The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-09-16

dens and feWe6t restrictions as the
best protection to industry" comedies
that "the promotion of the public .
welfare" can rightly be considered in /
tax laws.
Is there anything unjust to any one,
when adjusting the duties by which |
our ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS revenue is
raised, In so discriminating. within |
revenue limit, as ito secure home pro-
duceTs fair competition with foreign |
capital and labor especially in regard |
to the great iron, cotton and wooden
manufacturing interests of the coun-
try? These manufactures are quite
indispensable to real National lnde-
pendence. Without them, we should
be almost as dependent, If foreign war
burst upon us, as If We had 10 import
cannon, rifles and gunpoWder from
abroad. Our home production of pig
iron rose from the average of 500 000
tons during Bachanan's term. to the
average of one million six hundred
thousand tons per year during the last
four years, and the last year "a. nearly
two millions. Believing 1t could main
tain "a feir competitions with foreign
capital and labor" &C a reduced tariff.
Congress. at the last session, cut down
the duties upon it from SO to 81 per
ton, and on scrap iron from s. to Sc,
reduction Of about % per cent.
The wages of labor in this country
ought certainly not to be overlooked
in adjusting the details Of a Tariff, if
IL Is TO be promotiVe, aud not subver
sive, of the public welfare a sup,
plement to Commissioners Wells last
report from the Bureau of Statistics,
shows in elaborate tables, that these
wages are eighty per cent. higher here
than In England, and the disparity
with the wages IN continental Europe
is much greater.
Should we legislate so as to compel
the reduction of labor wages to any
thing near these standards2 I think
not. 1 have no sympathy with the
doctrine that cheap labor here would
be promotlve ofAmeriean development
or American prosperity. When the
laborer is adequately remuneTated,
able to enjoy the neeessaries and com
forts of life, with ability Co lay up
something for the future, and with
his labor in demand, we will always
| fad CONFINEMENT and consequent pros
perity. When this is not the case,
destitution aud pauperism effliot and
dishonor the land. @
Suppose we had imported these
two millions Of tons Of pig iron from
abroad. Three -fourths of all the fifty
millions We paid for il would have
been for foreig0 labor, foreign bread
stuffs, foreign meat, vegetables, cloth
ing, ETC., used By the laborer while
producing it. and we should have
paid for it in gold. Would this have
been better than paying &c in labor
wages here. and for the 5readstufs,
meat, vegetables, ETC., purchased of
our farmers and consumed By our
laborers here2 IA,
While our financial necessities
| therefore require money 10 be raised
by tariff, and while any duties found
to be prohibitory, or pressing too
heavily on the consumer or creating a
monopoly In any branch Of business,
should be reduced. / sincerely believe
that revenue duties with fair regard
to the development Of our resources,
and the maintenance Of American
wages for labor, the just interests of
both producers and consumers, and
the promotion of the general welfare.
could be. with some abatement of ex-
treme views on either side, quite fairly
and easily harmonized. And, on the
other hand, those disposed 10 reject
ell medium ground, and who refuse 70
give any weight to considerations
growing out of our financial needs for
revenue, or the wages of labor in our
/ country, can find cause for complaint
Ia any tariff that could be enacted.
Another point is PAYING THE
BONDS IN GREENBAcKs' The gradual
e,Er ~
| is lessening the value of this PROPOSE
ton to those who use il, but it may
be we'll 20 briefly refer 20 it. The
bonds and the greenbacks are both
evidences Of rational indebtedness.
In, both cases, the United States
/ promise to pay to the holder a certain
amount, In the former with interest,
and in the latter without interest.
Any nation, which should seriously
resolve to pay off one of its dcbtswith
another of It's debts, could never Dor
row again Of any one, In war or In
peace-espeeially If the proposition
! was 20 pay of It's interest bearing
debt, with another Of its debts,
| which did not bear interest. Such
q proposition by an individual, in
regard to his debts, would be
regarded as absurd as 1t would be-
] base. We have a solemn promise,
! too, in our legislation, when VIC were
borrowing, and seeking to strengthen
our credit, that there should never
be more than four hundred millions
| of gfeenbaaks issued, with fifty mill
| lions fer temporary emergencies. And
the Supreme Court of the United
States have decided, in which avery
Democratic Judge concUrred, that
greenbAcks, even issued In time of
war. cannot be made legal tender for
any debt already existing; while the
opinions pron0un sed at the same time
By the minority Of the Court indicated
plainly that the whole bench would
unanimously decide any issue Of legal
tenders. 10 Time of peace as unconstl-
tutional.
We are sometimes told however,
that money which is good enough
I for the soldier as good enough
for the bondholder." Aud TO this /
answer that Congress increased he pay
0ftbe soldier from $13 to SIG per month";
where IL now stands, on the express
gr0qsads Of the depreciation Of TIE cur
Tency, and our average paid to PEN
sioners has been largely increased,
not it is true. by any increase IN the
50 per month pensions, but by paying
larger amounts TO those who have lost
limbs or eyes, or suffered disabilities
equivalent thereto, and by an addition
Of $24 per year for each child OF
dead soldier-tWo features m our
Pension laws entirely unknownto all
Administrations Of the past.
Another cry Of our opponents in
straxvnr xvrrF4 THE RANKS j do not
regard the National Bank system as
absolutely perfect. but when compared
with the old system Of generous cor