The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-01-08
The Harmony of Industrial Interests.

liat were SAID Oy Dr. JOHNSON, was An re-
gard to trade. at is mistaken notion"
said he, 'sthat vast deal of money is
brought into nation by trade. 1t is not
SO. Commodities come from commodi-
ties, but trade produces no capital acces-
sion of wealth."
'EWhere are the workshops of the
world''-says the Secretary Of the Trea-
sury, in his recent able report - "there
are the marts of the world, and the
heart of wealth, commerce and power"
The more nation produces the more it
can consume, and buy, and accumulate,
and exchange. No merely agricultural
people ever was rich, or, in the nature of
things, ever can be rich. All nations
must raise their own breadstuffs-the for
eign demand, therefore, for these prime
necessaries of life must be extremely linn
tied, except in seasons of local famine.
Every ton of coal or iron that is brought
to market, every yard of cotton or wool
len cloth that is manufactured, represents
so much employed labor that has secured
to itself the means of corresponding con-
sumption of something else. The larger
the domestic produce of the loom, the
plough, and the anvil, the larger is the
national ability to consume the larger is
the demand upon foreign markets; the larger
is the profit of the merchants and ship-own-
ers, and carriers, and factors who are en-
ployed in the exchange of commodities
The mere carrying and exchanging may
enrich individuals, but add little to the
national wealth.
Mr.. H. C. CAREY, of Philadelphia, in
series of chapters called forth by circular
of the Secretary of the Treasury published
in the recent numbers of Mr.. SINNERS
valuable journal, has undertaken to exhibit
the harmony of interests in the world
of labor-agicultural, manufacturing, and
commercial. We have before us the
third chapter of this series, being re-
view of our commercial policy of the last
thirty years. The object of it is to show
that the productive power Of the country
has increased under every protective tariff,
and has diminished under the compromise
act, and the tariff of 1916. With the
increase of productive power, the poa0T
of importation and consumption has in
creased; and importation and consumption
consequently have increased, being but
slightly affected by the question Of duty.
Under the tariff Of 1916, Mr.. CAREY
shows that, the power Of production being
diminished, the power to consume those
things for which we are willing to labor is
gradually but surely diminishing; that our
revenue is falling off; that our public debt
is augmenting; that immigration is dimin
ishing; that emigration is increasing; that
wages have fallen and are falling, and
that the comforts Of the country are ne
cesssrily impaired by the impaired powers
of consumption.
The trouble with the management of
this tariff question arises from the circum-
stance that all the topics of defamation
are on one side, though all the facts are
on the other. We have notions on the
subject Of freedom, which give charm to
the suggestion Of free trade. The argu-
ment is, by SO much as freedom is better
than bondage, free trade must be better
than fettered trade The answer is, that
there is no analogy between the idea Of
freedom as applied to trade, and political
freedom. But the imagined analogy,
however, is thrown back upon you, with
any amount Of tropes, and figures, and TO-
tund periods, designed TO show that free
dom abstractly is very excellent thing
and that freedom, therefore, must be the
best condition Of trade as well as Of man.
There is no answering this kind Of de-
clsmstion, by defamation. The free
trade men, in that case, sweep the field.
But the moment you bring their fine theo-
ries and eloquent periods to the bard test
of facts, then the tariff man has il all his
way. The facts and figures are all in his
favor. They prove in our own case that,
under the wise protection Of Home Labor,
there has uniformly been large increase
of national and individual wealth; and
that, with every approach to system of
free trade, or a system that places Ameri-
can industry in unrestricted competition
with the ill-paid and ill-fed labor Of other
countries, we have become indebted and
impoverished.
Mr.. CAREY has succeeded in demon
strGting from official returns these propo-
sitions: that the tariff policy Of 1923 in
creased production, raised wages, in
creased the power to pay for foreign com
modities, augmented our revenue, and
elevated our public credit. The policy Of
1870 - ,1roducod roqrltS rrac,eolv fhe 70