Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1869-04-30
TARIFF LEGISLATION OF THE
UNITED STATES.
pRoTEcrIoN pURINa wAR.


close, leaving oer people well provided with
furnaces and mills, all ofwhich were active
/ ly engaged in making demand for labor and
Tor raw materials Of every kind. Money
was then abundant, and the public debt was
trivial in amount Commercial ron-inter-
course, by developing our domestic indus
try, had helped the nation forward upon the
pathway of prosperity and independence.
DESTRUCTION DURING PEACE.
Two years later we entered upon the
British free-trade system, and at once all
was changed. Mills and furnaces were
closed labor ceased to be in demand and
our poor-houses we're everywhere filed.
Money becoming scarce and interest high,
land declined to a third Of its previous price
Banks stopped payment The sheriff every
where found full demand for all his time
mortgages entered everywhere into posses.
sion. The rich were made richer, but the
farmer and mechanic, and all but the very
rich, were ruined Trivial as were then the
expenses Of the Government, the treasury
could not meet them Such was the state
Of things that induced General Jackson to
ask the question, Where has the Ameri-
can farmer a market for his surplus pro
duce p
FIRST PROTECTIVE TARIFF, 1923.
To the state Of things here described were
we, in 1928, indebted for the first thorough
ly national tariff. Almost from the mo
ment Of its passage, activity and life took
the place of the palsy that previously ex.
listed. Furnaces and mills were built labor
came to demand immigration increased,
aud so large became the demand for the
products Of the farm that our markets
scarcely felt the effect of fchanges in that of
England; the public revenues so rapidly in
creased that it became necessary to exempt
from duty tea, coffee, and many other ar
/ ticles; and the public debt was finally ex
tinguished History presents no case Of
/ prosperity so universal as that which here
existed at the date of the repeal of the
great national tariff of 1928. Had it been
maintained in existence we should have had
no secession war, and at this hour the South
would exhibit state of society in which
the land owners had become rich while their
slaves had been gradually becoming free,
with profit to themselves,yto their owners,
and to the nation at large
COMPROMISE TARIFF OF 1888
The benefcent and truly national tariff
of 1928, which had wrought such wonders
was repealed by the Compromise Tariff of
1888, by which 1t was provided that all du
ties on foreign merchandise should be re-
dueed biennially, until, in lS43, there should
be perfectly horizontal tariff Of twenty per
cent
The repeal was followed by succession
/ ofBritish irec-trade crises, the whole erdiug
in S42 in state ofthings directly the ereYerse
of that above described Mills and fur
nsces were closed mechanics were starving;
money was scarce and dear land had fallen
to half its previous prices; the sheriff was
everywhere at work banks were in a state
of suspension States repudiated payment
of their debts the treasury was unable to
borrow dollar, except at a high rate Of in
terest and bankruptcy among merchants
and traders was so universal that Congress
found itself compelled to pass a bankrupt
law.
RETURN.TO PROTECTION, 1912.
Again, and for, the third time, protection
was restored by the passage of the Tariff
act Of 1872 Under it, in less than five
years, the production of iron rose from two
hundred and twenty thousand tons to eight
hundred thousand tons; and so universal
was the prosperity that large as was the in
crease, it was wholly insufficient to meet the
great demand. Mines we're everywhere be-
/ ing sunkf Labor was in great demand, and
wages were high, as a consequence OF which
immigration speedily trebled in its amount
Money was abundant and cheap, and the
sheriff found but little to do. Public and
private revenues were beyond all previous
preeedents, and throughout the land there
reigned a prosperity more universal than
had ever before Ibeen known, save during
the similar period produced by the protec-
tive tariff of 1928.
FREE TRADE AGAIN, 1916.
Once more, in 1916, however, did the
serpent-properly represented on this oc
casion by British free traders-make his
way into Paradise, and now dozen years
elapsed, in the course Of which, notwith
standing the discovery Of California mines,
money commanded a rate of interest higher
/ than had ever been known IN the country
/ for so long perion of time. British iron
and cloth came in and gold went out, and
with each successive day the dependence Of
our farmers on foreign markets became more
complete With 1857 came the elimination
of the system, merchants and manufacturers
being ruined banks being compelled to
suspend payment and the treasury being
reduced to a condition Of bankruptcy, nearly
approaching that which had existed at the
close of the free-trade periods, commencing
/ in 1918 and 1884. In the three years that
| followed, labor was everywhere in excess (;
wages we're low immigration fell tclow the
point at which it had stood twenty years be-
fore the home market for food diminished,
and the foreign one proved so utterly worth
less that the whole export to al the manu-
featuring nations of Europe amounted to
but little more than 10000, 900.
-
TIE MILLIONAIRE ARTIST.
A Paris paper has the following very
pretty story:
] NJ Dohnrt on immensely Henlihv and