no doubt, upon experience, to
require notifications in some of its parts, with.
out disturbing its protective principle Of home
labor, or impairing the revenue principle upon
which it is based. We shall oppose the con.
tinnal agitation of this question in Congress.
Nothing Injuries the great industrial interests
OF the country as much as constant alteration
in the laws oftrade. Less protection is better
than uncertainty and doubt and, therefore, no
material change Of the present tariff should be
attempted. until the public debt is extingu shed,
and a redundant treasury should require a less
amount ofrevenue. Then the list of free arti-
cles muy be increased, by taking the duty from
those which are still taxed, only for revenue.
Pennsylvania can never depart from the Ia
riff rolicy, and any set of men who shall under.
take TO overthrow il, viii meet with signal de-.
feat. Look ot her great interests. She mined
and sent to market in 1914, more than l,6OO-
600 tons of anthracite coal, in addition to the
btuminous coal. This year il will be increes-
ed to 2,000,000 tons She now manufactures
about one-half of all the iron made in the T.
States and this manufacture is increasing with
astonishing rapidity. According TO the report
OF the Canal Commissioners, the quantity Of l.
ron Of every description shipped on the public
works, in lS43, was s5,l70,ll9 pounds--in
lS44, it was l57 0iS, $50 pounds, being an in.
crease of nearly ninety per cent in one year.
The toll upon coal in 1914, was Sl5s, ,l30, and
upon iron S6i,47S. In 1915, the toll on these
articles will be greatly increased.
Pennsylvania also raises about one eighth OF
all the wheat grown ia the Union, and has a
soil capable of producing as much as is now
raised in all the States. She has a system of
public works reaching from the Atlantic to the
Ohio and the Lakes, and connecting her Goa.
fields, iron mountains, and rich agricultural
valics with the seaboard. The success ofths
system OF public works costing Si0,000,000
depends upon the permanency Of the tariff. Il
our coal trade is arrested by the loss of the
eastern market, if our furnaces and rolling
mills are stopped by an influx Of foreign IRON
if the trade of the west is dried up, in poverty,
by the want of encouragement to home labor, Il
million of dollars now received in tolls, must be
laid in taxes upon the people, in addition to the
burdens now borne. Nor is this all the evil
that will follow. The home market for our sur.
plus agricultural produce will be destroyed.
According 10 the estimate of Mr.. Ellsworth,
the Commissioner of the Patent Office, the fol-
lowing grain was raised in Pennsylvania, in
1914.