The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-03-11

If Mr.. Burchard had consulted price
current he would have discovered that
the best sheetings and shirtiDgs are worth
from II l.2 to 3 cents, and that Sprague's
prints are quoted at IL IL cents. Does
he suppose that these articles have been
enhanced in price 40 per cent by the du-
ty on cottons, and does he suppose that
woolens are six,y.nine per cent. higher
than they were before the Morrill, Tariff
was enacted ? And if Mr.. Burchard was
right about this matter, instead of being
flagrantly wrong, and if cottons and wool
ems are higher now than they were, would
it not be well for him to inquire if the
duty is to blame for it He would dis
cover that the cause does not lie with the
manufacturing monopolists he is so fond
Of denouncing, but that this much. abused
class have, by the exercise of wonderful
energy skill and invention, given TO the
people cheap and ample supply of all
the old fabrics and many new ones, while
paying to Mr.. Burchards constituents,
the farmers Of Illinois, nearly double the
price for wool that they got in the palmy
days of Free Trade.
Wool, Western fleece, is quoted in
New York at this date, November, 1872,
at 63 to GO cents per pound, and in 1860
it was worth 81 cents. IF Mr.. Burch-
ard will figure this up he will find it an
increase in the price Of the raw material
of rs per cent. Has the Tariff had any,
thing to do with this Mr.. Burchard
and his rabid, friand Mr.. Kerr of Indi-
ana, may ind that their constituents who
have wool to sell, do not Thank them for
their mistaken advocacy of Free Trade.
And what about cottons? Mr.. Burch.
ard parades his 40 per cent. of increased
cost with great flourish, yet if he mad
made any examination of the subject, he
would have discovered that raw cotton is
a hundred per cent. dearer than it was
before the war. The New York Tribune
of December !, 1860, quotes middling
uplands cotton at 10 10 to IL cents, and
the same paper for November 81, 1872,
quotes it at 10 to 20 rs cents. Not
withstanding this tremendous difference
in the cost of the raw material, it is known
to most of the women and children of the
country, though members of Congress and
statisticians may be ignorant of the fact
that cotton goods are little dearer than
they were before the war. Do the man.
ufacturers deserve no credit for this ? Is
it not shameful ignorance or as shameful
malignity that denounces them as pen.
sioners upon the bounty of that puolic
which they have so largely benefited ?
Does Mr. Burchard suppose that they
are enjoying bounties of 40 per cent. up
on cottons and SO per cent on woolens
above what would be fair prof. on their
goods ? We cannot believe him to be ca
pable OF such inconceivable stupidity.
Does he believe that the workers in cot
ton and wooden mills have been respec-
lively receiving pensions of $500 and
S4l9 each, above what would be fair
wages for their labor? The proposition
is SO absurd that it is its own refutation.
Has his table any meaning whatever &?
Knowing it to be nonsense himself, docs
be think his constituents are such assc
that they would take it in good earnest,
and credit him with serious effort TO
save them from the Infamous robbery per-
petrated by an execrable Tariff?
The assumption that a return to Free
Trade would make at once reduction Of
prices exactly equivalent to the duty is
80 perfectly untenable, so entirely at war
with all experience, that no public man
having pretensions to craftsmanship should
give it credit. Mr.. Burchard has seen
the reduction Of duty upon pig.iron from
SO to 81 per ton, followed by a rise il
price of SIS ton ! If his friends had
succeeded in their efforts to repeal the
duty, the price would have been higher
still there is no telling where it would
have gone to. This bit of history should
have taught him that the way to cheaper
commodities is to encourage home manu-
features.
Mr.. Burchard wants TO persuade the
farmers of Illinois that we should repea
Tariff duties to cheaper the things they
wish to buy, but he has not asked then
how they would like to take Free-Trad'
prices for what they have to sell. Their
is an enormous crop in the country anC
there is grumbiRg about low prices, bu
prices are not low when compared will
what may be called Free Trade times be
fore the war. With the exception of corI
and pork, everything is uniformly ant