The Somerset herald and farmers' and mechanics' register. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 183?-1852, 1846-08-18
HOW VIII the People Of SOnler-
set County be Affected Directly
Inv fEae british Tariff.

All know that since the Tariff of 1912
was in full operation, the people of this
county always foundlready sale and recelv-
ed good prices for their commodities. Nor
was il necessary Of late to send them to
a distance. They could sell them mostly
at their own doors. The erection of sew
eral Furnaces in the North Of the county
gave market to the farmers as well as
employment to laborers in that section,
while the Mount Savage Iron Works on
It's Southern border did the same for the
people in the other sections. Flour,
wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, sugar, beef,
pork, poultry, butter and eggs, and lum-
Der of every description, have been in
steady demand and commanded high pri-
ces, and mechanics and laborers could at
all times get employment and fair wages.
These are facts which we think none will
have the hardihood TO deny, nor will any
candid man presume TO impute this favor
able state of things to anything else than
the influence of the protective system
The inquiry then is, how will all those
interests be affected directly by the des-
truction of the Tariff of 1912 and the
adoption of the British System! We an
swer, that when our manufacturers shall
have been compelled by foreign compet-
ton TO either greatly curtail their business
or abandon it altogether-when the thou
sands of hands now employed by them
shall have been,in part or i'll whole, thrown
idIe--when the farmer shall no longer be
able to sell, or if sell he can at all, when
he must give his produce at fifty or hun
dred per cent less than he got before
when almost every workingman that had
been a consumer shall have been driven
away and become producer-in short,
when the Home Market shall have been
almost entirely destroyed-then will the
people ofthis county see, and feel, and un-
derstand how the new system works.
But this is not all. Some of the landhol-
ders in our county have manifested great
interest in the speedy completion of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. And why?
Because they have the ore, the coal, the
timber, the water power, everything es-
sential to the erection and carrying on OF
almost any number of iron works, and
have only been deferred from embarking
in the business ere now by the
want of cheap and certain means of
transportation to bring their manulac-
lures TO market. The erection of some
dozen or more such works in our county
would certainly greatly enhance the value
oflands, create new home market for the
produce of the farmer, and furnish addi-
tional employment to the mechanic and
laboring man-and if the Tariff of 1912
had been left undisturbed, there can be no
doubt but in the course of a few years
number of new works would have been
erected. Within that period the connex-
ion between Baltimore and Pittsburgh will
be completed by means Of the Pittsburgh
and Connellsville Railroad, which we un-
derstand is TO be put under contract the
ensuing fall or winter; but what benefit
viii it be to the people of Somcrst county
since the Tariff of lS42 has been destroy
cd and Iron is to be admitted at rates Of
duty SO low that it will be impossible for
the American manufacturer Of this article
to compete with the importer Of the for
eign article! VIII any body be fool e.
nough to invest any considerable amount
Of money in the erection of Iron Works
now! We leave tito the reader to answer
these questions for himself.
ConUress adjourned on the 10Th