New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-10-12
n PROTECTION NEEDEDs

be DO pirchIDg poverty or sqaalid misery In our
CITY, because there are 9 hundred residents IN II
WHO severay enjoy incomes Of $50, 900 to slooVoo
per aDnum, The Post would probably deem the
logic ipconcusive.
We presume that the annual product OF al our
Home Mountaineering the term in its oroadest
sense-c.nnot certsinly fall short Of Eve Hundred
Millions per annuu, while our imports Of Foreign
Manufactures must range below Two Hundred
Millions. In other words, we are making at home
three dollars worth of Wares and Fabrics for
every dollars worth We buy abroad. And We pre-
sumo those Home Manufactures are generally
produced at profit Individuals lose aud break
IN all branches Of fabrication; but our manutac-
lures are generally prosecuted aISing profit, or
hey could lot be maintained.
We are agreed, then, as we understand Inc
Post that tie Home Production Of our Wares aud
Fabrics, 90 for as it has yet been carried, is good
thing; We only differ to the prcprety, or perhaps
as to the means, of carrying il further. The Five
Hundred Millions worth per aunum OF Cotton,
Wooden and other Fabrics Stoves and Hollow
Ware, Cut Nails, Edge Tools, Farm Implements
Locks, Bolts, Screws, Castings, Clocks, &c, &c,
that we now make, are afforded cheaper to our
consumers-in our view, very much cheaper
than they would be if imported. Compare the
average price, at which our consumers obtain these
articles with those at which they are afforded to
the people of Europe, and, taking quality into
account. we are sure they are cheaper here than
elsewhere.
Let us illustrate our position By the article OF
Stoves. We h,d occasion to examine the large
number and variety of Stoves exhibited at the great
Words Exhibition in London, eight years ago;
and we are sure they did not compare in excellence
OF design, neatness Of workmanship nor even In
cheapne,s, with those exhibited last week at our
State Far at Albany The British plates were
twice as thick as they need or should be; the
wares were every way clumsy and inelesant as
compsred with tie New. York stoves. Weare con-
fGent that the single Albany firm Of Rathbone Il
Co, which had thirty or forty different patterns OF
stoves on exhibition, and whose new Good Sama-
rian took the first premium there, could very far
excel any similar mandatory in Europe. And
theirs is but one among several concerns engaged
in the stove business at Albany, altogether employ
ing two thousand men and usiOg twenty five thou
sapd tuns of iron per anDum. Every year W.T.
nesses rev and striking improvements in this
branch of American industry, though its excellence
has long since put foreign competlt on out OF sight
This country imports no stoves but the market for
American stoves is constantly extending and im-
proylpp in Canada, Australia, aud other regions
where our fabrics meet those of Europe in open
competition. So il with Yankee Clocks; so with
Drills and other substantial Cotton Fabrics. We
believe the rule to be absolute that wherever In
any field of production American genius and dex-
terity have been allowed, for reasonable time,
fair chance for development, uncrushed and uncriP-
pied by European competition, they have uniformly
yndicsted their essential superiority BY producinga
cheaper and better article than ever was or could
be imported There may be exceptions to this
Iue, but We do not know any.
The Cotton manufactures cited by The Post GER
tainy form no exception. Time was, when British
experience, capital, and unlimited command of
markets, were too powerful for our infant Cotton
manufacture, which went down Ike grass before
them. But the Embargo, the War, and finally MIR.
Calhoun's Tariff of 1916, imposing heavy specific
duty on imported CottoBs equal TO leo per cent. al
yalorem gave our manufacturers ga place whereon
/" to stand" and now they can "move the world"
So far as plain Cotton fabrics are concerned We no
more need Protection than frog needs great
coat We sell these goods in China, in Brazil in
most open markets, in fair competition with their
British counterpsrts, and would continue to make
them though tho Tariff we're utterly abolished. So
with Flannels, with S,tinets, and with many other
descriptions of WOolens. So with Edge Tools
Clocks, Cut Nails, and most kinds Of castings. We
should continue to manufacture most of these, and
to make them at profit, though every custom
house were tipped into the ocean
But not so, unhappily, with Broadcloths, with
Silks with Watches, with the more delicate Wares,
and with many of the more costly and fashionable
descriptions Of Cotton, Linen, and mixed Fabrics.
Partly because of current presumption that the
Foreign fabrics are the more tasteful and of better
quality and fnish--a presumption which tends ever
to convert itself into reaty-we are still buying
these mainly from abroad-buyiDg them, as we
think to our countrys serious injury and loss. We
do most earnestly belieye-and our faith is founded
on extensive inquiry and careful study-that our
people might produce two-thirds Of the Metals,
Wares and Fabrics they now import, at a real cost
far below their present-that We should thus secure
steader employment for our labor and better prices
for our farmers products-that we should thus
arrest the eux of gold which now drains US of the
Precious Metals faster than California produce
them-that We should stop running in debt abroad
and be gin paying of the awful balance We already
owe-aud that we should thus diminish the fire.