New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-22

Autffyfur
for want OF food. II grew AGAIN 10 the peroi from
lS!ito 1854 when the pcoduCt Of iron r.s o., 90 900
tuns aud thus enabled the farmrr. Of .b, countrr 10
double Their demand for the PRODUCTS of the pIasa
ton. II declined from 1884 10 lSIshe n-noi dur,ny
which the domestic production OF roo aud the domes
tie consumption Of cotton rensined ailno-,
in quantity, Notwithstanding an addition Of - per
cent to oar population II grew aynin from l8i. to
lSiS-the domestic production Of iron having IN that
brief period almost quadrupled whale the domestic
demand for cotton doubled /. has new declined
the production Of iron being less than FIVE years
since, and the demand for cotton being at this
ment, not greater probably than At was in lSl.. when
our number were little more than hail great as
they are at the present hour
We have now, probably, thirty millions OF people
occupying the thiry States. Of which, Mr.. Pres
dent, you spoke; and yet among them al there At
the present time almost literally no commerce. Tho
planter stores his cotton, waiting for better prces
For the same reason the farmer houses his wheat ead
his corn. Neither pf them, therefore. ia able TO pur
chase cloth or rol. The iron master. as q coDse-
quence, is forced to close his furnace aud the maker
of cloth closes bis mill Wages ceasing to be paid.
the owner Of houses receives rent Houses oeasing
TO be- but, the unemployed mason and carpenter take
their places by the side ot the already discharged
workers in wool and cotton, Goa. aud iron. Coa-
merCe thus perishes, and this it does because our
rulers, Mr.. President, have been led to believe thas
national wealth aud power were to be obtained rs inc
results Of measures directly the reverse oil those 40
psinly indicated by yourself at the opening OIL
the Central Railroad, but few years snce' lou
then most clearly saw that Whist we neeaed was INC
establishment Of that entire freedom OF commerce
among ourselves, that would enable each and every
man 10 find at the instant purchaser for sill his
powers of body or Of mind; and that 80 lar as tho
system commonly called Free Trade tended to pre-
vent the growth oft that commerce. was pret sey the
sort of freedom that we did NOT want. disciple in
the school OF Adam Smith you could not fail to agree
with him in his estimate of the vast advantage TO be
derived BY the farmer from condsnsng thousands OF
pOunds of food and wool Into piece OF CLOTH and thus
diminishing the tax of transportatiOn-every step IN
that direction tending toward dlversying employ
ments and thus extending domestic commerce. while
greatly facilitating intercourse with the distant uatIous
of the world.
The greater the number of differences among men
the greater the diversity of demands for their various
faculhestbe greater, MIR. President, is the power to
maintain commerce among themselves. The greater
the domestic cOmmeic0, the greater is always the
power to maintain commerce with distant people, and
the greater the tendency toward the growth OF wealth
and power For proof of this, we need only look to
France-that country of Europe whose policy has
most consistently been directed toward the diversica
ton Of emplOyments and the extension OF internal
commerce. Seeking, however, further evidence OF
this, you may look to Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and
Northern Germany, in all of which you will lind rapid
extension Of intercourse with the world as necessary
consequence of increasing power for the maintenance Of
that domestic commerce well described by you, MIR.
President the sort of free trade that we really
among ourselves. Looking next homeward, YOU at
once struck with the great power OF Massachusetts,
to maintain commerce with NewYOrk and Pennsylva
mia, when compared with the commercial relations OF
Virginia with Kentucky, or OF Carolina with Ten
nessee.
Look. however, where sou may, you will nowhere
find facts fully 0onfrmatory OF the accuracy OF
your views than in the commercial history OF England
fhe great apostle of the sort OF free trade that
We do not require. century since she was busily
engaged in robbing her SOIL and exporting 1t m the
form of raw materials, to be sold, and at the lowest
prices 10 the manufacturing communities OF the
Lower Rhine. The more the soil became impover-
ished and the less its yield, the lower as Mr. rresl
dent, you have seen, became the prices; and hence
arose the boast among the German cities, that they
bought from the Englishman the skin of the fox for
groat and then resOd him the tail for shilling. Ri
dculOs as this may seem, it is precisely what we
ourselves are doing-selling -four by the tun,
and then buying it back again, in the form OF
cloth and iron, by the pOund-selllng cotton oy
the bale, and then buying 1t back by the penny
weight-and exhausting the soil in the effort, III this
manner to obtain the little cloth and iron We are able
TO consume. Even then, however, change OF the
English system was near at hahd' Emcient pro-
misunderstanding the clothand iron inanuiacturcs-
soon gave the English farmer market at home and
thus created domestic commerce, the only solio
foundation for q great external one. Raw materi4S
res in price while machines and cloths were cheap
ened; and thus furnished the most conclusive
evidence that the nation which would advance ia
wealth and power must adopt policy looking to the
emancipation of the farmer from the tax OF tansporta'
ton and to the approximation OF the prices oil ms rude
products and those of the finished commodities 70.
quired for his use.
Turning now homeward, Mr.. President we find
abundant evidence Of your perfect accuracy III looking
to the extension OF domestic commerce as furnishing
the only sure foundation for an extended intercourse
with foreign countries and as being therefore, the
sort of free trade that really need From the
date ofthe passage of the act of 1876 by which the
ak laid to the root of our then rapidly.growng
manufactures the foreign trade steadily declined un-
ill., in 1921 the value of our imports was less than hall
of what il had been six years before Thenceforward
there was little change until the hghy-protective act
of 1923 came fairly into operation-the average
amount of our imports from 1872 to 1880 having been
but $50 600 000-and the variations having been be-
tween$ 500 600 000n year and $40 0OO OO in another
Under that tariff, domestic commerce grew with great
rapidity-enablng our people promptly 10 sell tneil
labor, and then to become large customers to the
people of other lands as is shown by the following
figures, representing the valne Of goods imported
s3O-Sl....................,....S loSO@OV
1928. ioSoS@1
l6S3-Si,....................... lZo'OW""
Here Mr.. President, is steady and regular growth
the last of these years being by far the highest anu
exceeding by than 30 per cent, the average OF
the eight yeats from 1922 to 1890 In this period not
only did we contract no foreign debt, but we paid on
the whole Of that which previously had exlsted-the
legacy Of the of independence.
The COMPROMISE Tariff began now TO exert it, lnhu-
ence on the SECRETARY mOyement-stoppng the build
ing of mills and the opening OF mines and thus lessen
ing the power to maintain domestic commerce. How
it operated that with foreign nations, is shown In
the facts, that the imports Of 1857 went up TO $lo'
600 900, and those of 1893 down to $ll3 O, THOSE
of 1889 up sl62 0OO and those of 1910 down to
1907 900 900; while those of lSi? less than they
bad been ten years before In this period we run IN
debt to foreigners to the extent Of hundreds of mill
ions and closed with bankruptcy UNIVERSAL as
to have embraced individuals, banks, towns cities,
States and the national treasury itself.
That instability is the essential characteristic OF the
system called Free Trade-that one which, as you,
Mr. President have so clearly seen, we do moi want
will be obvious on the most cursOry examination OF
the facts presented by the two periods of that system
through which have thus far passed. From more