New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-25
Extracts from the Speech of Hon.
X. Ii. DueIi, of New York, i'm tile
House Of Representatives. April
13, 1872.
American Industry should he Protected.

American Industry should be Protected.
Mr.. DuELL commenced his remarks by
briefly referring to the sentiment of the
American people in favor of protection to
their own industry, and to the ruinous conse-
quences to the business of the country by con.
tinually tampering with and unsettlng the
policy of the Government in regard to the
duty on imports, and then said:
There are unmistakable indications. how
| ever not only on the floor of this House, but
in the leading free trade newspapers of the
country, that an effort is to be made in this
Congress, under the pretense of revenue re-
form, to overthrow our protective policy, and
| to build upon its ruins system of free trade,
which will bring the American laborer, and all
the industrial interests of the country into
competition with the cheap labor, great man
ufacturing establishments, and enormous cap
| ital of Europe. The enemies of the protCc-
tive policy commenced their operations at the
last session of Congress by a ferocious on
slaught upon the duty On salt and bituminOus
coal, and have ever since been employed in a
Jealous and systematic effort to poison the
public mind against all duties which discrim-
mate in favor of American industry.
Three times at least in the last sixty wears
have they succeeded in destroying protective
tariff which had revived our trade and COM
merce, created demand for labor, and re-
stored general prosperity to the country and
each time has this victory of British capital
| lists brought ruin to our industry. And what
was gained to the people of the United States
by this ruinous policy? Could 1--we buy foreign
| goods cheaper? 1t is true that for short
time our British rivals sold their fabrics
cheaper than we could make them but when
they had broken down all competition here by
underselling our manufactures, and had thus
got control of our market, they at once put
| their goods up to higher price than the
American article had ever been, and thus
compensated themselves for the sacrifice it
had cost them to destroy our manufactures.
This has been the unvarying result of the
policy of free trade in the past, and it will be
the result in the future five adopt that policy
now.
| 1t does not matter to the advocates of free
trade that under our present system of dis
| eliminating i'll favor of American industry
| trade is prosperous, that manufactures are
| tlOurishing, and that labor is in demand and
| commands an adequate reward. 1t does not
matter to them that we have a home market,
created by our manufacturing interests, for
| $3.50, O0O, 900 of our agricultural products at
remunerative prices. 1t does not matter to
| them that the progress of the country since
| the adoption of the present policy eleven
years ago has been more rapid in spite of the
war than during any other period in our
| history. 1t does not matter to them that we
have been enabled to pay the great burdens
| of taxatiOns which that war imposed upon us,
and to eXtinguish our national debt at a rate
| unprecedented in the history of the world, or
| that the people are contented, prosperous,
and happy. All these facts seem to weigh
nothing with the men who are bent on this new
| free trade and anti-American experiment
They have resolved to force it upon the
country at whatever risk to its welfare and
however destructive it may be to the interests
of our workingmen. l warn them here and
now that for all this they will sooner or later
be brought into Judgment by the people.
WHAT is FREE TRADE?
Absolute free trade in its real sense-which
| is the ultimate aim of all opponents to Ameri-
can industry-means a repeal of duties upon
every class of foreign imports, the abolition
of our custOm-house system, and the opening
of our ports to the introduction of the pro-
ducts of all nations without fee or charge of
any kind. This policy would bring the enor-
nous capital and cheap labor of Europe in
direct competition with our own industry, and
result in the entire destruction of our manu-
featuring interests, whether of iron, wool or
cotton. BY this overthrow of our manufac-
| lures, two million wOrkingmen now prolitably
employed in them would be thrown out of
employment, and the ten million five hundred
thousand people now supported by their labor
deprived of the means of subsistence or COM
PEELED to accept European pauper-labor wages.
In ten years there would not be furnace,
rolling-mill, cotton or wooden factory, or any
other but the simplest kind of manufactures
| OF in, oil Ian 1n1,a
| third the price it commands in the United
States, and the control of the vast capital
which long years of protection has enabled
| them to accumulate, English, French, and
| German manufacturers could undersell our
own to such an extent as to drive them even
from their own market, and much more, from
those of foreign nations, where we are just be-
ginning to gain fOothold. / can scarcely
imagine greater calamity possible to our
country generally, and especially to those en-
gagged III our various manufactures, and sup
porting at least one-fourth of our whole popu-
lation, than the consequences which would
inevitably follow the establishment of free
trade as the settled policy of the country.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROTECTION AND
| FREE TRADE.
The relative influence of protection and free
trade upon the industry of the country may
be summed up IN few words. The effect OF
protection is to stimulate industry and lead
to prosperity; OF free trade, to ruin most of
the great interests of the country. The mis-
sion of the one is to build up, of the other to
break down. Protection creates a demand
for labor and secures it an adequate reward /;
free trade is designed to lessen that demand
and diminish the price of wages. Protection
opens mines, erects furnaces, establishes
boundaries, starts cotton mills, and gives en-
plOyment to thousands free trade shuts up
the mines, puts out the fires in the furnaces, ST
lences the trip-hammers, arrests the spndles,
and drives the thousands either into less
profitable pursuits or deprives them altogether
of labor. Protection creates home markets,
and free trade destroys them. Protection Sc
cures and increases industry; free trade di-
minishes it. Protection secures good wages
free trade makes them cheap. Protection
leads to individual and national self-reliance
and independence free trade makes us de-
pendent as individuals and nation upon
other nations.
| HOW THE TARIFF AFFECTS PRICES.
The strongest and almost the only argu-
ment used by free trade theorists against
protective tariff is the allegation that it in
creases the price of every article upon which
| it is levied lust to the extent of such tariff.