The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-08-27

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| this? Why destroy tariff that had paid,
since 1892 inclusive, no less than $34 1907, 224
of the principal and interest Of your public
debt, and leaving in your Treasury, on the
| first Of July, 1915, a balance of $7,65S,3O6,
which, added to the above, gives surplus rev.
enue, over and above the ordinary eXpendi-
lures, Of $41 ,9G5, 500, derived from the tar
if of 1912, including the payments Of that
year. This he stated from official annual
Treasury reports of lS43, page 81, Of 1914,
page 10, and of 1915, page %. Yet this ta-
riff, which had yielded this large surplus, is to
! be destroyed in the midst Of war, to carry out
an absurd resolution adopted some years ago
by an irresponsible political cabal assembled
at Baltimore and this was their leading and
almost only argument in its favor. Mr.. S.
called the attention of the Chairman Of the
Committee of Ways and Means to the fact,
and he should ike to hear his explanation Of
| it.
Now, by reference to Mr. Walkers report,
it will be seen that, for twelve years back, we
have imported from Great Britain and her
dependencies annually So 10 millions of dol
! lars worth of goods, but call it so millions,
while she took of all our agricultural pro-
ducts, save cotton and tobacco, less than two
and half millions of dollars worth. Thus,
then, assuming onc-half the value Of her goods
to be agricultural it gives us 25 millions of her
agricultural produce to 1-2 millions Of ours
taken by her, which is just ten to one; to a.
void cavil, put it at eight to one. To test
the truth Of his position, he was prepared, if
time permitted, TO refer to numerous facts
| But for the information of gentlemen who are
such great friends to the poor and oppressed
| farmers, | will tell them that we have import
ed yearly, for twenty-six years, ESQ says Mr..
| Walkers report,) more than ten millions Of
| dollars worth of WOODEN goods. Last year we
imported Sl0,666,l7G worth. Now, one-half
and more of the value of this cloth was made
up Of wool, the subsistence oflabor and other
agricultural productions. The general esti-
mate is, that the wool alone is half. The uni
versal custom among farmers, when they had
! their wool manufactured on the shares, was to
| give the manufacturer half the cloth. Thus
we import and our farmers have to pay, for
| five millions of dollars worth of foreign wool
every year in the form Of cloth, mostly the
production Of sheep feeding on the grass and
| grain Of Great Britain, while our own wool
is worthless for the want of market; and
this is the policy gentlemen recommended to
| American farmers. Yes, sir and not salts
fed with five millions, they wish to increase it
to ten millions year for foreign wool. VIII
gentlemen deny this? They dare not They
supported Mr.. Walkers BILL reducing the du-
ties on woolens nearly one-half, with q view
to increase the revenue; Of course, the I'M
ports must be doubled, making the Import of
cloth twenty millions instead of ten, and of
wool ten instead of five millions, of dollars
per annum.
AS Il still stronger illustration of his argu-
ment Mr.. S. referred to the article of iron-
Last year, according to Mr. Walkers Report,
we imported SO ,043, 1916 worth of foreign iron
and its manufactures, mostly from Great Bri-
TAIN four-fifths of the value Of which, as ev-
cry practical man knew, consisted of agricul-
tural produce-nothing else. Iron is made
of ore and coal; and what is the ore and coal
buried in your mountains worth? Nothing
nothing at all, unused. What gives it value?
The labor of horses, oxen, mules and men,
And what sustained this labor but corn and
oats, hay and straw for the one,and bread and
meat and vegetables Of every kind for the
other, These agricultural products were pur-
chased and consumed, and this made up near
ly the whole price Of the iron which the man
utacturcr received and paid over to the farm
ers again and again. as often as the process
was repeated.
Mr.. S. said he had been considering the
subject somewhat in detail; he now wished
for moment, in conclusion to present the
subject in a more general and comprehensive
point of view. He wished gentlemen to turn
to the 47th page Of the Secretarys report,
and they would there see these statements:
that the dutiable imports last year were $685.
10G,7 1924, which exceeds by twenty-five mil
lions the average Of dutiable imports for the
last nine years. (See page ~ The Sccre-
tary further states, that the average amount
of the duties imposed by the present tariff is
3240 per cent; which at first he proposed to
reduce 10 IL per cent, but since the war; has
raised to %. But to simplify the calculation,
let us put the dutiable imports at one hun
bred millions, the present duties at 33 and the
proposed duties % per cent-just one-third
off If you reduce the duties one-third, you
must, to get the same revenue, increase your
imports -third-that is, instead of one hun
dred, you must have one hundred and fifty
millions Of dutiable imports. Then, is it not
clear that the only effect of the measure is to
increase the foreign imports fifty millions Of
dollars? Without increasing the revenue one
cent, or tightening the burdens of the people
one farthing, you get exactly the same reve-
nue.. The people pay precisely the same a.
mount to Goycrnment,bu but they pay fifty mil
lions more to foreigners, lose that much spe-
Gle, destroy fifty millions of our productions
and with it the hundreds Of millions of CAPT
tai and thousands of honest and industrious
people thrown out Of employment!
SAD ACCIDENTAL young man, Mr.
George Spoonenburg, from Mohawk Village,
New York, one of the overseers on Section
Is, LIST Division, of the Railroad, was struck
by a rock weighing ton and half, which
loosened and rolled from the deep rock cut