The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-10-11
Another Break in the Republican
Ranks. u
[From the New York World. -

tf (From the New York World. la
The enormous price of cotton goods,
and the still more outrageous price of
coal, have created a revolt in the Repub-
lican ranks on the subject of tariff. 1t is
notorious that Sprague, Garner, and the
other great cotton manufacturers, are
making from 80 to 1l0 per cent.-net prof
it on their sheeting and prints. This
state of things is exciting unbounded in
dignation everyw here outside of New
England; and none are more outspoken
than are the western Radicals against
the protective policy of the Republican
party which makes such robbery of the
many for the benefit of the few possible.
The following, from the red-hot radical
sheet, the Chicago Tribune ia a very sig
nificant and truthful article: 's5s'
Brown sheetings are selling for thirty
five cents per yard, and raw cotton for
forty-three cents per pound. Apound OF
cotton will make three yards of sheet
inps. The pound of cotton, costing forty
three cents, upon being put through the
mill develops into one hundred and fve
cents worth of sheetings, showing diff:
erence of sixty-two cents, to be divided
between manufacturing profit, wages Of
operatives, wear of machinery, commits
sions of agents, and government tax. The
tax is O fraction more than five cents on
the pound of manufactured cotton, and
the commissions for selling two and one.
half cents. Subtract these items from
the sixty-two cents, and we have fifty.
four cents to be carried to the credit side
of a pound of cotton, The wages of the
operatives and the wear of machinery,
would obviously be small fraction on a
pound of this staple, which undergoes
such an astonishing transmutation by
passing through cotton-mill. Without
going into minute calculations it is safe
to say that the profit to the manufac-
turer on a yard of cotton goods at the
present time considerably exceeds the
entire cost of a yard before the war
Why this state of thugs should continue
why cotton goods should be going up
rather than down-we are unable to see,
unless it be for the reason that manufac c.
turers have combined, and are playing
upon the market to keep prices from
obeying the law of gravitation which
has brought raw cotton down from one
dollar and eighty cents to ferty-three
cents per pound
An article which we copied from the
Galena Gazette few days since suggested
as a remedy for the extortionate prices
at which cotton goods are held, the re-
peal of the duties on imported cottons.
The existing tariff is five cents per yard,
in gold, on the invoice value Of the
goods at the place of shipment, or three
times the amount of the internal duty
on the sameiarticle Why there should
be any tariff on foreign cottons in excess
of the internal duty. it Is noteasy to see,
unless it is based upon purpose to tax
thirty millions of people, not for the ben
eft of the government, but to enrich q
few hundred cottoll-spinners, who, we
should suppose, were not the most ap-
propriate objects of charity. Protection
to the cotton manufacturers of New Eng
land, who are able to compete success.
fully with foreign manufacturers in for
eign countries, and who, if not able to
control the home market now without
the aid of the government ought to be
knocked in the head for the good of their
customers, isa monstrous delusion. The
farmers of Illinois need as much protec-
lion tor their pigs and poultry, and are
az iistly entitled to it. as the spinners OF
Lowell and Lawrence for their sheet
ings. We do not wonder that the bank
ers of Frankfort-on-the-Main told Mr..
Lanier the other day, when he talked to
them about piing more duties on i'm:
ports and exports to fortify the national
credit, that they thought the United
States had already placed too many re,
strictions on commerce for their own
prosperity, and that any further steps in
that direction would lessen the ability
of the government to pay the interest on
the national debt. This protective tar,
iff on cotton goods, which enables the
home manufacturer to take the money oi
the homo consumer, without restoring
an equivalent, is one of those clumsy re-
strictions upon commerce which cripple
the government by crippling the masses
of the people, and rendering them less
able to pay taxes than theyiwould be II
trade were left to its natural channels
and each man were allowed to buy
where he can buy cheapest and sell where
he can sell dearest. We trust the iegls
lation of the country hereafter will be
shaped with some small view to the IN
terests of the thirty millions of people
who wear shirts, and not exclusively &C
those of the few hundreds who make
them. ..
All this is as true as gospel, and indl
Gates fatal break in the Republican
party on vital issue. The enormous
prices these monopolizing New England
ers are charging for their goods is Ger
| tain to ruin the party whose action the!
have heretofore controlled on all ques
tions of morals and politics. = Sf'i