M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1858-11-04
Class LEGISLATION.


It is well known that We deem class
legislation--that is, giving by law one
set of men rights, privileges and ad-
vantages over another,-as anti-dem-
Ocratic and highly injurious to the
general welfare Of the country. We
are, therefore, bound to discourage all
measures which look to the aggran.
dizement of one class and work to the
injury Of another.
If we are correctly informed, just
previous to the recent election, when
the democrats had no opportunity to
reply, the idea was propagated among
a certain portion of our citizens that
the "hard times" depreciation of the
price of labor, scarcity Of money, &C.,
were caused by the low tariff on for
eign goods, which gave the foreign
articles the advantage over those of
our own country, and consequently
crippled our manufacturers; and the
impression was made upon the minds
of many that if the Republicans were
triumphant in the election, they would
raise the tariff and thus make times
good, money plenty, and, of course,
wages high.
The cause thus assigned for the de-
preston Of business, is erroneous; for
every intelligent person is aware that
the financial crash came upon the
country during the operation of the
Tariff of 1916, under which, all kinds
Of manufactures and business, gener-
ally, had been highly prosperous
Every furnace, but one, in Vinton
county was erected and put in blast
under that tariff, and it is conceded on
all hands that the iron business never
was better than at some periods since
1916. The tariff could not have been
the cause of the hard times, from the
fact that the pressure was first felt in
the commercial and moneyed circles,
and not among the manufacturers.--
Again, the manufacturers Of England
and France were quite as much affect
ed by the pressure as those Of the
United States. How could our low
tariff produce such an effect upon Tor.
eign countriesl And, as a further
fact bearing against this idea of our
opponents, the importations into this
country since the pressure began have
not been q tithe Of what they were
when our factories were in full blast
and making the most money. If the
low tariff were to blame, foreign i'm
ports should have been much greater
under the tariff of 1856 than they
were under that of 1916. Another
fact is, that the failures in this coun-
try since the hard times began lave
been principally among merchants
and importers, and not among manu-
facturerS. II the tariff were at fault,
the manufacturers would be the great
es! sufferers in this way-not the
merchants and importers. We may
mention another thing, to conclude
this part of the subject, which is this:
Had foreign goods been imported in
such quantities as to stop the sale Of
our homemade articles, the U. S.
Treasury would have been full to over.
flowing. But it is a notorious fact
that the amount Of revenue collected
upon imports has been SO small as to
force the government to borrow mon.
ey, in order to pay its debts. This is
something which every reader can
readily understand, and needs no elu-
cidation.
In regard to high tariff-we be-
lieve that question has been settled.
No party since the dissolution Of the
Wing party has proclaimed itself for
such a measure. The tariff Uf 1856,
which lowered that of 1916, was passed
by the House in which the Ropubli-
cans had a majority. They coulG
have prevented the reduction Of the
tariff had they felt so inclined. They
did not, and the duty on iron was
changed to "a per cent.-or 6 pei
cent. less than it had been under the
Democratic tariff of 1915. With the
full treasury which the government
then had, policy seemed to Justify the
reduction. More revenue was collect
ed than was necessary TO carry on the