Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1848-07-13
MONTPELIER, VERMONT,
THE FREEHE AN.
For the Green Mountain Fireman.
TARIFF AND FREE TRADE.
"REPLY TO 49," BY ABB"
"COme and let as reason together"
NUMBER g.

Ut NiodI DllJulu ol eAdPe' surrey LaTlHS Cend 10
benefit the poor, they have had ample time to do it
there We should expect to see all its inhabitants in
state of happy, prosperous competency. But how is
it? Can you find poorer people on the face of Gods
earth than the starved laboring classes there? The
syren song of "protecton" has been sounded in their
ears, until they have been protected to death. ..
The problem solved and worked out on the worlds
blackboard, and all may read and understand if they
will 1t has had time there, to exhibit its tendencies
and results. One fact is worth ten thousand argu-
ments 1t will sweep away all the ingenious, fine
spun theories to the contrary invented by inter
esed men. And Great Britain is not alone in this ex-
hibition. The results are seen every where in
the old world and things are tending to the same way
in the new
Look at the British corn laws. What are they?
High protective tariffs provisions. Who are bene-
fitted by them? The Government and rich men. Who
suffer by them? The poor g. their sueriugs have been
neither few rihng. Those who raise just enough
so that they neither buy nor SELL are not directly af
fected by them. The rich-who are engaged in 9TH
er caings, not injured the cost of pro-
visions is mere nothing to them. They have money
enough to buy at any price and not feel it. But the
poor-et US give them u little more thought. Bread
is truly their staff of life. They can endure cheap
clothing and poor lodngs, but they must eat or die.
They can let their children grow up in ignorance for
want of means to procure them education but they
must feed them they staryo. A tariff, then, which
increases the prices of provision by way of tax, duty,
revenue, protection is always oppressive to them.
1t bears hardest on the poorest of the poor the ,cea
est of the feeble. But when, in a time of general
scarcity or famine, provisions are brought in from
abroad, if the tariff steps in between the poor mans
life and his mouth, and says to him, you must pay
tax on every mouthul you eat either to government
the rich producer at home the tariff then is abso-
utely horrible! 1t is murdcrous! It is Internal!
But this is tariff protection" and no fancy picture
1t wrenches the bread from the mouths of the poor
They cannot get money enough to buy provisions, and
thousands in England Ireland Scotland g. elsewhere,
have starved, and starving daily. They have been
protected till their labor commands but beggarIy t-
file for wages, and provisions have protected till they
cost enormous prices. Not only have their men work
ed themselves to walking Skeletons but their children
never know the joys of childhood or the glowing as
piratons of youth 1t is "work, work, work" from the
dawn of life till the taper is extingushed in deaths
darkness And the females too. How long since the
very blood in our veins was chilled while reading the
accounts of some examination into the condition of the
working classes in the mines and various manufac-
turing establishments in Great Britain To think that
women should be buried in those mines for weeks and
months, without seeing the light of day, and be COM
me- IL
"hurdles" heavily loaded is enough to make man
ashamed of his kind. Does tariff benefit these?
No 1t adds to their suerngs, already too grievous
to be borne 1t loads with additional burdens those
already crushed in the earth.
But it may be SAID this is not the case in the Unit
ed States I answer the principle of tariff taxa
ton is the same every rOhere may differ in degree
but not in kind. Men are as selfish in America as
every where else. True, we are not so overrun with
population as to fear famine; but the time has been
within 90 years, when foreign grain imported to
supply our wants; and we have abundance of specu-
ators who buy and hoard up grain ETC., in the cities
so as to get high prices and thus enrich themselves
out of the necessities of the poor If tariffs have not
produced in full growth here, all the results they have
!
and have more for agricultural pursuits; and be-
cause poor man can procure piece of land in the
new settlements for triAe new country will flour
sh in spite of tariffs while soil is plenty and popula
ton sparce. But enough may be seen even here tC
show that things are tending to similar results Prop
erty is accommodating in the hands of few wealthy
men, They monopolize, and the facilities for monop
oily are increasing.
In the country, wealthy men are buying up thu
lands of the poor and adding farm to farm, In the
cities and large manufacturing towns the same spri
is seen, and with similar results
The poor classes are tending downward, and thu
difficulties in the way of their owning real estate are
increasing the country grows older cities sprin!
up, and as wealth centers in the hands of few Nov
do not contend that the tariff is the sole cause which
produces such results, but it one cause and prom
inent one which helps to bring them about This il
the nature of its influence
( Look at the history ofthe case in our manuacurn!
towns and cities. stream for ages has rolled its wa
tiers along undisturbed and unchecked by man. A few
farmers have settled on its banks and cultivated tn
land in Quietness and peace By and by "protecon
empts The capitalist to LOOK upa waer-prvlegP. IL
fixes upon one. Without making known his plans t
Il the farmer, he buys land and water for mere song
Dams are erected and thousands of spindes set
notion Thousands are Grawn hilher, building lots ai
l. out and sold at enormous prices, tenemens erect
ed, and in few years large village, and then city
with alits privileges, vices and mseries, occupies th
site. Well are the aborng classes here in reality an
IN better off than they would have been had the
remained in the quiet pursuit of their ordinary avoci
tons2 individuals may be richer the masses are re
ally poorer most of them have been obliged to expen
re all their earnings for houserents, fuel provisions eli
" They have never been able to buy land to build on
IS much less to build habtaon But let us take anotl
er view.
T. S. says, that to ill these manufacturing establish
" ments, they are obliged to offer such wages as wi
=. draw the laborers from all other employments. No
49, $40 s,.o,, oILo. nootivna h.