The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1867-02-20

TIE New Tariff Bill.

passed the SENATE, Is the same taflH Dl
which passed the'House last session, SO a
tered by multitudinous amendments as t
make it, in many particulars, more unjus
and oppressive than the original. W
hope the amendments may be concurre
in, and that the bill, in its present hide
Gus shape, may become law. From tn
now ascertained views Of the two Houses
We are certain to have high and oppres
sive tariff anyhow, and the best thing t.
be hoped is, that absurdity may so over
! leap itself as to hasten the inevitable, tn
overwhelming reaction.
Instead Of bill to increase the reye
nue., it ought to have been entitled a bill
to blockade our oaos ports. We are prac
ticing upon ourselves, in time of peace
what we inflicted on the South as The
stern appliance Of war. The beauties
and benefits of complete protection t.
home industry" were enjoyed by th'
South in perfection, but it is not generaly
supposed to have enriched the Southern
people. Its only effect was to produce
universal distress. 1t carried up prices
several hundred per cent. for the benefit
of blockade runners, and the ricketty
manufactures it forced into a sickly exis-
tence. We know that it may be said
that the gripping effects Of the blockade
were owing to the restitution Of estab.
lished manufactures and that twenty
years Of protection previous to the war
would have rendered the blockade harm
less. But the real effect of that kind OF
protection would have been to stunt the
growth Of the South, SO that instead OF
holding out four years, it could not have
maintained the four months.
IF the South had possessed power to
hem itself around with the voluntary
blockade Of a protective tariff for twenty
years before the war, and had used that
power, the effect would have been to di-
vert large portion of its capital and in
dustry into manufactures. Instead of
growing rich aud powerful by the sale Of
cotton, its agriculture would have Ian
guished for its deficient capital did not
suffice for both pursuits, aud, having
nothing to buy abroad, the South would
have had no motive to raise anything to
sell, The greatest want Of a new cour-
Try, for its rapid development, is the use
Of capital, and this generally furnished
by older communities, not in the shape Of
money, but Of goods sold on credit The
South, by purchasing its goods in this way
instead of manufacturing them, was al
ways in the use Of large amounts Of eapi-
tai not It's own, which enabled it, in the
absence Of immigration, and in spite Of a
bad labor system, to grow up to prodigi
Gus strength. Had the South manufac-
tured its own goods, it would have lacked
this aid and stimulus, and its progress
would have been feeble All the surplus
money it could save or borrow, it devoted
to the construction Of railroads, and it
was chiefly by the aid Of these and we'll
developed agriculture that the South was
enabled to bafls SO long, the mightiest
armies ever raised for purposes Of inya-
sion. IF the South had built factories
instead Of railroads, it could not have re-
sisted the North for single campaign
The rapadity with which it could transfer
troops on interior lines, to meet us at
every threatened point, multiplied the
Southern soldiers. The Southern armies
could have been fed SO long as they were
only in country given up to agricul-
ture When the catastrophe at last came,
it vas chiefly by want of food and the
wearing out Of the railroads. It is clear,
therefore, that the free-trade policy of the
South was wise, even as an element Of
military strength; and facts have demon
strated that the blockade, which gave
that section four years of complete "pro-
lection to home industry" was something
very different from blessing. And yet
our sage legislators at Washington arc
aiming to blockade our cwn ports, and dis
tress our own people, by a method whose
practical effect must be the same as great
Gordon Of blockading squadrons."