New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-10-29


ner bu,bel. Il required nearly eighty barrels oil
-four to pay for tun Of bar iron. Such was tas
state of affairs that produced the Tariff OF 1524-a
very imperfect measure Of Protection; but ono
that. imperfect as it was, caused net import IN
the four yearsythat followed, Of 1900 900 OF tho
precious metals In 1879, was enacted the hrst
Tariff tending directly to the promotion OF assocla-
ton and commerce throughout the country. Its
effects were exhibited in an excess import OF geld
and silver notwithstanding the Government dis
charged at this period the whee Of the National
debt held in Europe. Adding the amount of this
discharged to the import Of coin, the balance OF
trade for this period must have been in our favor to
the extent of nearly $50, 900, 0O0-an average OF
about ten millions year. As consequence, pros.
perity existed throughout the country to an extent
never before known. The power to purchase for
eign commodities grew with such rapidity a. to
make it advisable TO enlarge the free list and coffee
and tea, with other raw commodities, were emanci-
pated from imposts.
The first few years OF the Compromise Tariff OF
1888 pro6ted largely by tho prosperity that had
resulted from the Protective Tariff Of 1923, and
the reductions Of specie importations made under
it were then so small that its operation was but
slightly felt. In those years. too we contracted .
considerable foreign debt, which stopped the OK
port of gold and silver, and caused an excess i'm.
port averaging more than 81, OOO, 900 per annum.
Prosperity seemed to exist but it was of the samo
description that marked our recent era Of railroad
construction. when the value of property depended
upon the power to borrow money in England.
Soon, however, this Compromise Tariff began TO
do its work of mischief. Furnaces and cloth-fac
tories were everywhere closed. The necessity to
20 abroad for the performance of exchanges grew
space and with it the corresponding necessity to
remit coin to pay the balances due on the purchase
of years that were past. The annual specie eI-
port to be sure, averaged but little moro than
e.. 900 900; but if to this be added consumption
of only $4,000 900 o year, the reduction will
amount to $40, 0OO, 900. The consequences were
an almost total suspension of the societary move
ment The whole business and property of the
country were in state of ruin. Laborers were
everywhere out of employment, and being consul
mers while producing nothing, power ofaccumula-
ton among this most important class was at an end
Debtors werel everywhere at the mercy of credit
ors. The only sales of real estate that were made
were the forcible ones conducted by the sheriff
Practice of lawyers was more profitable than it
had ever been since the organization of the Gov
eminent. 1.-The national misery became 90 intolera.
Bile, that the aid of Congress had finally to be in
terpOsed. The domestic indebtedness of the coun.
try was substantially abolished by Bankruptcy
Act.
The export of the precious metals last above
mentioned seems o trivial one. But the change in
the value Of labor, consequent upon the stOppage
of the circulation that followed this export, cannot
be placed at less than $500, 900 900 year. A
large portion of the labor.power of the country
was wholly wasted in idleness. Tho reduction in
the prices Of land, houses, machinery Of all kinds
amounted to thousands of millions of dolar-and
vet the difference between the two periods ending
in 1888 and in l94s, in respect to the monetary
movement, was only that between an excess i'm.
port of S., 900, 900, and an excess export OF 81,
500 900, or q total of seven and half millions .
year. No one who studies these facts, will fail to
be struck with the wonderful power over the for.
tunes and conditions of men, exerted by the pre-
cious metals. With that small excess Of import,
the,e was steady tendency throughout the United
States, to an equality of condition among the poor
and the rich among debtors and creditors. With
that slight excess Of export, there was daily
growing tendency to inequality-pO laborors and
helpless debtors passing more and more under the
control of rich employers and wealthy creditors.
The condition Of the nation at the date at the pas
| sage of the Protective Act of 1912, was, as Mr..
Carey says, humiliating in the extreme. The
Treasury Department unable to find at home tho
| mea to administer the Government, even on the
| most economical scale Of expenditure, had also
| failed TO negotiate abroad loan at six per cent.
| interest i'll the very market where it had recently
paid If at p.r public debt bearing an interest of
but three per cent. Many of the States, and some
of them the eldest had been compelled to suspend
the payment Of interest on their debts. The banks
of tie entire country were also generally in state
Of suspension, and those which professed TO redeem
their noter, found their business crippled by the
constant demand for CON to go abroad. The use
of either gold or silver as currency hao wholly
| ceased in many portions of the Union, The Fed
eral Government, recently so rich. was driven 10
the use of inconvertible paper promises to pay, de-
rsiyey called shinplasters in oil its transaction.
with the people. OF the merchants large por-
ton had become bankrupt. Furnaces, factories,
and shops, were everywhere closed and hundreds
of thousands of laborers hunted in vain for employ
ment. Commerce within the country had scarcely
an e1istence for they who could not sell their Ia
Dor were unable to purchase the produce of the
labor of others, low in price Is it WAS. The abyss
into which the nation had been cast was profound
but 80 magical was the effect of the adoption of
q system sure to turn the balance Of trade in its
favor, that scarcely had the Protective Tariff of
1912 become law, Ghen Government found that