The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-04-06
How "Pro,ec,ionv Works.

The speech in the House Of Represent
atives, on the 18th ult., of Hon F.
Stone, Representative of the fifth con-
gressional district of Maryland, on the
bill for q revision of the tariff, dis.
cusses in o clear and forcible manner
the subject of protective tariffs. Mr..
Stone comedies the patriotism of such
men as Henry Clay, who, at time
when manufactures were in their in
fancy, believed that to foster them by
bounties would create home market
which would in the end compensate the
farmer by an increased demand for
agricultural products, and that having
been fostered and cared for in their in
fancy, they would no longer ask or OBJ
tain protection when once firmly estab-
lished. But the result has shown that
their demands for protection are in
creased rather than diminished. Mr..
Stone clearly shows that the sole OBJ.
iect of the protective duty is to enable
the American manufacturer to add the
amount of the duty to the price of the
article. How widely u protective tariff
violates the Republican principle of the
greatest good TO the greatest number
may be seen at glance in the following
lncid and succinct statement: The
whole number of persons engaged in
active industries in the United States
are distributed as follows: Agricultur-
lists, 6,435, 900; unskilled laborers, do
mestic servants and all distributors,
4,705, 900; skilled mechanics 100000;
manufacturers Of cotton, l25, 900; manu-
facturers of woolens, 10000; manufac-
turers of iron, 1l5,000; manufacturers
of boots and shoes, lS0,333; manufac-
turers of paper, 25, 900; fisheries and all
other Industries and pursuits, ,667.
Total number of persons engaged in ac-
tive industry in the United States,
l2,S70,000.
Of this number three hundred and
thirty thousand are employed in the
projected" industries of iron, cotton
and wooden manufacture, while more
than ten millions of working people de-
pend for their daily bread upon the
cultivation of the soil. They work
early and late, in rain and sunshine, to
wrest from the earth an ever uncertain
and sometimes bare and hard living.
To these people the great necessaries of
life next to food are cotton, woolen and
iron; and yet this class of people are
taxed upon every yard of cotton and
woolan worn by them, and upon every
plow, hoe and chain used by them, in
some cases one hundred per cent, for
the benefit of a small, but thrifty, pro-
portion of the industrial population of
the country. To make the statement
mated that the whole population of the
United States is now about forty mil
lion, and that of these forty million
about two million are interested in man
ufactures. Thus nineteen.twentieths of
the people are taxed for the benefit of
the enc remaining twentieth. Can in
Justice be more flsgranti And yet the
great West, who alone has by force of
her numbers the power to remedy this
state of things, bends to the dictates of
New England, and sees herself, by ma
ture rich and luxuriant, taxed to
ruin to translate her revenues to the
East.
Mr.. Stone next examines the special
bill now before Congress, and shows
that it contains almost all the elements
of injustice that any tariff bill ever did
contain. The poor and laboring classes
are made by the tariff policy to bear
the chief burthens, while the rich are
the principal benefciaries of a govern.
ment which is ever boa sting of republi-
canisn and equal rights. Commission.
er Wells, though Republican and pro-
tective tariff man., has pretty satisfac.
torily established this point, which is
also impressively set forth in the speech
of Mr.. Stone.-Bdlt. Suu.