The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-03-12

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favor each endeayoring to make as many
friends % possible by discounting as largely
as and more largely than its means would allow.
From the beginning of 1884 to the end of 1886,
when the contest was determined in favor Of
the State banks, the bank loans and discounts
rose from 1924 600, 900 to $457, 000, 900 and as
matter Of course the imports Of foreign goods
rose at the same time from Sl26, 900 to
nearly $3.50, 100000. This movement received
astill greater impetus when the deposits were
LOGGED in the State banks, thus giving them q
semblance of financial strength, and tempting
them to enlarge their line of discounts In
the year 1887, they reached the enormous
amount Of 1925, 100000 but also in that year,
all the New York city banks suspended pay
ment and most Of the financial institutions of
the country followed the example The crisis
was FASTENED by the specie circular requiring
debtors to the general government to pay in
coin instead of paper. But the expansion of
the four last years had rendered crash inevi-
table.
! The revulsion operated directly on the i'm
ports. In 1886 they had nearly reached
$l90,O0O,O00. The year 1887 began on still
more extensive scale but the revulsion put a
stop to the purchases on this side, and for the
whole year the imports were only about SILL
| 10000. Matters went on in the same way for
several years. The banks contracted their dis
counts, the imports grew less and less Presi
dent Tyler vetoed the Bank bill, and the Bank
rupt law was passed; but no change took
place.
1t might have been supposed that the per-
feet parallelism which had been maintained for
| years between the bank issues and the Imports
IDENTIFY Of the tariff, often rising when the lat
ter was high, and falling when it was lower-it
might have been supposed that this would have
. -uyinced the people that alterations in the
..r;a we're not the remedies for periods Of COM
noro;., a>'aress. Bu. Mr.. Clay and Others,
nh bod no,;.,. al objects to serve, kept the
wo,a protoo.;ou 90, >~tantly before the public
eye, and men who were b, ae.'ns '"se'iy o"uens
at the straw Of comfort. TIL. "anuiao.ueis Vi
course were as eager as ever t. see 'ner lei
low countrymen tax the mselves for tn. :" oelen''
Accordingly in 1912, Mr.. Clay's compls %''ee
tariff having served its ten years, and the ave-
rage duty on foreign imports being twenty per
cent, Mr.. Tyler signed new tariff avowedly
in order to afford protection to American man.
ufactures.
The first year of the new tariff witnessed
great falling off in the imports, which fell to
$64,753,799. But the very next year ushered
in an improvement, and by its close
the imports were larger than in the
last year Of Clay's compromise tariff
II anything could have convinced the Tariff
men Of the utter folly of their principles,
it was this The country understood the mat
ter plainly enough by this time, and one OF the
! first cots Of the new democratic President,
James K. Polk, was to advise Congress to enact
new tariff, reducing the rates of duty. The
Pennsylvanians and the Lowell and other manu-
featuring men set up dismal bowling at being
placed on the same footing as farmers, lawyers
tailors and carpenters; but the President was
firm, Congress was clear, RobertJ. Walker was
prompt, and the new tariff was passed in 1876
1t has lasted till now, and not the least of the
ludicrous blunders to which it has given rise
has been the notion studiously circulated by the
protectionists that it was free trade tariff
the fact being, as every one who chooses to ex-
anime it will perceive, that it is calculated in
ordinary times to give the government surplus
Of from five to ten millions per annum, chiefly
made up by taxing foreign goods in order to
keep up the price ofnative manufactures. Twen-
ty-fve per cent or five per cent higher than
Clay's compromise tariff of 1888, would per-
l hop ha a fair Of ha Int
Yet notwithstanding this onerous tax, the banks
extending their loans, the importations increased
from STAG, 00O, 900 in ls47, to S304, OOO, 900 in
1854; or at the rate OF one hundred per cent in
seven years. This unexampled increase is at
cnce explained by a reference to the bank Ia
bles which show that during the same period,
the bank loans and discounts swelled from
$4,000 600 to s607 100000; but to those who
look to the tariff as the handspring of CONNER
cial fluctuations, it must be totally inexplicable.
If the Senate had not rejected the late tariff
bill passed by the House, or if both bodies had
paid attention to this important business at an
earlier period of the session, the present tariff
would have undergone reduction which would
have prevented tie accumulation of further
surplus in the treasury. 1t is difficult to say
what influence the Know Nothing doctrines
may exercise on the tariff question in some
parts it is said that they have allowed the
manufacturers to Undue them with the narrow
commercial theories Of thirty years ago but
On the whole, it seems probable that the next
Congress will pass tariff bill in form analo
gous 10 that of the House bill of last session.
No one, save the fossil remains of Mr.. Clay's
defunct party, and those who like the manu-
fscturers have q personal interest in the impo-
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