Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1847-06-24

make up the difference" OF what use is
| the science of numbers to such mind, or
what the practical advantage and authority
of his own statistical tables? By what pro-
cess of calculation, founded upon sales in
our markets or custom-house valuation, has
he attained such result? A glance a,
the tables before him would have shewn the
extravaganza of such statement Take,
Tor instance, the quantities and values of the
exports for the years lS2S-9-3O-the
former amount TO 257,2l9 hhds. and the
latter to Sl5,S86,299 Here is an excess
of $4,000 hhds., and yet it falls short by
more than Sl5,000,00Os of accounting for
the different results of high and low duties.
as shewn by former exhibits. To be exact,
$4,000 hhds., at the rate of value in 1880,
would have been worth Sl,S6l, l2l, which
subtracted from Sl5,SS6,299 and we have
the balance of $l4,004,l7S as the precise
value of, the 100000 hhds., which General
c. has asserted was ''sufficient TO make up
a difference of $3l,000,00O" When the
gentleman, by any species of legerdemain,
shall satisfy the community that fourteen
millions are equal to lhirty-one millions, his
solution will, no doubt, be received as very
satisfactory. It is certainly very pretty
specimen of the demonstralive process. But
why did General Chapman so carefully a.
void the second and more striking compare
son, instituted between the years of low du-
ties of lS4O-l-2 and those of excessive
duties Of lS43-4-5? Was it too broad
a hoax to play off even upon credulity it.
self to alledge that 10000 hhds. {,he differ
ence, between the two periods, in quantity
exported) worth, at the rate of value of 1915,
about $1,000, 900, would balance a differ
ence of thirteen millions Of dollars But
ask the gentleman to look again at his tables
of exports for the years lS4l and 1886
the former of low and the latter of high du-
,ies-and account for the difference in value
in our own markets of $4,609,6s4, when
the allowance of $33,497 is made for the
$50 hhds. constituting the difference in
quantity. But to clench the nail already
driven home, will present the results of
lS4l, when the duties were 25 per cent,
and the year 1914, when the duties on
articles Of general and necessary consump-
ton ranged from 20 to 100 per cent. In
the former year l47 1928 hhds. were estma-
ted, by our market value, at Sl2,576, 703,
whilst in the latter year 163, 942 hhds are
valued at SS,397,255. The greater quanti-
ty by l6, la hhds. under the stringent ope-
ration of the tariff of 1S42, falling short in
value ofthe lesser quantity, under the mode
rate duties of the compromise act, to the
enormous amount of $4,179,448.
have multiplied these illustrations OF
the various operation of high and low du-
ties, because am aware that it takes num-
Der of concurrent facts to make theory.
lll-constituted and unphilosophical, indeed,
must be the mind, which can see an efec,
uniformly following cause and yet be I'M
able to discover the connection between
them. For long series of years the sta
tistics of tobacco show that high duties and
low prices 60 together and low duties and
high prices, and yet General Chapman can
not sec that the one has any thing to do
with the other. Efectus sequitur proriaan1
causam, is maxim we'll received in the
schools. Apply it to this question. In 1888
law is passed gradually reducing imports.
and the prices of tobacco improve, pari
passu, with the reductions. In 1913 a law
goes into operation raising those duties four
fold and the prices of tobacco 60 down and
continue to decline, as our importations fal
of, until they will no longer pay the cos
of production; and yet General Chapman
denies that the rise and fall of prices are the
natural effects of high and low duties. Nj
hen juvotur. 1t is painful to be convinced
that long-chershed notions are false ant
mischievous prejndlces.
But to extricate himself from the difficult
ties of his position, the General resorts ,e
to still more extraordinary shifts. He al,
templs to make US believe what we regard
ed at the time as the most terrible scourge
that could perplex and distress q people
were, in verify and indeed, ministerng an
gels in disguise. A large foreign debt,
deprecated and inconverlible paper curren
cy, an explosion of our banking and credi
systems and a general distrust and want o
confidence among business men ceased, il
this instance, to be fright(ul national evils
paralyzing the arm of industry and the hear
of enterprise, and became, contrary to 1hei
invarable tendencies, the active springs anc
fruitful sources of our prosperity. The age
of miracles is decidedly not gone. mus
confess that | never before knew or ever
dreamed that period of foreign indebted
ness, of great pecuniary embarrassments anc
of a deranged and worthless currency was
the most favorable to our tobacco markets
or indeed to any other kind of business
except that of brokers and shavers. When
the States and private corporations borrow
ed to the amount of 206 millions of dollars
to make canals and railroads, and the U. S
Bank increased its Indebtedness to raise the
means TO speculate in cotton not tobacco)
and State stocks, little imagined they were
! prOvidiny the means of advancing the inte-