The evening Argus., 1866-01-11
FREE TRADE.

salled the American zee lldoo Loa2uo. Aho
object of this league is to advocate the theory
Of tree trade, as being means OF inspirlung
And expanding the business interests OF the
and as lying At the foundation of al
true patriotism, since it enhances the pros
perity of the individual and thus individually
tends to the benefit and preservation of the
1t opposes the pasernal care of leg
islatures and congress In protecting one
branch of industry to the fatal injury of 9TH
ers, and advocates the theory that the immu-
ia able princi plies of supply and demand are
the only laws which should Immediately gov
ern the commercial interests of the country.
One of these societies has just been organ
lied in Chicago, and we notice that speeches
were made in favor of the movement by Hor-
ace White, one of the editors of the Chicago
Tribune, Hon F. A. Eastman, repu blican
senator from Cook county, and others.
The Free Trade League is not a political
organization, but simply an organization for
the purpose of demonstrating the fallacy and
injustice of protecting one mans business at
the expense Of his nei hbor. The people are
suffering the most grievous and oppressive
taxation On account of the high duties on the
goods they buy, and the startling fact is de-
monstrated that, the people of this country,
in the year 1865, were compelled to pay, in
the shape of duties, on dry goods alone, the
enormous sum of Ss95, ,479 ,529, 90, of which
only SI03, 1872, $500 went into the United
States treasury,-the balance going into the
hands of the manufacturers of dry goods
Rscollect that this is only on cotton and
woolen goods, and this rate of taxation, if
paid directly into the United States treasury,
is sufficient TO pay all the expenses of the
government. and pay the public debt in four
and half years. 1t is sufficient to build two
canals a year from New York to San Fran
cisco, and twenty-five canals year from
Buffalo to New York. 1t ls sufficient to buy
all the railroads in the United States in one
and onequarter years, and enable them to
carry freight and passengers for nothing, be-
sides building thousands of miles of new
railroad yearly.
1t is sufficient to buy all the real and per-
sonal property in the United States, in Is
years, according to the valuation Of 1860 1t
amounts to an average OF S26. year upon
every man. woman and child in the United
States. white and black. And this enormous
taxation is taken, by our system Of duties, on
cotton and wooden goods alone, out of the
pockets of the people and put into the pock
cts of the manufacturers,-into the pockets OF
the manufacturers, remer Der, and not into
the treasury of the people
The figures given in this article are taken
from Chicago. paper, which says:
No man can show a good reason why the
people should be compelled to pay this in
mense sum of money annually to New Eng
land manufacturers. The tariff is not d pro-
tective tariff, imposing such duties upon for
eign commodities as will enable home manu-.
tacturers TO compete for patronage In home
markets. But it is tariff which virtually
excludes articles of foreign merchandise from
our markets, and enables home manufaotur-
ers, In the absence of competition, to place
Just such exhorbItant prices upon their com-
modIties as they see proper, and compel the
people to pay these exhorbitant prices for
such articles as their necessities denand-
The result s,the high prices which are weigh
ing down the prosperity of the country. The
high prices prevailing on dry goods, iron and
other commodities for which the tariff is di-
rectly responsible, increases the cost Of other
commodities exclusively produced at home.
by increasing the cost of all the incidents to
production increases the cost of transporta-
tion and the profits of middlemeu engaged in
passing the products of our industry to the
seaboards and renders the cost of these
products so high at the Atlantic cities that
foreign nations will mot buy them. The tar
if is solely responsible for these high prices.
for the exhorbitant freights charged upon the
railroads. as we shall show in another article
IN few days, and is the great cause of the
falling of in our export trade.
The farmers in the great west may under
stand the matter now as we'll as years hence,
that they are cultlvating their broad acres,
not for their own profit. but simply to enable
them to buy the goods of New England and
Pennsylvania at prices double their real val
ne.
The nation exists simply to furnish the man
ufacturers of New England with market
for their wares In which they can realize
double their value. and all the energies and
resources of 80, 900. 900 people are concentra-
ted in one grand effort to enrich the manu-
iacturers of that reg ion. Every farmer, me
chanic laboring man aud professional man is
paying the best part of his earnings to the
support of these manufacturers 1t is a
grand scheme to place the whole country,
with all it's varied interests, at the mercy of
few men grown proud and exacting with
their Ill gotten gains. 1t is scheme to
make the poor man poorer and the rich man
richer-a scheme to impOverish the nation
that we may build up hundred princes and
nabobs.
Now, we submit to the intelligent people of
the great northwest. when they are being
taxed hundreds of millions for the support Of
the federal and state governments,-when
the largest public debt of any nation in the