New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-28
States may again bring their old tribute t.
the national wealth,

the national wealth.
The history of the rice culture does not
lead us. to expect that there will be
necessity for long continuance OF the pres,
ent rate of duty. 1t is not to be classed
with those branches of industry when we
have been protecting as in their infancy
for forty or fifty years. Under ordinary
circumstances it can stand alone; out ~
has met with great misfortune, ana IL neens
and claims such aid as has not Deen re-
fused to other branches OF production no
more deserving either in national OF iocai
| point of view. Inc aid ciall!eo Is ash s
| on the ground which in the history OF pro-
tectiye duties has always been held by
their advocates to justify them. namely,
| that il is desirable for time to protect
AGAINST foreign competition branches OF do
| nestle industry which furnish occupation to
| considerable classes of our people, enlarge
the home market for our other commodities,
and which may after reasonable period
stand without the protection OF duties
which are OnerOus to other classes of citi-
zens. This is precisely such an industry.
1t employs a large number of people. 1t
enables them to become large consumers OF
other domestic products. 1t adds directly
and indirectly to the national wealth. 1t
utilities large areas of land otherwise almost,
if not entirely, valueless. Its abandonment
would surely restore those lands to the
waters from which they have been re-
claimed at a cost so great. Only those
| planters whose lands are exceptionally well
situated would under present circumstances
Outlive the disaster of present reduction
of duty Or if they did for a year or two
longer fight their way through under this
adverse condition of things, it would be be-
cause some unlOoked-for combination OF
circumstances favored them in their
struggle.
Mr. President. it is worth while to look
little closer at this subject, and see who
they are Who are interested in the retention
of this duty. l have already shown how
the planter is interested in it, | may add
that if we take away the inducements to
carry on the culture of rice, the land which
has, as it were. been created for this specific
purpose. which represents the labor of gen
eratiOns of men, will disappear as agrlcul-
tural lands. The cotton field and the corn
field may be unfortunately used for either
product. But to keep up the banks and
dikes OF rice field tor raising corn would
be an expensive process.
But there is a much larger class OF men
to whom this duty is matter OF prime
importance, class to whom we owe es-
pecial kindness. l allude to the laborers
whose toll produces the crop under the SUI
pervisiOn of the planters controlling mind.
Thousands of them have sent up their petit
tons to Congress praying that the prOtec-
ton may be continued. They have their
homes on and near the vice plantations,
where they earn their daily bread by labor,
to the peculiar character of which they are
specially fitted by education and by phys
ical charac teristics. Mostly they have
lived on these plantations always;
they were born there; and while
they sometimes bitterly remember that
these were the scenes of their toll
40 slaves. they also .joyfully reflect that
their days Of slavery are over and they are
now free men in the old familiar places
which their childhood knew as home. and
they cling to that home as tenderly as
many who have known more favored child
hood. They do not wish to go from it.
When first made free. many of them wan
dered away into the cities and towns, and
! up into the hill country; but they soon
longed for the old haunts, the still waters
and the broad savannas of the low country,
and they returned thither. Remove or con-
siderably reduce the duty on the article
they toll to raise, and these men, with their
wives and children. must seek other homes
and other and unfamiliar tasks. There are
probably about twenty thousand freedmen,
heads of families. engaged in raising rice in
the Carolinas and Georgia alone. Certainly
it would be moderate estimate to place
the number of people who would have TO
seek new homes and new employment, in
in the Caroinas and Georgia, at seventy
thousand
Were a proposition made to strike down
or cripple an industry which fed that mum
Der of people il Pennsylvania or Massa-
chusetts. these halls and corridors would be
crowded with angry remOnstrants, and the
protectionist newspapers would read our
honorable Committee on Finance a lesson
more emphatic than pleasant. Shall less
tenderness be exercised toward the humble
toiler in the rice swamps because he has no
powerful and adroit lobbyist here to defend
his cause, He trusts in the government.
which has stricken the shackles from his
limbs. to protect his occupation. Let not
his trust be in vain.
Ii it be said that the existence Of the duty
keeps the price OF rice unreasOnably high, l
reply that it falls year by year. as I have
shown, and that our productions will soon
equal, nay. exceed our domestic consnmp-
ton. When that happens, as 1t soon will. II
the present duty is maintained a few years
longer, the price in the markets of the world
will be our price.
But the price of rice is not matter of SO
much moment as it at first appears. 1t is.
used in most OF the States which do not
produce it. not so much as an article of or
binary food as of luxury. Other bread
stutfs are preferred. The rice producing
States consume the largest quantity per
caDi,a and the people of those States are
interested in keeping up the price rather
than lowering it. The Chinese in Calfor
MIA consume it largely. but they pay but
little tax on anything else They live on as
near nothing as is compatible with very
poor existence, and it seems somewhat over
nice for us to be worrying ourselves to
make their rice cent a pound cheaper
when we refuse to protect them against vio-
ence and outrage at the hands of our own
citizens. Let us first do justice to them as
residents ON our territory before We attempt
to save them few cents each per year.
while in doing this we sacrifice an industry
which sustains more American citizens
| than there are Chinese in the country.
The rice consumption Of the whole coun-
| try has never exceeded three and a half or
| four pounds per cGpitU. In striking down
! the rice culture you also destroy large
amount of property in mills, of which the
business is to prepare the rough rice for
market: you destroy the business of large
| numbers of men engag ed in manufacturing
| the tierceS Or barrels in which it is packed;
you deprive of profitable business con-
! siderab BILE fleet of small vessels especially
adapted to bringing it from the plantations
to the mills, and from the mills to the stores
whence it is sold: and YOU leave the coun-
try dependent on the foreign producer tor
an article OF which oar citizens use willing
| ~ only the quality produced at home, and
| which it has been abundantly proven we
can produce as well and as cheaply as we
can purchase Of foreign producers so soon
as we have had time to restore orr rice
| fields to their former good condition.
| earnestly hope the Senate will adopt
| the amendment shall propose Task them
to forbear taking step which Will so
| seriously injure So large portion Of my
constituents as that proposed by the com
| ill., lrx..1H A..