New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-12-29
The Economic Question.


utterly ignorant Of the controversy ths' III"
Frenchman il not discussing the question reaiAy a.
issue ut least Ia this country-that he assumes OF
asserts. positions az those Of the Pro.ectionlsts
which they have never taken bat steadiy ois'
claimed. Would there be any use 10 our showing
tbis In detsill We took up Mr.. Walkers late
faiuting Report and endeavored TO set him night
on several essential points; wbereoPon his ad
ppirers here and elsewhere exclaimed that We
dealt in mere assertions. Bot what else can be
dealt in until we have settled wherein We are
actually at issue when Mr.. Walker markedly
asserts that the greot argument in favor OF Pro
lection is its tendency to bring specie into the
country--thst the general Wages Of Labor have
been increased by under the present tariii-that
because our Iron and Coal interests, aided by
large advance in Europe, consequent on the rapid
construction Of Railroads have not been destroyed,
thereforel it has been fully proved by our bnef
experience under the present Tariff that Protcc-
ton 10 unnecessary--that Pennsylvania has repu-
dated il, &c. &c.-what need we say more than
that the assertions are baseless and mistaken
Who does not see that the fact that our Iron land
consequently Coal interests have prospered under
the three fold stimulus Of high price abroad
thirty per cent duty at home, and an enlarged and
daily increasing demand everywhere, comes far
short Of proving all Protection at all times unneces
saryl Our Iron commands better prices
while it is made cheaper than in lsi3 under the
Wing Tariff; it can doubtless live and flourish
hsnceforth under a lower duty than was required
10 revive and nvigorate it in 1912 but does this
prove the inutity OF Protection 10 our view,
adj
We glory in-the fact that many branches of Home
Industry which needed the support OF high
duties are now so well established that they can
breast the shock Of Foreign competition with the
aid OF much lower duties some perhaps with no
dutiei all. All this 10 to mind convincing proof
Of the benefcence and policy of Protection, and
our assertion Of this 10 the fitting answer OF Mr..
Walkers adverse assumption but when he thence
argues that, because some interests are now able
to live under reduced duties, therefore interest
ever really needed higher duties that all would |
have hourished without-we ask why is, on this
assumption, that our Cotton Manufactures now
20 extensive and nourishng, while our far older and
long more important Manufactures Of Linen aud |
Silk have barely a nominal existence All know |
that the former have been long and pretty steadily |
and fairly protected. while the latter have not |
been, save by such meager Revenue duties as the |
Secretary delights in and will anybody give us
another reason why, in this bounteousy Flax pro
duciDg region, we even yet import all our Linens
while we are large exporters of Cotton fabrics =
Will those who object to the obvious reason for this
glazing disparity oblige with any other II not,
where is the logic Of the Secretary's Report
But we commenced to ask the Free Traders |
TO read something side of the question and |
try for once to meet the questions PROFOUND, \
and answer our arguments instead Of those they |
persist in fathering upon u.s. Mr.. II. c. Carey's |
new work affords them a fair opportunity of doing |
this, and we trust some Of the more candid will |
embrace it. Only let US understand each other, |
and perhaps we shall not differ widely as once
At any rate, we shall no longer be playing at
cross purposes. Take the following extract for in
stance Up. ll7-2o) and let US see what they say
TO 1t:
In the regular course Of human fairs. the who
malss the shoe. eats the food produced by the man who
for him 10 bring sw and the apsone, by aid Of which
he may make thousand pairs OF shoes than II for the
farmer 70 carry him the food necessary for his support
while doing It. This tendency struggles necessarily de
velop ITSELF and Is seen every occasion making Its
psarance, but II has almost Invariably been crushed the
States far more widely scattered and far less
wealthy than they otherwise would have been. They
have been compelled TO use vast quantity ofneror ma
ohnery Of exchange In the form OF rosds and wagons In
place of the superior machinery OF steam engines and
mills and they have been driven TO begin on poor soils In
the West yielding ten bushels OF Wheat TO the when
sher they might worked their down into
the rich soils OF the river bottoms farther East portions
OF which all times be bought for far less than the
cost Of production Pennsylvania abounds in bo,om-and
that win DO cultivated when the farmer nd market
mean time her citizens West 10 seek other lands that
may produce something that viii bear Carriage to the dis
markets OF the world. Ii is obvious what has
been the Of this the single In which the policy
Of the Unoa has appeared 10 depart from the direction of
perfect freedom OF trade We hare aWdgs deemed such ~
fervncss erroaeoas ta are Ho eel ossssd hat he error
has ben wstA
Man must everywhere commence with the poor soils,
and the richer ones cannot be cultivated uut the consn
or and producer brought together. Whatever
ssn interference tends to prevent this union tends TO
compel to scatter themselves over poor Soils TO pre-
vent increase reward 10 labor, aud al
vance In civilization and resistance 10 such interference
necessary act OF sell defence Tho article of chief
consumption Is food Of which rich soils would yield idrgd
quantities In return 10 haf he labor required on the
poor ones; and half the difference wOad convert into
cloth all the ana wool produced and make the iron
used In the Union such being the case the exports re-
Quircd pay for English labor much absolute loss
while great mschiae Itself suffers IN the loss II labor
that would double In product and In value. II has been
Al effort Of the people to diminish their necessities and 10
increase their poserover their actions The
not unlike that has recently occurred In which the
people neisheorbood themselves did what the whole
people have partially done the other. The steamboat
fare IN particular tee ned too high. Opposition
boats. at hall price. repeatedly attempted and
peatsdy on by reducing the fare low that oppos
ton Another attempted and the price
OF the old boat reduced 70 oneourth but the Arm
ers grown taxed themselves the additional quarter
and refused TO the boat aud after two years OF
Intellectual contest the price fixed permanently At halt
the original price The resistance offered by the Amefi
Tard fenced greatly TO produce, IT. indeed WAS not
the absolute Of the abolition OF the corn laws, and
that precisely the needed FOX giving the
right direction TO the capital OF England. She will new
become extensively agricultural, and the United
States future time, be enabled TO concentrate
their population upon the rich SOILS instead OF scattering
% widely they have heretofore done AMI BY de-
sss hess two effects shall be produced. the necessity
FOR protection VIII disappear.
II the view We have thus offered Re correct, as we be-
hsvs 10 &c, will be obvious thu, the people OF the
United States have done in they have else
whore done ana that they have engaged Of any
description whatsoever, except for self deerce The cor
sequence Of this is the great fact the poor and scat
tered colonss OF sixty years since constitute the
weAlthies nation In the world They have accumulated
within very brief period larger property than Is pos
sssses even oy United Kingdom the westhest eoua-
munty OF the Eastern Hemisphere They make slArger