Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1851-09-04
EASTERN TIMES.
Bath, Thursday, Sept. 4, 1851.

Bath, Thursday, Sept. 4, 1851.
Yankee Skill versus Protection
The experiment of m anufacturing shawls,
which was started by the Bay State Mills Com
Pany in Massachusetts,, in the summer of ls43.
and which has proved eminently successful.
demonstrates one fact beyond dispute: to wit: :
that Skill ingenuity and judicious management
can be relied upon with more security, by man
ufacturers, than the most favorable protection
that these, in fact, constitute all the protection
required. ...t.
This branch of manufacture was started since
the enactment of 1916. the only protection
which it has received being revenue duty of
30 per cent upon the foreign invoice value
notwithstanding which fact, we find the wing
papers attribute its success to the fostering
influence and aid of protection The New
York Tribune in an article in which the pros
perity of this manufacture is duly heralded,
argues as follows
Here IS a conclusive argument in favor Of
Protection, which no amount of abstract soph-
istry or bold hypothesis can overthrow. This
manufacture, already very important, and des
tined to attain still greater magnitude, is the
fruit of Protection, and could not have been
called into existence under what is falsely
called Free Trade.
What is shown most palpably by these facts
is, that adequate Protection is the only way to
genuine Free Trade. We have now gained
that point in wooden shawls, because domestic
production has been fostered into being and
developed to sucha degree that it is able to
compete with foreign production, and even to
beat it So far as the fabrication OF shawIs Is
concerned, our own resources are matured and
bxoug hit into activity, and therefore we actual
N Nave the sole basis of Free Trade.
But had there been no Protection, we should
still have been buying shawls of England
This we find unblushingly asserted in the
Tribune, under heading which reads 1.-THE
Proof from Facts" But upon what facts the
Tri6unes reasoning is based. does not appear
it certainly could not have been founded upon
the genuine facts connected with the history of
this manufacture.
The Bay State Mills Company was the pio-
neer in the enterprise, and as stated before,
the Company did not commence operations,
until the summer of lS4S-consequently this
manufacture has grown up under system of
revenue duties, and has never enjoyed any fos-
tsring protection other than that which is Incl
dentally derived from the revenue duty of 80
per cent. imposed by the Tariff of '46.
The success of the enterprise has been re-
Gently demonstrated by the sale of fce thousand
of these Bay State Mills Shawls, in the Canada
market, after paying the II per cent. duty to
which they were subject there. These mills, it
is stated, will turn out the present year, 1856,
600 shawls and it is estimated that other es-
adjustments will swell the aggregate to about
half million !. Now the real causes of the
success of this branch of manufacture,
found in the history of the enterprise. ap
pears by the following facts related by the
Journal of Commerce. 1t says
"The greatest difficulty was in regard to
colors. To secure perfection in this respect a
German dyer of some celebrity was employed,
but he made total failure. Then Scotch
man from the principal shawl district of his own
country was tried, and he gave up, ascribing
his failure to some fault in the ,cdter. Then
the interchangeable manufacturer fell back upon
Yankee who had served his time in the dye
house of another mill under his charge, and he
succeeded in producing the colors which are
the wonder of all Europe. The Scottish mode
of twisting the fringe was by the hand, and
this cost, at the lowest rate, 40 cents for each
long-shawl A Yankee in this same mill in
vented a-t,csting machine, which does the same
work in better style for cents. The success
Of the goods was insured from the outset"
The Bangor Democrat, in abiding to this
subject, and to the above paragraph, makes the
following logical and pertinent remarks =
80 1t seems them that the shawl manufac-
ture has prospered, not because it has been
handled in the lap of protection, but because
those concerned in it, have relied upon their
own energy and ingenuity 1t is from such
causes only, that any business can have a
healthy growth. The iron business has been
the pet of this government for more than a
generation, and has always been sheltered by
the highest schedule of protective duties. Yet
il is at this moment fercer in its clamors for
aid than any other interest, and according to
the representations of its own advocates, en-.
tirely unable to get along upon its own legs
On the contrary, ship building, which instead
of aids from the government. has been visited
with nothing but taxes and burdens, has ad-
vanced with giant strides, and the United
States now ask nothing but fair field and no
favor, to command the commerce Of the world
Competition rouses men to exertion, while pro-
lection benumos enterprise by taking away the
stimulus to it.
The suggestion of the Tribune, not now for
the first time made, that branches Of business
may be started by protection. until they get
strength enough to go along without it, has
some plausibility, but no soundness. The iron
interest talks about being IN its infancy,' quite
as much at this day, as it did in 1916. No
business. which once gets taste for protection
is ever willing to give it up. The manufactur-
ing interest has been tried upon this point, and
with result, which shows that an insane
greediness is its chronic and immedicable dis
ease In 1888, it became party to compro-
mise. by which, in consideration of the post
ponement for nine years of reduction of duties
demanded by the public will, it agreed to be
afterwards content with moderate revenue
tariff. We then had the same story Of foster.
ing duties, for short time only But at the
end of nine years. when turn in political af-
fairs had placed the manufacturing interest in
power, we witnessed the enactment of the
Black Tariff of 1912. more oppressive in its ex-
actions. than any which had preceded it. The
truth is, that these men have kept no faith in
times past, and will keep none in times to
come. To attempt to appease their appetite
for monopoly by giving it to them for brief Pc
RODS, is like giving the tiger small taste of
blood to cure his thirst for slaughter