The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-02-05
How to deprcss tho Price OF all our Pro-
ducts. and raise tho Prices OF those OF
other Nations.


| ducts. and raise tho Prices OF those OF
other Nations.
In our last and previous papers we gave the
! impressions produced upon our mind by see
ing, in the late division on the question of
| amending the revenue laws, those whose inter-
ests should have led them to desire to secure a
permanent supply ofgood and cheap iron, ranged
upon the side of the advocates of the English
| monopoly Of iron, and those whose inten SITS
should have led them to desire an increase in
competition for the purchase Of cotton, ranged
upon the side Of the advocates of the English
monopoly Of machinery for the conversion of
cotton into cloth-both pursuing, as it appeared
| to us, in their public capacities, precisely the
opposite course to that which, in their private
| capacities, their interests would naturally have
led them.
A third class also occupied some of our at
| tention, to wit-those northern members whose
constituents are largely interested in finding a
market for their timber, in its various forms of
lumber and frewood, enabling them to clear
their land and fit it for cultivation.
How those constituents are affected, and
likely to be affected, by the present system,
| may be judged of by the following facts com
municated to us by gentlemen from New York
and Maine, which are, as we have every rca-
son to believe, perfectly accurate.
Lumber is entered at the ports on the lakes,
| as we learn, at about one-fourth of its selling
price, that being what the lumber-merchant
sees fit to swear to be its cost. 1t pays, conse
L Sc ~ Ill h,
law, or five per cent, instead of twenty per
cent Firewood is entered about the same in
similar manner at the eastern ports, and pays
| about the same proportion Of the duty provided
| by law; and to this the collector can make no
| objection, for the importer is ready to swear
yields so many thousand feet Of stuff, or so
many cords of wood and that the price for cut
| ting and saving was only so much per cord, or
per thoYsand. Once passed through the Gus
tom-house, the value is trebled or quadrupled.
That this is an evasion of the law no one can
doubt, and yet the law provides no remedy
Thus far it has been attempted to remedy the nu-
merous deficiencies of the law of 1916 by Urea
sury circulars, almost indefinite in number, but
| they are now swept away bodily by the recent
| decision Of the Supreme Court and nothing
| now remains but to let the importer select for
himself, as the time of purchase, and as the
| place of purchase, those which will give him
the lowest rate of duty. He may date his iron
| five years back, OF his wool back to the most
distant region of South America or Australia.
| To us it appears obvious that this course of
| operation is bounty on the lands of the pro-
vinces, paid by the people of Maine New York,
and other States that have timber to sell. The
great market for the lumber and firewood of
| the provinces is our own, and to that market
the colonists must come, and they must pay
the cost Of getting to it, be it what it may, and
whether it includes duty of twenty cents or
one Of dollar. Every cent of the difference
goes into their pockets, adding value to the
land beyond the line, and in corresponding
degree depressing the value of that on this side
Of the line; and yet we see the representatives
of the owners of this latter land voting for the
maintenance of the existing system. They de-
| sire apparently to increase the competition for
| the sale of all our own products and for the pur-
chase of all of the products OF other nations;
thus increasing the price Of the latter precisely
as they diminish those of the former Under
such circumstances, we need scarcely wonder
at the fact that the population of Maine has
greatly diminished in its ratio of growth. It
needs now but the further extension Of the
British free trade system, by the passage of
the reciprocity bill, to produce much larger
diminution in the future.
We would call attention to the memorial of
the Constitutional Convention of Maryland, to
be found in our Congressional report. and
signed by many of the most distinguished citi