Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1866-03-21
CALICO ARIsTOCRACY IN MOTION

Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island,
whose wealth stands him in the stead
Of brains, has brought forward a prop
osition to increase the tariff duties on
all articles manufactured in this coun-
try. The object of this proposition is,
not to raise revenue, bat 10 prohibit
the importation of foreign gSeds, so
that the manufacturers in this country
may have a clean monopoly, without
any fear of competition from abroad.
The manufacturers here, would then
be enabled to charge any price that
their greed might demand, because
they weHld have the exclusive control
of the home market.
This motion comes from New Eng
land, of course, and what is still more
significant, is brought forward by one
of the heaviest of the New England
manufacturers. lie knows the prac-
tical aG 7antages of monopoly in his
trade, for it is such a monopoly that
has made him one of the wcalthiest
men in the country. With n very
small amount of brains, he has, by the
manufacture of calico, accumulated
wealth sufficient to purchase his way
into political conspicuity, and may,
from the force of his money and his
political position, thus attained, be re
garded as one of the chiefs of the new
Calico Aristocracy. New England by
the aid of fishing bounties, paid at the
expense OF the South and West, first
acquired the title of the Goldfish Aris-
tocracy; but thisiIlustri Gus distinction
is now i'm a fair way to be superseded
by the still more resplendent Calico
&r'istoeracy, ,at thehead ofwhich stands
Sprague the Magnificent, and his fc-
cund wife, who has the happy faculty
producing, at her initiatory accouch.
ment, not only humping young Cal
leo Aristocrat, but a shower of green
backs besides The Olympian god
showered gold upon his favoritc and
the maternal ancestor of the new Cal
ico Asistocracy, emulating the classic
eplendorand magnifcence of Olympus,
rains greenbacxs upon the first-born
of this hymenial production, and its
happy mother, at the rate of five hun
.dred thousand to the one and one
hundred thousand to the other.
The country has seen the announce
ments, repeatedly made through the
press, Of the enormous profits made
by the cotton and wooden mills of New
England, reaching from eighty to one
hundred and twenty per centum per
annum upon the capital invested. This
extraordinary profit is the result of
our tariff laws, made for the ostenSible
purpose of protecting American indus
try, but for the real purpose of giving
the manufacturers monopoly. These
laws contravene, in their practical
operation, that sound maxim of polit-
ical economy, which justly holds that
every man, in well regulated Gov
ernment, should have the unobstruct-
cd privilege of selling where he can
get the best price, and Of purchasing
where he can get the cheapest article.
Under the crafty preteyt ofprotecting
home manufacturers, New England
has so managed as to shut out compe-
tition from abroad, by lovying a tax
upon all foreign articles made by
themselves; and thus she has for ma
ny years made the agricultural classes
of the South and West tributary TO
her emolument. The people of these
two sections Of the Union are thus