Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-03-08


buy. After 1887, the duties under the act o
1882 were reduced did the imports increase
Instead of increasing, they fell of from
{ 140.o00,Ooo 10 S64,0O0,000; because during
the same period the hank accommodations
fell fromS5OQ,0O0,0oO TO S250O00O00, round
numbers. .,...f. .r--i IA g.
Again in 1912, the protectionists got the
upper hand and the duties were increased;
wherefrom, according TO the Cosuie's argu-
ment, the imports should have fallen of.
But they increased again from $64 ,0000 to
$4,000 600; the banks having begun to ex-
pand, and the loans and discounts having in
creased nearly hundred millions. Under
the present tariff, which, whatever the pro-
tectionists may say, is protective tariff to
all intents and purposes, the imports have in
creased one hundred and fifty per cent in
eight years; simply because the banks have
expanded one hundred per cent in the same
period, thus doubling every mans means to
buy foreign goods and wares.
There are some men who will never be
convinced and il may be that some protec-
tionists will never ADM: that you cannot by
law settle what man shall buy for his house.
his belly or his back, or from whom he shall
buy IL The world, however, cannot wait for
lions of enlightened human beings who COM
pose the American people, cannot be bam-
boozled any longer into legislating, at the
selfish dictates of this or that class. on the
insane method called protection. Cradeled
III mealness and avarice, that theory has
grown by faisehood, and has owed its success
10 the knavery of some, TO the Ignorance Of
Others. f.
The first men who demanded protective
tariff in this country were tho manufacturers
who had begun 10 manufacture during the
war with Great Britain, and who foresaw that
peace must destroy their vocation. They ask,
ed that Congress should make law 10 pre-
vent the peace destroying their factores-or
in other words 10 subject the people at large
to the burthens of aperpetual war. The idea
was caught up by Mr.. Calhoun, Mr.. Clay and
others who sought to make political capitals
out of it. and to marshal the people into po-
htical parties on the issue Then New Eng
land began 10 found cotton mills; Rhode
Island set up woollen factories; Pennsylvania
mined and wrought iron All ran 10 Congres
I'D representing themselves as -besgars.. iu
plored aims in the guise Of protection. HI
tory proves that il ~ only on rare occasioi}
that communities of men have sufficient inn
dependence or holiness of character to refrain
from mendieancy when anything is 10 be
made by it. The manufacturing interests If
the United States made a business Of beg
ging.d The more they got the more they
wanted. When John c. Calhoun discemed
the fallacy disguised under the word protec-
ton and denounced IT. Webster and Massa-
chusetts begged more sturdily than ever.
Their rapacity grew with their success. With
nav gorgcd by thepublic plumber, the indus
trials would return home to fatten and whine
at the want of protection They said they
were starving when they were in reality fat
tening on the plumber of their fellow citi-
zens. ID lls Hi H -i
Day after day they told us doleful tales Of
closed factories, and broken mills ; and the
ink with which the impulent fallacy was
written, the paper on which it was printed,
the tools with which the types were fashion
ed, and the press on which the sheets were
thrown of, were all bought and paid for out,
of the taxes imposed upon the public for the
benefit Of COMPLIMENTS A more astonishing.
example Of brazen faced impertinence has
never been witnessed than the spectacle Of
these manufacturers and their party friends
CRYING and lamenting over the wrong that was
done them, when In reality they had been
securing money on false pretenses out ofthe
nation for nearly forty years asF -
Their day is ended, however. and unless
providence is unusually hard. We shall hear
no more Of them than We do OF other lunatics.
Ths sariff may be altered and reduced or in
creased according as the public wants require
it. But these changes will not be based on
the protective principle. Nor win any who
have regard for. their reputation as men Of
sense, hazard future speculations on the eff
feet of the tariff on imports The figures are
before the public, and mo one can henceforth
pretend ignorance of the fact that it has hap
pened in this country that attentions in the
tariff have been followed by the very oppo-
site result to that expected BY the protec-.
tionists. As well might we argue that high
tariff encourages, as that it intends to dis.
courage foreign imports.