Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-05-17
NUMBER AZ.



In Committee of the Whole, in the House,
on tuesday, Gen. Banks said he had never
gone ior the EXTREMIST doctrine of protection,
anu that his constituents were not insisting
on the highest duties. On the contrary, the
SILK and woollen manufacturers had them
serves come forward and proposed reductions
of the duties. But it was not so with the H.
dustrles OF the South, which held what they
could get, and got what they could. The
duty on rice amounted to lO1.74 ad valorem,
and the duty on sugar was high enough to
exclude the foreign production. If the cot
ton manufacturers of New England, many
years ago, had received the protection they
should have had from the Government, the
cotton trade of the United States would have
governed all the markets of the world. But
they had never received the favor to which
they were entitled on account of that which
they had achieved. not for themselves, but
Tor the cotton-growing States that had
grown powerful and insolent and angry on
the prosperity which the New England man
uiacturers had created. If these manufac-
lures should be destroyed. as they might be,
by hostile legislation, that cotton section Of
the country would 60 back to the point from
which i: started. They might be destroyed,
but such manufactures never vent
alone. They always took somebody
them, and that " somebody" was the pow.
that had grown prosperous by the cotton
which had been at once the source and the
Dane OF Its history. The representatives of
the South might destroy the cotton manu-
Lectures OF the country, but if they did, they
would destroy their own position and their
own power as well. lie asked the gentlemen
to give their serious consideration to this
tariff bill, which was being forced upon the
country at time when no man knew what
the future was to be, and whether property
IN any possible form, even gold itself, was
to be OF any considerable or permanent value
Passing on to a consideration of the wool
question, he asked what member from
Texas or California would assassinatc the
wool interest of his State by voting for this
bill. lie compared the protection given by
this bill to the woollen interest to the idiocy
OF an engineer who assumed that by making
the dykes and levees of Holland and the
Mississippi equal to the hight of the sea and
river, he thus protected the property of the
people. IL was no protection at all. The
dykes and levees must be made higher than
the sea and the river, or TIE country would
be Over1owed.
Mr. Wood called attention to the diyi-
dends paid BY Massachusetts, woollen mills
as shown by Spofford's almanac, and quoted
the dividends in Mr. Banks's district as
being IN 1870. Is per cent; in 1871, II; in
1872, Is in 1873, 0 ; in 1874, II; in 1875.
8; and in 1876, TO-
Mr.. Banks replied that he also had in his
hand copy of the same book, which showed
the dividends of New England manufactur-
ing companies from 1870 to 1876. The
dividends in 1870 were large, growing out
OF the forethought and intellect of the man
uiacturers, who had laid in large supplies
of cotton at the breaking out Of the late un-
pleasantness. But the dividends for 1876,
which were those which should be taken
into consideration. average only 5 13-100
per cent on ar aggregate capital of fifty-two
millions, and there were 33 of the companies
that had paid no dividends at ALL How was
that for high? Laughter lie charac-
terized the proposition of the bill on woollen
goods (Which Mr.. Wood had spoken of as
a gentle reduction) as the assassination
OF most important national industry.
But the fact was that the committee
on ways and means did not know what it
was doing on the woollen sections of the bill.
And that reminded him OF war anecdote
1t was that of a chaplain who had volunteer
ed to distribute tine soldiers mail. but who
found that in consequence of bad roads, in
terruption of the mails, the presence of the
enemy, ETC., it was ligger job than he had
any notion of, and when, one morning, the
soldiers came to him one after another with
the inquiry "Mr. Chaplain, when will the
mail arrive?'' he got tired of answering the
question. took a board. nailed it on tree,
md with piece of chalk wrote on it 1.-THE |
chaplain does not know when the mail will
arrive" And little fellow crept in behind
him and added the words Neither does |
he care damn" Laughter And so,
aid Mr.. Banks, the committee did not know
what harm it was doing to the industries of /!
he country, neither did it care -. | |
will finish my speech some other time. |
Loud laughter