New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-11-20
HARD TINES AND THEIR RGhEDf'

Eight wears since, the crops of Europe islied'
and our farmers were called upon to supply the
deficiency of food thereby produced. We then
under "the benign influence" of that policy
which had in the brief period OF FIVE years raised
the nation from the lowest depth, of gloom and
dependency t, state of high prosperity, were
enabled to infuse into the circulation Of the couD-
try no less than trexty-tro millions Of ssid-and
| the reason why we were enabled to do this, was
that. by help of the tariff Of 1912, we were sup
plying ourselves with home made iron, home
made cloth, and home. grown sugar. The reve-
nue. tariff of 1902 had given us shin-plasters.
but the protective tariff of 1882 gave US gold and
silver simultaneously with this failure of foreign
crops. the Polk Administration, with Mr.. Walker
| for its manager, had succeeded, by help Of cor
ruption and intimidation, in forcing upon the peo-
pie an abandonment Of that policy to which they
had been indebted for a resuscitation more re-
msrkable than any elsewhere recorded in history
and forthwith we were assured that IL was to
that change these results were due. While re-
pudiatng the protective policy, MIR. Walker stole
its thunder. The crops, however, had failed be-
fore the tariff had been altered, and besides the
unfayorable weather of the spring and summer OF
1876 could scarcely be attributed to an act of our
Congress that had no living existence until the
expiration of nearly half of the fiscal year in
which the corn was exported and the gold i'm
ported to pay for it.
These results were, however, too brilliant not
to be claimed for free trade; and thus it is that
our neighb0r Of The Journal continues to claim
1867 as free trade year, and, BY help of
tables so constructed, to mystify its readers as
to the tendency of the existing system. So, too,
was it with Mr.. Walker. Under free trade, all
future years were to surpass the last year of the
tariff of 1912; and we were, before this time, to
export food to the amount of thousand mil
lions of dollars year, import gold from every
quarter of the earth, and have iron so cheap that
almost every man could have q railroad to his
own d0or-tbe comment upon which is to be
found in the fact that to reduce the price of
food at home we have just agreed to admit that
of Canada free of duty as sop to the Cana
dams to keep them out of the Union-that gold
lie so scarce as to be worth two pr cent. per
month-and that the difficulty of making roads Is
so great that the author Of the tariff of 1916 has
Just failed, or if all reports are true, has barely
escaped falling in all his efforts to raise the wind
10 the extent required for the first payment on the
Moonshine Railroad He is punished. 90 Curses"
says the Eastern proserb, always come home
"to roost;" and such would seem now to be case
With Mr.. Walker, who, whether he has now
raised 100000 or not, will never make his road
under his system of policy.
-Four years after the passage of the act OF 1916,
California Gold was discovered. This was
god send to the free traders as it gave brief
respite to the system under which, in 1850, we
were gradually closing all the mills, furnaces and
mines Of the country. Since then, our product Of
gold has averaged about fifty millions of dollars
year, aud yet are we everywhere surrounded
with evidences that money is rapidly becoming
an unattainable commodity. From day to day We
hear of stoppsges of banks and bankers in almost
every part Of the country, unable to redeem the
circulation that in the present prostratiOn of
trade, is so rapidly thrown back upon them They
have securities in abundance, but no money
From day to day we hear of failures of merchants
with property in abundance who cannot com
mand money. Manufacturers are everywhere
stopping for want of MONEY A thousand men are
just discharged by one establishment in Maryland
for want of money. Railroads are everywhere
stopped for want of money. Houses cease to be
built, cloth, iron and all other commodities cease
to be bought, forwsnt Of money. Paral ysis thus
gradually coming over the whole system forwant
of means Of exchanging the products of labor
and yet we, the people of the United States, who
are thus suffering for want Of money, are owners
Of one of the great sources from which money is
supplied to the world, and are exporting weekly
from one to two millions of the commodity for
want of which the laborer is deprived of employ
ment, the merchant is losing his trade, the manu-
facturer is compelled to close his doors, the far
mer is likely to lose bis market, and the ownerso Of
houses and sbopsin this City likely to lose half
if not even two thirds, of their rents.
To what quarters does this most valuable CON-
modify 60 First to England, but there it does
not seem to stay; for she, like ourselves, is try
ing free trade experiment, and forcing her peo-
pie to est foreign wheat, as we are forcing ours
to consume foreign iron. 1t goes to France,
Belgium and Germany, and there it stays; aud
the why it stays is, that these conatries are
steadily pursuing the same policy under waiea this
country ras so rapidly and t'Onde1ly rs,useitated
from 1912 to ls47-the policy that tends to place
the artisan by the side Of the farmer-the policy
ofprotection for the sake Of protection, and not
as merely incidental to the collection of revenue.
In al those countries money! s cheap, and manu-
facturers, farmers, landowners and house-owners
are prospering together: whereas. in all the free