Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-01-26

ON board large load of lumber, and after
the usual stoppages by being stuck on sand
bars, reached Brownsville few days sooner
than expected. The weather is quite blustry
at present, but we have not had even frost
as yet. We are rejoiced not little at the
result Of the late elections in the States, es-
peeially as Jersey has returned to the
union and toundly hope that Bedford county
may.do the same in 66.
Yours, +. H.
BRITISH FREE TRADE: the TRICKS
or 1916, AND THE WARNINGS
OF 1865.
TO The Editor of the Chicago Republican;
SIR Now that the question of our sources
Of revenue is Of such vital Importance, and
we should be so carefully planning the best
means by which our home industry may
thrive, and thus our expenses be met and
our debts paid without distress, it may be
well to look back to some foreign efforts to
influence our industrial and financial condi-
ton in years not long gone by. We allude
especially to the so-called British free
trade efforts, which may more fifty be call
ed the endeayors Of a powerful class of Brit
ish capitalists, whose reliance for continued
power and ascendency must be largely on
their manufactures, to maintain that aseen-
dency as toward this country by talking of
free trade while carefully protecting them
selves.
InIS40 the first move Of Importance was
made in this direction by report to Parlia-
nhent of committee of which Joseph Hume
1 L. L., h. rr,,,ll ba 20
inaugurate real free trade may be judged
from his wish expressed some years before
in Parliament, that "the manufactures of
the continent might be strangled in their
cradle -
The keynote of this experiment was the
Statement of one of the Witnesses examined
before that committee tJ d. Hume} He
said: There is a very strong impression in
all foreign countries that we have risen to
our present prosperity through our system
Of protection, and that they have only to a
dopt the same system in order to succeed as
we have done; and that he would remove the
protective duty on cotton manufactures for
the sake of holding out to the world an ex-
ample.
That is, decrease the tariff on cotton, or
any other well-established manufactures, in
order to do away the very strong impres-
sion abroad, that protection had made
England rich, keep up protective tariffs on
whatever products of English works needed
them, and magnanimously cry free trade. !"
Tn the Parliamentary Report ofthe Com
nlittee, published in England, vol. 5, p. 90,
may be found this testimony In report
Of AIr. Hume's committee, published for
circulation in this country, it is not to be
found Itwas not adapted to our lati-
tude, as the almanac makers say.
Another witness before that committee
(P. Dillon) said: Very great objections
lie to advalorem duties; they are constantly
evaded Few attempt to deny that when
they make returns of values, they make
false returns. This is not found IN the re-
port for circulation here. OF course it was
for their interest that we should keep up
the ad valorem system, whereby importers
Of British goods could better detraud our
revenue.
The changes in the British tariff were Of
so little moment, that the average of duties
for two years before the vaunted revision of
1910 was e22, ,637, 494, and for two years af-
ter e22, 720, $50.
When cur tariff was reduced in 1916,
whatever may have been the motives Of
some of It's supporters it was intended to
encourage the importation of British goods,
and British influences were largely brought
to bear On reliable authority we have a
list OF subscriptions Of persons and firms in
Manchester, Glasgow, &C., amounting tc
9l2, 900 or ESQ, 600, pledged to this end and
over G1, 900, 600 Of British money were said &c
have been spent in Washington to shape oul
revised tariff to suit their interests. The
result was that while our average imports
for FIVE years, from 1912 to 1916 inclusive,
had been l02, 459, $50, the average for the
next five years, after that revision, rose to
237 1863, 944 OF this vast increase England
| largely gained the benefit, and then came
the crash of 1857, with its failure of capital
lists and distress of the poor. May ne not
| take warning now?
During that session of 1916, while Coa-
gress was engaged on the tariff, a basement
room of the Capitol was used for showing
samples of British goods, and estimates
weremade of their peices, and singular state
ments of the effect of the old tariff in in
creasing those prices.
Such shameful use ofour country, Capl-
tol might well be buried in oblivion were il
| not full of warning needed by us to-day.
There Southern members OF Congress
were taught the mystery whereby an arti-
|
four cents a yard in price, by an odious duty
for the benefit of Yankee monopolists:'
and thus was infamed bitter hatred that
has since blazed out ii terrible rebellion,
| to which British capitalists readily furnish.
ed their Alabamas and Shenandoahs tC
sweep the ocean as pirates fitted out by
foreign neutrality. British manufacturer:
made skilful use, in 1916, of Southern jeal
ousy toward the prosperity of the free labor
Of the North, and the South gave forty eight
votes, seventeen from Virginia, for what
might fifty be called the Manchester tariff.
Now that slavery is gone, and the inter
est of free labor is. one all over this land, let
us beware of deceptive free trade cries
and foreign plots against our industry, and
learn to give fair and living protection tc
all branches thereof on the live and let
| live principle, ..s.sf ,e
The need of watehful vigilance now may
be seen by the following extract from let
| ter Of our American Consul at Liverpool to
a gentleman in this country last May
Great efforts willnow be made by Eng
lish capitalists and manufacturers to induce
us to reduce our tariff. and to permit them
to do all our manufacturing; they are be
/ ginning to stir this matter already.
They viii struggle bard to break down
I aur thrift s