New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-20
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
BY HORACE GREELEr.
XXIIL

minimum is established when the act provides that
all Wooden dress cloths flor nstance) which are in
voiced, appraised or sworn TO be worth or to have
cost less than one dollar per square yard, shall be
taken and deemed to have cost q per square yard.
and charged with duty accordingly.
am not aware that the minimum principle was
employed in framing any American Tariff prior to
1876 when Mr.. LOwndes of South Carolina proposed
that all imported Cotton fabrics nyOiced appraised
az costing less than twenty-five cents per square
yard should be taken and deemed to have cost that
sum. and charged with duty accordingly. The duty
on Cotton fabrics being fixed at twenty-five per
cent, this provision raised the impost on all i'm
ported Sheetings Shrtings, Calicoes, &c. TO 81
cents per square yard at the lowest and thus
TO our infant Cotton manufacture protection
which enabled it to flourish and expand throughout
| the succeeding years Indeed, Mr. Calhoun, in de-
Tending this provision frankly stated that its object
was to place the stability and growth of that manu-
facture beyond contingency-as it did. For though
twenty-five cents per square yard may have been a
fair estimate of the average Value Of Cotton fabrics
| when that Tariff was framed, yet the rapid expan-
sion of our Cotton culture, resulting in lower and
yet lower prices for the staple, paralleled by the
strides continually made in inventions which rem
dered effective the machinery and processes for
spinning and weaving the staple, cheapening at
production and product, ultimately reduced the
price Of many common but seryiceable Cotton Ia
brics below ten cents per square yard so that the
duty, though still nominally twenty-five per cent
was more efficiently Protective than would have
been one of one hundred per cent lacking the miN'
mum.
A cardinal objection to AID ValOrem duties, upon
imported articles which compete directly and
depressingly with tho products Of our own
industry is this: Such duties must dlpGp
be lo,cest ,rhen they should be highest. and highest
,rhen The need Of them is least Let suppose.
for illustration that British Pig Iron of fair quality
canbe sent TO at cost of "a or $40 per tun and
the duty is thereupon fixed at Is per cent, making
the cost in this city of the British Pig eos goldl per
tun; while our shelters just afford to make at
that price. But the British product is put down to
SIS per tun consequently the duty falls to three
ourhs Of its former amount, reducing the price OF
British Pig in our market below go per tun. and
compelling large proportion of our furnaces to
suspend operations Should the British makers de-
eide to reduce for time their price to $40 per tuD.
the duty would fall to SIT. making the total cost at
our wharves $12i Laws thus framed, so far from
protecting Home Industry. lie in wait to ensnare 1t
| TO its ruin.
The Iron-masters of Pennsylvania assembled ct
Philadelphia in 1S49 to petition Congress against tho
maintenance of the Polk-Walker al yalOrem Tariff
of 1916. In their memorial they say:
! when the price Of iron is high abroad, the duty
| is high at home, giving to the American manufac-
| turer an incidental protection which continues 80
long as the market remains high; but 50 soon 80 tho
foreign market fuctuates, the duty falls with u 80
that at the time when the highest duty is needed To
| enable American manufacturers 10 sustain eompe-
ttOn with the foreign manufacturers the protection
! the American manufacturer When the Tariff act of
1876 passed. the thirty per cent duty the price
Of iron at Liverpool sO was sl5 per tu9 the The cost
two years the price has fallen from $50 to 81 per
tun and the duty from SIS to IS tun making the
cost of iron and duty $35 per tuna huctuation OF
$50 per tun. To sustain the American manufactures.
he requires the of the operation OF the presens
ad vaorem duty. When the price abroad is highest.
he needs the least duty and when 1t is lowest he re-
! quires the highest"
| After showing that the American production OF
Iron had decidedly increased under the operation OF
the Protective Tariff Of 1872 they proceed 70 state
| that
1.-THE fluctuations in price which have ensued from
this large production have been of late years great
as to cast in the shade all other commercial changes
of price. The range of these fluctuations In pig iron
during the last ten years Is from II 1885, to 70 lbs 3D.
and in bar iron, from "A lOs to Els Or about 200 per
| cent
| becomes too high to import under revenue duty;
in the other low to admit OF home production In
the one extreme cannot afford to use it In tho
other it parayzes our efforts to manufacture for our
"The legislation asked by American manufsctur
| ers deserves not the odium so frequently beaped
III.
sumers of this country a million of tuns OF iron
cheaper and better than it can be had abroad. We
ask for defense against those commercial fnctua-
| tions which in Great Britain, from
causes wholly originating there, and which.
while they thrust down the prices of iron
there far below the cost of making throw large and
irregular quantities into ports, disturbing the
regular course of industry here; breaking down
markets, and carrying ruin at each such invasion
| INTO many establishments. III we ask aid against
such Irregularities 1t is no more than we shond DO
obliged to do II the manufacture IN the united
States as greatly developed rs In Great Britain.
and enjoying, in all respects equal advantages. IL
competitors would seek to relieve their home mar
kets in of depression, by thTustnR the re-
ected surplus upon his rival and each would seize
the opportunity of high prices IN the other TO make
| large exports until both markets, unable 10 maintain
any high prices to compensate for unfayoTable pc
RODS would sink into hopeless depression and the
business perish or be greatly impaired. Against such
consequences, both would appeal TO their respec-
tive Governments for protection, not for
nopoly; for that security against ruinous
fluctuations, and that regularity IN sales indispen-
sable to the success of industry. Competitors at
home can observe their mutual progress, and take
their measures of defense in time; but that compe-
ttion which comes from abroad cannot be watched.
preparations made for Its sudden inroads IL tho
British manufacturer is prevented from flooding our
markets at less than the average price upon whicT
his business thrives, mere revenue duty Will bs
ample protection against the great advantage he en-.
joys, of employing labor at less than half tho coss
paid in the United States"
As to the effect of Protection on prices. forcibs
statement made by the Committee on Iron OF
the friends of Domestic Industry at their Convention
held in this City in November, 1881. They say:
1.-THE average price of bar iron in 1928 was sllSs.
In that year, addition to the duty on hammered
iron was made of - per tnn and.on rolled 0, ~
In the following year the price fell to sll4j and In
1850 TO $g6i showing decline IN two years OF t2lt
per tun, in face of the increased duty above men
toned: . decline Effected exclusively py domestic
-. l.naW FnapNa IN hAnl