The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-02-05
rhs pre.psst-,
Agricultural, Manufacturing, Commercial and Fl.
nanciai: At the opening If the year 1851.
ny HENRy c. CAREY
cHAprER IL.


| At the date OF the passage of the tariff Of 1898,
our production very small indeed. We fed
and lodged ourselves, but the consumption Of cloth
or iron was email, to degree now scarcely con-
| ceivable. The domestic product Of cotton cloth
was but about five pounds per head, and the do
nestle consumption Of cotton but about 100 900
bales, and the import OF cotton cloth OF foreign
manufacture but little more than a pound per
head that the nation was customer TO the plant
ers To but an extent not exceeding 140 900 bales
Ofiron. we produced but little over 100 600 tons.
and the import was about 40. 900; giving a total
consumption Of about twenty five pounds per head
But little food was then required at homie 10 feed
the few people engaged in producing this cloth and
iron, and yet we had very little 10 exchange with
other nations. The whole export Of provisions. Of
every description, in the ten years from 1921 to
1880. had averaged only Sl2, 634 900; while that of
the three years prior and Immediately subsequent
to the passage Of the act Of 1928, follows:
1861. ...................... SlI,6S5,556
, ,s2ss 1870, , = nsl SO
The export Of cotton, too, was trivial ranging in
the ncighborhood of half million of bales The
domestic production of coal but little exceeded l0D
600 tons; and yet our import was but about 80 600
tons,
Iii obyious from this that production was small,
and that, although consumed but little cotton,
and made little cloth at home and although our
miners, and furnace men, and our mill Operative
consuned but little food at home, we had little 10
send abroad for the purchase OF either cloth IRON
Within four years from The date of the passage of
that acthat Is to say, at the time OF the passage
of the compromise act-the domestic production OF
iron has risen TO above two hundred thousand TONS
the increase having been about sixty per cent.
From that time it ceased to grow, railroad iron
having been freed from all duty
The act of 1928 became fairly operative in the
fiscal year 1929 30 The compromise moved at first
very slowly--the early reductions being slight
and its operation unfelt before 1895; but It be-
gan then fairly 10 be realized that within few
years all duties would fall to twenty per cent and
from that date Its influence became fairly percep
bic In considering the working of the tariff OF
1928, 1t Is proper, therefore, to include the fiscal
year 1884 3, and, to some extent the year 1885
it-elf
OF the cotton crop raised in 1894. the domesi ic
consumption was 2l6,000 bales; and that of wool
had increased about twenty millions Of pounds.
Coal had advanced TO about haifa million OF tons
having thus almost quadrupled; while iron re-,
manned at about the point it had reached in 1881.
Here was, OBJ ously, vast increase of production
The labor given to the work III converting cotton
into cloth had almost doubled. The quantity of
wool had increased fifty per cent, and the whole
to the production Of coal and iron had more than
doubled, and the average of all showed increase
Of at least two thirds, with increase in The
amount Of production, resulting from the labor
30 applied, that cannot be estimated lees than
thirty millions of dollars ftDo and half times the
uaius Of all the food Of eUery kind, exported IN the
precious years
Ii was then, as now, asserted that this was all a
mere ''waste Of the national capital" and that
iron and cloth would be obtained more readily in
exchange for food or cotton sent abroad. To
tain how far the facts tend prove the existence of
such "wastc OF capital, we may now inquire whe
ther this increased amount of home consumption
was attended with increased or diminished
power OF export. Doing So we obtain the follow
ing results: