New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-10-28
FREE TRADE.

=
One Of the oldest and ahlest advocates Of free
tradein the South Is the Hon. John A. Jones Of
Georgia. he has been urging II upon the people,
all the time, for along period and his arguments
in its favor are strong sensible and practical AS
may be supposed, since the Inauguration Of our
new Confederacy his zeal in this respect has not
abated Now ID the time for the South to establish
this sound and correct principle, leaving trade with
foreign countries as unrestricted possible and
deriving revenues from the people in such way
| that an economical Government may be instituted
and we may be saved from the innumerable COR
rnpt practices rascaties and frauds that disgraced
the old Union.
One Of Judge jones' recent publications on this
subject in the Atlanta Confederacy is deserving OF
special consideration, and we subjon it. that its
solid facts and arguments may be disseminated as
widely as possible:
FREE TRADE.--In addition to what has been al.
ready said of the effect of the tariff on the price
of goods, it may not be Improbable to hint to the
merchant that free trade will save him time and
I money. 8a
Under the tariff system, he purchased his stock
in Liverpool or Havre, took it to the pet city of
the Government New York; because there, and
there only he could be certain to obtain specie to
pay duties.
10 get the specie, be had to resort to q commits
sion merchant, lat cost of two and hall Der cent
ness man. and charges him two and half per
cent. more for receiving and forwarding !; add to
this ajax to the State and city OF New York, and
you have six or seven per cent. to pay, which
could and would be saved under system of free
trade. s2
| The merchant buys his stockin Europe, comes
to Charleston or Savannah with it, drays it to the
railroad depot puts it aboard the freight cars gets
aboard passenger car, and receives his goods by
i the time be has collected money to pay the freight,
without being out a single cent for advances, re-
eeiping and forwarding taxes freight to coasters
I or steaiage-whieh last charge, being underlined,
sometimes amounts to more than all the others.
In my first letter think proved that the tariff
deprecated the price ofpfoduce to the full amount
of The Tariff think nuchmore. Before the tariff
act of 1919, when commerce was unrestricted by
wars, embargoes or non-intereonrse laws, cotton
| ranged from 20 to 33 cents, and never was less
than 30 Since the passage of that act, cotton has
never been as high as 20 cents but once, QS25o
aud that was in consequence of a mammoth specu-
lati0n by combination of large houses in England,
France and Germany, which broke every American
firm that touched the article. Now, seeing that
the demand has been encroaching on the supply
for the last twenty years, no good reason can be
given why, if the Confederate Government will
openeu ports free to the trade of the world, and
resort to direct taxes, by which the rich will be
required 70 pay their fair proportion of taxes to
support the Government, and the poor man re-
CURED to pay no more than his just proportion,
and by which every taxpayer will be induced to
watch the Government, curb its extravaganza, and
be given why cotton will not range from 20 to SIS
cents it did before the of 1873 unless as many
say, it is too good to be true. 49,
+ Again, Gen. James n. Bethune took from the re-
port the Secretary of the Treasury of the United
States tables extending from 1882 to 1856 by which
it il proved that, no matter whether the crop was
la large or q small one, whenever the tariff wfs
high, cotton was low, and whenever the tariff was
low, cotton was high. }4aS
( My next proposition is to prove, that to put one
dollar in the treasury, by means of the tariff, it
costs the consuming people two dollars.
"a assume the people are the sovereigns, (fhe
Gevernmentl the President and Congress are the
administrators Of the Government selected by the
people-the rich and the poor to administer the
Government honestly. justly, fairly and equally
between the rich and the poor. / have shown
the paerlman than on the rich man. What can in
duce the Congress to resort to such q system? Is
it because as Judge Wright says % the capitalists
will not submit to have their capital taxedg1' Are
the membersof Congress afrafd5to tax them, lest
they turn them out, that they resort to a system
that costs their poor confidng constituents two
dollars to collect one las will now proceed to
prove.
Suppose the administrators Of the Government
want thirty millions to carry on the Government
An importer says, will pay you thirty millions, if
you will let me import all the goods. Agreed.
Now, everybody knows, when the importer sells
the goods, he sells the tariff with them, and at the
same profits ~
They the tariff costs 600
Hs charges jobbers Is per 450O00O
& az D .
Tariff costs johber
Jobbsr charges retail merciant Is 5l7590o
Tariff st5retailer 39675 go
ksaier charges consfnser 10 cent IL 500
z s5t -aEs
Cos; IF taf 70 consanae 81, 5.7a $40
house expenses, 100000
z X ". 4 YEEr.4 f b. . % f $500
And you have the ehorlnoas .s6l 5I 800
Which it cost the people to get $50, 100000 in
the treasury. Look at the figures, my poor coun-
rymen! VIII you submit 10 it because your Con,
gressmen tell you that capitalists will not submit
to hare their capital taxed? So
Very respectfully.