Burlington tri-weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1852-1855, 1854-12-09

ten hoops, and that it should be felony to
drink small beer"
et83N from the N. Y. Tribune
EFFECTS OF BRITISH FREE TRADE.
The world presents, we think no case of
insanity 80 remarkable as that offered for
consideration By the cotton-planters Of this
country. At their command the tariff of
1912 was overthrown, and yet under it the
domestic consumption Of cotton had risen
from but little more than 100000 bales to
half million, and it continued to rise for
o year, afterward until the tariff Of 1916 be-
came operative, when it had reached 100000
bales, having nearly trebled during the short
period of four years. Now every body
knows that the price Of the whole crop Is
dependant altogether upon the surplus that
accumulatcs in Liverpool, and that every
bale withheld from there tends to produce
rise Of prices, while every enc forced unne-
csssarily upon that market tends TO produce a
fall of prices, and that rise or fall is
always enormously great when compared
with the. deficiency on one hand, or the ex-
cess on the other. The tariff of 1912 caused
the withholding, from the date of its pas.
sage until lS41 of little short of million of
bales, land thus lessened the effect that other
wise must have resulted from the large ex-
cess OF crop during these years amounting
asst did in four years to two millions of
bales. 10 that measure was due the sal
walton the planters during that period, for
had the consumption Of this country been
stationary, the quantity to be forced upon
the Liverpool market would have been great
or by three millions of bales above referred to.
aid the price would have fallen, in all prob
ability, to little more than a half Of what
was obtained for it.
Under the tariff of 1916 the consumption
his, in the past six years, averaged less than
was its amount at the close Of 1912, whereas
it should have grown to at least million Of
bales, and would most probably by this time
reached 100000 had the tariff of 1912 re-
NAMED in operation. In that time our pop
ulation has grown not less than % per
cent, giving more chan four, and probably
not less than five millions of people requiring
to use cotton,and yet the consumption Of do
nestle cotton goods has been little greater
than it was five years since; while during sew
eral of the years it was less by some fifteen
or twenty per cent. From this it follows
that with all the talk about free trade and
prosperity, our people have much lees abili-
ty to purchase clothing than they had at the
close of the tariff Of 1912, whereas during
its existence their power to purchase had
fully doubled.
They buy however more foreign cotton, to
make up for domestic deficiencies. How this
stands, we may now examine.
The total shipments of cotton, linen, WOOL
en- and worsted fabrics, from Liverpool 10
this country in the first ten months Of the
four last years, as just now published have
been as follows:
Packages. 49,. 90 ,427. l06 567 s,49o i3fe7o
This includes, as the reader sees, cotton
linen and wooden manufactures, but were we
to admit the whole to be of cotton, and the
average weight of packages, to be equal to
that of n bale Of cotton. it would make a
consumption of but $4,000 bales. Deduct
ing the wooden, and linen fabrics, and making
allowance for the quantity imported in 1916,
and al we should obtain not even 10000
bales as the quantity of cotton imported, to
take the place of the half million that would
have been manufactured here, and that
would have been consumed by the prosper
ous farmers, planters, miners, makers of iron
cotton and wooden spinners and weavers, and
the great body of other persons who would
have found profitable employment in build
ing mills, making steam engines and other
machinery, had the tariff of 1912 rem aimed
untouched.
We are now exporting every ounce Of gold
that comes from California, besides what
We draw from all parts of the west and
southland are doing this in order that our
people may be worse clothes than they were
seven years since. We send abroad the cot
ton that should be manufactured here, and
thus keep down the price Of the crop; and
then We send the gold to make up the de6c
lency. We send corn, and wheat and pork,
that should be eaten at home, and thus help
to keep down prices abroad, and then send
the gold to buy the iron that should be made
st home, by the men who ate the food. And
all these things we do to such an. extent,
that money is now at one two and three per
cent. per month, and our merchants are being
ruined by the general withdrawal from the
interior of all means of circulating the pro-
ducts Of land and labor. We are now on
TIE brink of ruin, and unless change of po-
hey be obtained at the hands of Congress,
rum must come, and with it a great decrease
IN the consumption of cotton, small even as
now Is to the further loss of the planter.
:, Railroads every where suspended, beause
they cannot be made at TWO per cent. pei
month. Factories have already ceased to be
built, and many of those in existence must
step;s and with every step in this direction
there must be 3 further reduction Of rents
ana OF the value of city property; and yet
Tath all this fully in view before them, will
the people Of this great city not venture to
demonstrate with their Legislators, against
'nefurthcf continuance of the present de-
otIuctivA avafemo