New-York tribune., 1872-04-01
T4RIFF PROSPECTS.


JJp to last week. we had no serious apprc-
hcnsion of radical change in the Tariff at this
session. Tested by whatever standard, the
country is enjoying a solid and general pros
pcrity. A steady increase in the importation
of Tea Coffee, and other articles of general
consumption; like increase in the aggre-
gate deposits of our Savings Banks; vast
extension of our Railroads in 1871, cX-
cceding by hundreds OF miles that OF
any previous year very decided ex-
pansion of our area of agricultural production
and an increase of our crops, that of Cotton
excepted; the rapid, persistent reduction of
our National Debt-these and many concurring
Illustrations Of our average thrift and progress,
argue so strongly in favor of letting well alone
that we are sure the judgment of our people is
against any upturnng of the foundations OF
our industrial ediiice.
A single instance will serve to illus
trate the perils of the current on
which the Senate has chosen 10 float
III the last revision of the Tariff, two years
ago, Gen. Schenck was impclcd to reduce the
duty on Pig Iron from 50 to 81 per tun; the
argument therefor being the asserted ability
of the smeltcrs to live under the lower duty,
on the assumption that this reduction of duty
would give us Iron 50 per tun cheaper. But
the first ard all but inevitable effect of
that reduction was to stop the erection
of furnaces. the growth of Our Iron
industry. Capital is tmd; new furnace and
its accessories costs many thousands of dollars;
the Free Trade League was calling for free
Pi, Iron so mOneyed men concluded to wait
till they could determine how the tide was
running We ought to have smclted 2,5C0,OOo
tuns of Pig Iron in 1870, and 100000 tuns In
1871 we actually did smelt less than 100000
tuns in either Of those years. The price was
fair; the demand was ample the one obstacle
to increased production was pervadinS
dread of the effect of Gen. Schenck's re-
duction, and a reasonable apprehension that
further reduction was impending. We know
that other influences have cOnspired to pro-
duce the present scarcity of Iron and consc-
quent advance in price; yet we cannot doubt
tLat our people are paying at least $40 per
tan more for Pig Iron this day than they
would be if Congress had in 1870 increased the
duty from 50 to $40, instead OF reducing 1t to
81. The Iron famine is part of our
case for it has been partly produced by
the checl, given to the expansion of our Iron
industry by that reduction. The world needs
more and more Iron; we need moro ana
more; Congress should have steadily melted
our people to enlarge and multiply their fur
naces it did just the opposite; and now we
are suffering the consequences OF that unwis-
dom
So with regard to Wool 1t is ar; so is Cot
ton; for each is in short supply, causing
an advance of prices throughout the world.
But the Cotton supply can and will be gradu
ated to the demand from year to year: the
present price will inevitably induce a large
extension of the area planted to Cotton this
very year. But the production of Wool, though
elastic, is not nearly so much so as that of
Cotton; at least three years would be required
to double our Wool crop, while that OF
Cotton may be doubled in year. Our
farmers have sold one wOol-clp at good
prices, and have the promise of still better
for that soon to be ready; they ought to en-
large their nocks by at least fifty per cent. in
1872 and lay in enough strychnne to defend
them from the ravages of dogs: but Congress
is moved at this juncture to reduce the duties
on Wooens, which reduction is certain to re-
act on the prices Of Wool. Tho object of
course is 10 cneapen NOOlenS; We DcicNc
the result will closely parallel that of
the late reduction of the duty on Pig
Iron. 1t will check the augmentation
of our focks, the increase OF our wool
clip it may give us WOolens a little cheaper
on the instant, at the expense of speedy in
crease of their cost This country ought to
shear its own fleece and wear it; it will be
grave error to retrOgrade into more abject
dependence on Europe for the clothes which
shield us from the inclemencles of our ca
PRECIOUS climate. If Nature had inter
posed any barrier to the production
of Wool, the fabrication of Cloth,
by our people, as she has done to their
production of Coffee, we should counsel de-
ference to her fiat; but this she has not done;
and we ought to make larger and still larger
proportion of the fabrics that cover and pro-
tect us with each succeeding year. SO wo
will hope lin spite of lthe mad dance of the
Senate last week around the witches cauldron
of Tariff destruction) that no radical change
will be consummated at this session.