Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1848-11-02

1
change their character. We should still bu'
largely from abroad but not of articles that conn
IN direct competition with our own products. w,
should buy far more of such as we continued {,
buy because Of our greatly increased ability t.
buy. Thus Massachusetts, with her immensel,
diversified Industry, now consumes more of Im
ports than either Carolina, because her laborins
classes are better educated, better employed, bet
ter paid-haye larger circle of wants and the
means of gratifying them. If every person in
this country were steadily employed and fairly
remu Grated, the demand for every description Of
goods would be increased beyond all calcution.-
This is the end contemplated by Protection.
- But what is the need of Protective Duties,
asks dUubter, if it be our interest to buy al
home e. Whose interest! 1t is our interest
as People that no iniquites shall be committed
IN the land, yet they are committed daily because
Individuals fancy their several interests may be
promoted by that which they know to be hostile
to the general interest. The fine lady does not
step into fashionable store in quest of such a
dress as the public interest may dictate, but such
one as will increase her personal attractions.
The lawyer who has just received $50 for plead
ing the cause of an American citizen turns into a
taiors shop to expend his fee in suit of clothes;
and, though he is quite aware that If everybody
would wear American cloth the general prosperi-
ty OF the country would be promoted, and he, hav-
also, he vet says My one suit can make no ma
teral difference-the British cloth is more fash
ionable and is said to be more servceable, so
will take is'-not considering that the very fact
of such general preference tends to keep Ameri-
can goods inferior in quality and cheapness. So
we 60 On, keeping our own fabrics in the back
ground so far as possible by constantly insisting
or conceding that they belong there.
But if England will sell US Railroad Iron for
$40 or $50, while good American Bars cost $50,
why should we not buy of her For several
good reasons, and among them these Because
buying mainly Of our own makers would stimulate
them 10 continued improvement in their machinery,
processes, &c. and would thus unless all analogy
is deceptive) soon bring down the price ofAmeri-
can Iron, the prices of American Pins, Cotton
fabrics, Cut Nails Wood Screws, and hundreds
of like articles have been reduced. Because
the money price at which the two articles are res-
pectivey sold in New York affords no reliable cri-
teFion of their relative cost, and our Iron made at
home fox sec has really cost US less than that i'm
ported and sold for S45. For the $50 cost of ton
OF American Iron is made up of the prices of Ore,
of W Nood, &c. which would have borne no value
otherwise, and of Labor, Vegetables, Fruits, But
ter, &c. &c. OF which the money value has often
been created aud always largely increased by putt
ting Iron Works In operation in the vicinity. II
is my deliberate conviction that the Iron used in
this country would cost the consumers far less If
made here at $50 per ton than if imported at $45
while am equally certain that steady and eff
cient Protection fer twenty years would reduce
the cost of American Iron at least twenty and
probably forty per cent. 1t is not, therefore, for
the sake of ron-makers especially, but for the
sake OF every class of producers of wealth, that
we insist on the comprehensive and efficient Pro-
iection of American Industry at every point al
which foreign competition is encountered or could
be efleCtuaily attempted.
Take another familiar example, The People OF
Illinois and Wisconsin have an excellent soil for
Grain and Cattle, and are abundantly profered
Wares and Fabrics in exchange for their great
staples, prices lower ii is said, than the cost o
producing the Wares and Fabrics within their
own borders. But is there one rational being who
imagines that their wants would not be better
supplied if their State were thickly dotted with
Factories, FORCES, Foundries, &c. andethe i'm.
portation Of Wares and Fabrics were forbidden
Suppos the Broadcloth now imported for S2shouid
thus be made al nominal cost even of So, and
other Manufactures al proportional rates--what
ofni Who believes that the farmers of these
States would then sell their Wheat and Pork as
low as they now must in order to undersell in
distant markets the producers on farms adjacent
to those markets! or that they would not ind bet
ter use for their arabic acres than growing Grain
and making Pork even at double the present pri-
cest The farm on the Western Prairies which
yields barely ten dollars worth of Wheat to the
acre would, if surrounded by thrifty manufactur-
ing and mechanical population, readily produce
fifty to one hundred dollars worth OF Fruits and
Vegetables, whose bulk and perishable qualities
forbid their transportation and consequently their
culture at distance from extensive markets OF
consumption The Wisconsin farmer who tolls
early and late to raise five hundred dollars worth
of Grain and Meat from his quarter-section could
realize one thousand dollars from it with lighter
labor il theie were Lowell or Patterson at hand,
where Milk, Chickens, Apples, Cherries. Potatoes,
Turnips, Wood, &c. &c. could al all times be sold
for cash. And, SO far from Protection being ad
verse To the dictates of diffusive Beneyolence and
Philanthropy, as is sometimes contended. main
tain that n we looked to this point alone--if we
considered solely duty as brethren of the hard
toiling, ilfed artisans and laborers of Europe we
ought to adopt the Protective Policy, in order not
somuch 10 WOO them to our shores, for they are
coming rapidly. enough, as to secure them steady
employ and fair wages when they do come,
and neither doom them TO perpetual degradation
and famine in the land of their birth nor to the
inadequate and precarious recompense always ac-
corded TO Agricultural labor in country where no
other IS pursued. If the policy which tends to
place the producers of Food by the side Of the
producers Of Clothing, enabled each TO supply his