New-York daily tribune., 1851-07-15

the consumer He it is that now pays our
taxes. and the abolition of duty would throw
! those taxes upon the shoulders of our own
people
Our correspondent keeps carefully out OF
view that the operations here described are
successive, and each one consequent upon
the other. The rise of price to sixty dol
lars is preceded by 4 fall to thirty dol
lars. of just so long continuance as is re-
quired to ruin the poorer domestic pTodu-
/ GERS of iron. and thus so far diminish the
supply as to reestablsh in the hands of the
wealthy British iron masters the monopoly
that was so nearly destroyed by the Tariff
of 1912, under which was established the
competition that now enables US 10 have
iron at less than $40 per tun. He Is at
loss to understand why the manufacturer
of iron should quit the business on the abo-
lition of all protection. when the prospect Is
that that article will rise from S50to $50 per
tun = but his difficulty will we think be re-
moved if he will study the facts passing in
his own immediate neighborhoOd On our
lakes and rivers competition has frequently
been carried TO such point that men and
merchandise have been carried almost for
nothing, the object of each of the contendlng
parties being to break the other, each
knowing 10 an absolute certainty that the
winner in the race will make his fortune.
One at length is ruined and he abandons
the field. "qutting the business" as our
correspondent SAYS, not only when " the
prospect is that the article will RISE but
when it has become absolutely certain that
the rise will take place within tweaty-tour
hours. We beg him to study these facts,
and then to reperuse the article upon which
he comments.
He is Of opinion that the furnaces would
again be opened as soon as the price should
rise to S6O,-that is that the men who had
been ruined by it at $50, could forthwith
raise capital to recOmmence operations
having before them the absolute certainty
that with the addition of 100000 tuns to the
existing reduced amount of production, the
price would fall again to $50, and then they
would be ruined over again. He thinks,
too, that it is "blowing hot and cold" to say
that the unprotected furnaces could not be
put in blast at $50, whereas under protec-
tive duty of $50 per tun, they could be
started at $50 By way of reply to this,
we would ask him to say whether after all
the furnace masters had been ruined, their
people scattered over the west, and their
machinery wasted in value in its passage
through the hands of the sheriff and his
successors, he wsuld himself RISK k's for
tune in starting a furnace, knowing, as
he would, that the existing high prices
would be followed by very low ones, and
that before he could have indemnified him
self for one-fourth of his expenditure Ii
he would not, he might be assured that 9TH
ers would not. Again, suppose the duty to
be fixed permanently at $50, rendering 1t
certain that foreign iron could not be I'M
ported under $50 and himselfto feel assured
that at that price he could make iron
and live, would he hesitate to do 1t II he
would not, he might feel assured that others
would not.
The object of Great Britain is to under
work the world, and thus to secure mon
! opolv of trade, by aid Of which to fix her
own prices for all she thinks proper to buy
and all she has to sell and her course Of
operation is so well illustrated by what is
now being done in relation to steam navlga-
ton. that we avail ourselves of this oppor-
tunity TO call attention to it. For more than
ten years she had monopoly of steam COM
municaton between the two countries, and
il was with view 10 aid in breaking down
this monopoly that Congress granted to Mr..
Collins and to others protection, IN the form
of large payments for the transportation OF
the mails. Forthwith upon the establish
ment OF competition, freight and passage by
the British lines were reduced, and lines
we're established for transporting to Liver
pool, free of all charge, from the con-
tinent. men and things that desired to
seek transport to this cOuntry-the object
being the annlhIlation OF our competition and
: the reestablishment of the monopoly. with
all it, enormous charges. \ necessary con-
sequence Of this l. that NJ. Collins and
other lines need further Protect'on, and
they must have 1t. or the trade must fall
again into the hands OF the monOpolists.
Here We have the same question repeated on