The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-10-22

W1n0n
Total number Of bushels, lo,7o2,6l
Which is more than four $4,000 BUSH
els to each person.
From the very nature of the case
home market can effect nothing except
few small fruits required Tor lmmedl-
ate use, and garden vegetables too oui-
ky for transportation. But with
full knowled ge of such facts, men
occupying seats in the Senate ana
claiming to be statesmen, urge the grl-
culturalists of this country to sustain
tariff to build up home market for
their products. Senator Morrill, of
Vermont, in recent address delivered
before the Agricultural Society OF that
State, is reported to have used the fol-
lowing language:
TO induce men to embark and re-
main in the pursuit OF agriculture, 1t
has seemed to me better to secure for
it home market by protection to man
ufaLturers rather than to waste one
half or more on long journeys in pur-
suit of customers
Had the Senator but consulted the
last census he would have found an an
s~er to all his platitudes in the statis-
sics of his own State.
Protection is often an injury to its
votaries, and the evils it inaicts are not
confined to those oppressed by it's ex-
actions. The advantage tariff affords
one branch of industry naturally at
tracts capital to the manufacture of the
favored article, and production,
the inevitable result, follows.
We see this forcibly illustrated in the
present condition of the iron trade.
OF six hundred and sixty-six COM
pleted furnace stacks in the United
States, over one-third 1885, had sus
pended operation on the first day of
January last, and in the true spirit of
adventure, sthe capitalists whose for
tunes have been impaired by such reck-
less investments, now urge Congress to
increase the currency, that they may
hide their own bankruptcy in national
disgrace.
The argument that protection is
necessary to establish manufactures in
newly settled countries is not historical
Iy true of our own country.
In two years, 1910 to 1912, six large
vessels were built in New England, and
in l724 ship carpenters on the Thames
complained that their trade was hurt
since so many vessels were built in New
England" In 1910 the manufacture Of
linen, cotton and wooden frabrics was
commenced in New England, cotton
being imported for that purpose from
the West Indies.
In 1899 the colonial exports exceeded
one and half millions of dollars, and
in the same year the expectation of
colonial wool or cloths to any foreign
country, and the exchange of domestic
WOODEN goods between the colonies was
prohibited by an act of Parliament. In
1882 the same prohibition was extend
ed to hats. In 1850 New England had
SIX iron furnaces and nineteen FORCES,
and the manufacture of iron was still
more active in Pennsylvania. In 1850,
England having levied an export duty
on colonial iron, the enterprising colo
niSts commenced the manufacture of
steel and bar iron, and to suppress
this growing industry the erection of
smelling mills, rolling mills and steel
furnaces was prohibited by act Of Par
lament, and any new ones erected were
liable to be destroyed as nuisances.
In 1860 Charles the Second was
furnished with coronation robe
made from the product of Virginia
silk worms, and in La daughter
of Governor of Connecticut had silk
dress of New England manufacture.
Then it was supposed that timber for
ship building, rich ore and cheap fuel
for the manufacture of iron, cheap
Lands for sheep husbandry. were advan-
tages against which English capital and
labor could not compete. and the manu-
facturers and traders of Great Britain
asked and obtained from Parliament
protection against these colonial indus
tries.
The history Of the colonies for fifty
years previous to the Revolution is one
continual struggle on the part of the
manufacturers of New England to es-
cape from the restrictions imposed on
them by British rule. Our fathers
.o~c.As w VIC riSut 10 puliu SHIPS anu
Tor the freedom Of the seas on which to
navigate them. They believed in an
unrestrained commerce and overthrow
= government that they might enjoy it.
While the effect of the tariff has been
to stimulate some branches of industry
it has depressed others. The manu-
tacture of pig iron has
ben increased but our export
trade in locomotives. steam engines,
farming utensils and implements has
been nearly destroyed. Iron rails which
cost S4S per ten in 1860, cost over $50
per ton for the ten years ending Janu-
airy |, 1873, causing an increased expen-
diture of over one hundred millions of
dollars in the construction of railroads
in the United States. The people of
this country, after paying high taxes to
sustain the manufacturers while bro.
duclng this iron, are now paying high
rates of freight to make dividends on