Burlington tri-weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1852-1855, 1855-02-08
THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.

THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY.
From a long article, full of truth and
forcible arguments, in the New York Cour-
Ter and Enquirer, we take the following con-
clusion:
s.There is but one cause for the evils by
which we are environcd, and that is, the
Free-trade Tariff of 1916. That abomina-
BILE measure withdrew protection from Amc.
rican labor and American enterprise, and
gave bounty to foreign laborers, and to the
foreign mechanic and citizen. Under that
bounty to foreigners, which put ont our blast
furnaces and closed our manufactures, the
product ons of foreign labor were forced
upon our market and sold upon our promises
to pay. Once purchased, it was necessary to
get rid of them at any price; and OF course
they were sold at prices which forced the pro-
duce of American labor out of the market
and ruined the manufacturer. Thus the for
eigner was given the complete possession OF
our markets: and as their name is legion,
they sold us iron and clothes beyond our
ability to pay, and took in exchange our
Stocks and Railroad Bonds, and notes of
hand. and every conceivable promise to pay
which could be devised. In short, we over
traded-we bought beyond our means-we
gave promises to pay looking far ahea@ all
Of which the foreigner gladly received, be-
cause we were thus giving him the means of
breaking down our American industry and
enterprise, and rendering US forever depen-
dent people and reliable customer. But
our creditor is embrolled in wars and trouble
at home, and he gently informs us that We
must Fay up. Like honest men but foolish
legislators as we are, we 60 to work In good
earnest, to meet our obligations; but ali
striving at the same time, and the united in
debtedness exceeding the united means of
paying, it follows of course, that the where
with to pay rises rapidly in value, and final
ly cannot be procured on any terms or at
any price.
Time will work cure. We shall ultl-
mately pay all we owe. But what then P
Where is the safety against precisely such a
state of things every FIVE years? There is no
such safety, nor can there be any, during the
existence of the present Tariff. Had the
tariff Of 1912 heen continued to this day, in
stead IF the monetary crisis which has SO
long afflicted us we should at this moment
have been the most fourishing nation on the
Globe. Not one dollar of our gold from
California would have left our shores. We
should have been creditor instead of a
debtor nation: and the resources Of our
country would have been developed beyond
what it is possible for most men to imagine.
Nay, had the duty on iron and woolens alone,
continued as under the Tariff Of 1912, we
should al this dav have been a creditor ma
tion-the price of iron would have been thir-
ty per cent. less than at present, in conse-
quence of home competition-our wooden
manufactures would have been profitable,
Furnishing, and constantly on the increase,
instead of all being closed-and our whole
country would have resounded to the busy
hum of industry; and the merry shouts of
richly rewarded laborers, would have fallen
upon tie ear throughout the length and
breadth of the land, instead Of the cry of
poverty and distress which now is waited to
us on every breeze, and rapidly gathering to
descend with fearful weight upon the heads
of the political amblers and scheming trick
sters who conceived and passed the iniqui-
tous Tariff Of '46.
We know not whether the present Congress
the same men who repealed the Missouri
Comprehensive even the wish to relieve the
present distress Of the country or to guard
against recurrence of it, But it is verv
certain, and majority of Congress now
know it, that there is no remedy for the flu
ture, but in the immediate repeal of every
thing in the shape OF duty upon raw material
imported into the country, and a small in
crease Of duty on Iron and WOOlens; and u
change from dd ualorem to specific duties on
both of these articles.
If Congress will adopt this simple and
just measure, they need not trouble them
selves with deyising any other means for
preventing surplus revenue. Give our peo-
pie the benefit of working the iron ore with
which the whole country abounds by exclu-
ding for ten years the competition of foreign
labor and foreign capital, and we shall be
able to compete with all the world without
any protection whatever. Home competition
will do this for US. And SO in regard to
Woolens. Give us the raw material free of
duty and ten years of protection and we
may put the world at defiance. Give MS
such an alteration and our financial troubles
would cease in short time, not soon to re-
turn"