Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1846-11-24
Our Tariff pOliey-Its two Eras.

Our Tariff pOlicy-Its two Eras.
About two years ago, Mr.. Webster, in
one of his public addresses, made an APP.
peal in favor OF the protective system, to
the example bequeathed by the trainers
OF our constitution. His argument, re-
vertlng to ancient precedent as the rule
for future legislation, took boldly and un.
reasonably the very broadcast ground of
conversation. His reasoning ran thus:
"From 1889 to 1914 orr country has
greatly prospered. During that time, pro.
lection has been the established policy of
our government. Let US cling, then, to
the wisdom of the fathers. and stand BIZ
that established policy of protection which
has brought in its hands national prosper
lty! The argument, even admitting the
facts which il assumes, manifcsily forgets
that since 1850 the whole social and in.
dustrious world has become new. Grant.
ing what Mr.. Webster most erroueously
took for granted, that the trainers of the
constitution were ultra protectionists, still
OF course the question arises, '.would
they, on their own principles, be protec-
tionists now!" Docs not, rather, new
state of things-a new world-demand
neU politics?
But the constant appeal of the protec-
tionists to the past, admits and demands
quite another answer. At the bar of our
early constitutional usage, protection, as
the term is now understood, stands ire
vocably condemned. Of the thirty tariff
laws. general and special, which (exclu-
sive ofthe tariff ofI646, comprise the f.
nancial policy of our government since
the adoption of the constitution, fifteen
were enacted prior to the 9th of April,
16l6-the day when the modern protect
i've system began. These first fifteen tar
ifs, extending. in their operation, through
little more than quarter of a century,
form the first or constitutional era, OF our
revenue Legislation. These laws were
enacted under the advice and guidance of
the men of our revolution. They were
contemporary Legislative expositions of the
federal constitution. They all arose out
of one creed of constitutional principles
| (for on these lars federalists and repub-
licans agreed and save in so far as two
of them, enacted respectively in 1904 and
1912, were modified for war purposes;
the one looking to our hostilities with the
Barbary powers, aud the ether to our war
with England; they all exhibit a strict
unity of character and strong family
likeness.
! The first remarkable fact about them is
Ia fact in our day, almost Incredible
that they acere tariffs uhich satisfied The
1chole country! They were not partisan
tariffs. No considerable effort was ever
made to overturn tho principles or the
system of any one. of them during the
whole period embraced in their operation.
They gave to the country, therefore, the
vast boon of stability in the principles and
the purposes ofits commercial legislation.
They rescued industry from the concus.
sions of the ballot box!
But they exhibited--the whole series
of them--other very striking features.
They were what they purported to he
whentthe power TO initiate them was CIV
en- exclusively TO the House of Represen.
tatives, that's, lars for rerenue. Protec-
| ton was their incident, not their purpose.
In very few cases only was it named in
their Preambles; and in those cases, prob.
ably, it was SO named, in order to concil-
late the favor of a people jealous of tax
alton. They were all based on real. not
fictitious values. Generally they prefer
red the ad valorem system, and the few,
/ specific duties they adopted, were laid for
the mast part upon those articles which.
from their uniformity value, render the
specific duty less onerous than it would
otherwise be to the poor man. Their
| specific duties very rarely, ever, exceed
ed 80 per cent. of the value and were
generally much less. Ofminimuuas. these
early tariffs knew nothing. That cheat
had not yet been invented. All these
laws taxed Injuries higher than the nee.
essaries of life; and all their incidental
determinations, made with view to pro.
lection, were below-most of them yery
far below-the toreSt revenue limits. We
will endeayor, hereafter, to present. some.
what in detail; and perhaps in tubular
statemenis-the various items of taxation
in those.ariffs. which fully prove our as.
sertion.
Since the 9th Of April, 1916, when
the operation of the last in this first series
of tariffs expired, we have had exclusive
ofthe act Of l646) fifteen other tarifflaws
All these, with the single exception Of