The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1850-01-08

33 for each individual ours $40 IL. If
their foreign trade were no greater than
ours, in proportion to population, it
would be reduced from five hundred and
twenty to three hundred and twelve mill
lions. flour foreign trade were as great
in proportion to population as is theirs,
it would be swelled in amount from two
hundred and nineteen to three hundred
and sixty-iour millions.
A leading cause of the existing differ
ence is to be found in the fact. that Great
Britain exports chiefly what she has first
brought to the form in which it is ready
for ultimate consumption; it is at the
stage of lis highest value, and her mar
ket is almost cc-extensiye with the civil
lized world.
All history shows that where are the
workshops of the world, there must be
the marts of the world, aud the heart of
wealth, commerce and power. Ii is as
vain to hope to make these marts by pro-
vlding warehouses, as it would be to
make crop by building barn.
We have been, perhaps, too long hes
iiatIng and vacillating on the threshold
Of a great career. The want of srabiI,
iiy in the course Of legislation, and 9th.
er disturbing causes, have hitherto oc-
casioned lncOnvenlences. The short
duration of some of the tariff ac.s-rhe
great expansion of tho currency which
occurred during their operaiion-the
Compromise Act. "a result of what was
believed 10 be a political necessity. J
which. whatever It's effects OH existing
establishments, undoubieo Iy discouraged
new adventurers-and, finally. the un-
expected repeal of the act of IS42-
these circumstances have certainly been
of retarding character.
Yet 1t Is impossible not to observe
that, at every favorabIy moment, vast
movements in advance have been made.
and that the ground thus gained has not
been entirely lost. Ii is believed that
every article, the manufacture Of which
has been established here, has, after that
establishment, continued gradually TO d.
minish in price. end that without cor
responding reduction in the wages of
labor, which, indeed, could not be di>
minished by reason Of an increased de-
mand for it. Statements are annexed,
marked ~, exhibiting some instances
of this result.
These facts lead irresistibly to the
81 IL
much more efficient by use, acquired
skill, enlarged establishments, and new
facilities derived from inventions; that
the difference in price between it and
the foreign labor, however serious an
obstacle to successful competition, will
become less so with every year Of our
activity in the same branches of indus
try; and thus 1t by no means follows
that labor must be worse paid because
its products are sold cheaper; or that
because labor is better paid, Its products
must be sold dearer.
All that is wanting is a general deter
mination that industry shall be encour-
aged and supported in the home produc-
ton aud manufactures of iron, wool,
cotton, sugar, and our other staples, and
that the legislation necessary to sustain
it shall be firmly adopted and perse. cred
in.
will proceed TO state the nature of
the notifications which it appears ex-
pedient to make in the existing Tariff,
and ic ,eouireI will hpreaftar nrsSenf n
plan in detail.
1. The rates of duty are, in my opin-
ion, too low, especially on articles SIM
liar TO cur other staples. | CONCEIVE
that the revenue has suffered materially
from this circumstance. Indeed, am
compelled To believe that il would have
been greatly diminished but for the ex-
traordinary demand for our hreadstuhS
and provisions produced by the famine
in Europe in 1917, and to great ex-
tent continued by the short crop abroad
in IS4S. Even under these favorable
! circumstances, the average revenue from
wooIIens, cations, hempen goods, iron,
sugar, hemp unmanufacturcd. salt and
coal, has fallen under the ACT of 1876
from SIC, I62 ,607 10 Sl3.392 ,624 80,
taking the average from the receipts Of
IS45-IS46, and those of IS4S-lS49 :;
being an average diminuiion Of $780,
9S2 so, As will be seen by table marked
/ IN !, hereto annexed the loss of annual
revenue being as follows
IN