American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper., 1846-08-21
Ameriton Republican,
AND
BALTIMORE CLIPPER,
FRIDAY MORNING, AVG. 81, 1876.

(,OnUTeSS-Out II is evident tllat tnG writer mas
neither paid attention to facts nor to consiston-
cy. He AYERS, that, "under the tariff of 1912,
the poor man paid just as much duty upon the
brown sugar he used in his coffee as the rich
man upon his large Jumps of superfnc loaf su-
gar. BY the tariff of 1916 the duty upon loaf
sugar is increased, whilst the duty upon brown
sugar is lessened one hundred per cent"
We make the following extracts from the ta-
riff of l842:
Sugar, brown, and syrup Of sugar, per Ib. q cts
Sugar, loaf and other renned,
Sugar, white clayed,
Now by turning to the tariff of 1916, VIC find
the following:
Sugar, of oHkindI, 30 pr Ct
Here is no discrimination in favor of the man
who uses brown sugar only; on the contrary,
he pays the same rate of duty as "the rich man
upon his large Jumps of superhne loaf sugar"
But it is not so much with the facts, as with
the arguments of the writer, that we find fault.
We will give the reader a sample:
"The cause of this great increase ofiron cot
ton and woollen manufactures, is the whig ta-
riff of 1912. That tariff causes the people at
large TO pay such an enormous bounty on the
IRON, cotton and woollen products of our coun-
try, that it tempted hundreds of spectators to
engage in the business, because they saw the
amount of plundor to be gathered under its ope-
ration, and the immense fortunes to be almost
suddenly made, if the business was not over
done. In fact, the profits of the IRON MASTER
have been so enormous that many Of them have
been tempted TO overleap all the bounds of pru-
dence--to indulge in the most extravagant and
splendid course of living-to fancy themselves
"monarchs of all that they could survey'-to
play such fantastic tricks" ofpride, pomp and
vanity as would SNAKE angels weep" In many
instances, this "rotous and extravagant" ca
reer has been INDUCED in by other "big manu-
facturers, whilst every man of them has been
pocketng his heavy annual dividend equal to
the combined dividends of an ordinary farmers
life time. During all this luxurious living and
these enormous profits Of the premiumed and
bounty-ed iron masters and factory owners, the
hundreds tcho do all their ,vork for themhave been
toiling from sun to sun for the same old scanty
pittance that barely "kept their bodies and |
souls together and are doomed-shoud they |
be spared to see old age-to close their lives in
some poor-holse-or, if they have children
"doing better" than they had been, to fall
burden on their hands Such are the "sweet
and delicious fruits" of the whig protective sys-
tenn to the rich owners of iron works and cot
ton and woollen factories lVho neuer cork al all,
and such are its biHer fruits TO the thousands
VINO a0ork for them"
Here three facts are assumed, viz: that the
manufacturers make large fortune5-the work
men in factories are nearly starVed-and the
people are most grevously taxed to support
these establishments. The writer it is of course
supposed, is anxious to reduce the profits of the |
manufacturer-to increase the wages of his
hands-and above all, to relieve the people
from burthensome taxation. Let us hear him
further on the tariff Of 1912 He continues:
"Our object is to show the fruits of the whig
tariff in another light altogether, and TO prove
that it would have nullifed its protective fea-
lures entirely, il it had not been modified as it
has been in "ihe peoples tariff" of 1876. In
fact, it was altogether fast doing this, before
the latter equitable and impartial measure be-
came law. 1t was doing this, as we said a.
bove by tempting so many mere spectators to
embark in the business, as to manufacture more
domestic products than they can and profta-
BILE sale for, and to bring down their prices by
making the supply greater than the demand, 1t
was about TO create tc0 much COmpeiitiOn-tO
start into existence more factories and iron
works than the people are able to sustain aud
supporter, in other words, to throw more
homemade products into the market, than can
be sold except at considerable loss to their
Dropretors. This is plain enough for every bo-
dy to understand, and guile enough, we think,
to show that reduction of the profits of that
business by the "People's Tariff" is the only
way to save the regular manufacturers from the
ruinous competition of those who enter the bus-
ness only as spectators.
Here "the fruits of the whig tariffs are too
great mpettion-surplus production-and d-
minished prices-prices so low as to be runous
to the manufacturer. 1t thus seems that the
writer has unwitingly nulliied his former posi-
ton, that the tariff of 1912 produced overgrown
fortunes-oppressive taxation-and starvation
to laborers. He now complains of too much
competition, and r6joices that it will be destroy
ed by the tariff of 1916, or "the peoples tariff"
as he calls it; and consequently that prices will
be enhanced to the consumer, for that is the
natural result of destroying competition. We .
fancy that the people will not complain Of
competition which cheapens the articles which
they have to purchase, nor approve the wri-
ter's suggestion, that the best mode of keeping
down prices would be, to confine nufactur-
ing to lew hands. We marvel that the friends
of free trade should have overlooked the fact
stated by the writer for the STAR viz: that, if
the tariff of 1912 had been permitted to re-
main, 'it would have nulli6ed its protective
features altogether" They certainly acted
most injudiciously in disturbing law which
was rapidly producing the very result at which
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