The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-09-23
Protective Duties.
SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY OF
PENNSYLVANIA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRE-
SENTATIVES APRII, 81 1890

SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF
! PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRE-
sENTATIvEs, APRIL 81, 1880.
| The House having under consideration Senate
concurrent resolution for the advancement of agri
cultural interests
| Mr. Kelley said Mr.. Speaker: desire tC
say that many of the generalties uttered by
the gentleman from Texas Mr.. Reagan com
mand my most cordial approval But he has
evinced confusion rs to facts and as to cause
and effect that astonishes me. He holds up
Girard and Vanderbilt, Could and other mil
lionaires rs Illustrations of the great fortunes
manufacturers make Girard was merchant
and doubt whether Vanderbilt, Could or any
one of their class ever owned dollar OF
manufacturing stock in his life: and all the
world knows that the only manufacturing done
by the Vanderbilt family was the sailing OF
small vessels first and managing larger steam
boats afterwards, and after that the manufac-
ture of watered railroad stock. They, or men
of their class. never consumed by manufactur-
ing it into fabrics pound of the wool or cot
ton of the farmer or planter. None Of the
wool of the two and half millions of sheep
which fatten on the ranges Of Texas, the own
ers of which come to the Committee on Ways
and Means whenever the tariff is under discuss
sion asking that the protection to wool-grow-
CIS dCCOluCu ny bHC plCcCHt tdi III ounll pC
maintained sell any OF their wool to that clas-
OF men whom the gentleman from Texas Sc
lected as types of the great manufacturers of
the country. The millionaires to whom he re-
ferred are the speculator, the dealer in stocks
and money, the men who grew suddenly
wealthy by the contraction of the volume Of
our money and the consequent increase in the
value of the unit Of payment by which debtors
were ruined and creditors enriched.
The gentleman says that by establishing a
revenue tariff we would increase commerce
and quicken industry. On these points he has
read the history of his country all awry. The
story of our country furnishes not one confir-
nation of his theory but thousands of demon
STATIONS of its falsity. Robert j. Walker,
in 1S47, gave the gentleman the remarks
he has just uttered on these points. A
change from the protective tariff of 1S42 to
a revenue tariff would Mr.. Walker asserted,
make New York the money center of the
world, and the United States a great CONNER
cial nation, the sails of whose ships should
whiten every sea. 1t would enlarge the reve-
nues of the Government while reducing eXac-
tions upon the resources Of the people. That
was in 1S47, when, under the protective tariff
of 1872 we were enjoying unprecedented pros
perity II was just before we discovered the
gold Of California, of which in few years we
mined $1,000, 100000. During the decade that
followed Mr.. Walkers report, they had the po-
tatO-rot in Ireland which soon spread through
out Great Britain and to the Continent. The
starving people looked to us for food, and we
exported in 1S47 more than 100 per cent.
more OF farm products than ever before. Hon.
Thomas COrWin, Secretary of the Treasury, in
his report of 1850, called attention to the fact
that our agricultural exports, owing to the
failure of crops abroad, had in that year,
rnaabp6 tho hit hprtn IJOiIOa ri mod nf
$685. 100000. Nor did he fail to call the attention
of Congress to the fact that under Mr.. Wal
kers revenue tariff our export of grain had
fallen in 1850, to $26,05000O.
Let us look at the general result of the de-
cade 1S47 to 1857. As the gentleman said we
imported more largely, he could not say we
also manufactured more largely, but might
have said that in the latter years of the decade
we imported all the manufactured goods we
consumed. What was the result? In 1857
every banking institution in the country sus-
pended specie payment. A commercial crisis
of unparalleled severity and co-extensive with
our country occurred. There was none of the
thousand millions of dollars of gold we had
mined in circulation in this country They had
all been exported to pay for foreign manufac-
lures.
With this vast amount of gold our silver
coin down to the last five cent piece had lett also
the country The grain with which we had
fed starving Europe brought us no sterling ex
change. The fires in our FORCES and furnaces
had gone out under a revenue tariff The
looms and spindles in our manufactures stood
still under a revenue tariff. And when rail
road company advertised for two hundred and
fifty men to construct a street railroad in Phil
adelphia a thousand offered, though the wages
promised were but sixty cents day. Among
the eager applicants were skilled artisans jew
elers, watch makers, and others brought up 10
trades of the highest skill and greatest delica-
cy. So scarce had a revenue made employ
ment that men of every grade rushed to avail
themselves of the privilege of earning sixty
cents day at the hard labor of constructing
street railroad These are the blessings the
gentleman's revenue tariff then brought and
would bring again to our working people
He says our present tariff imposes an annual
tax of $900,O00000 upon the people. Where
When ? How? By what philosophy has he
arrived at that conclusion Does he accept
the mad assumption proclaimed by the dog
matte free-traders of England that the home
manufacturer always superadds the duty
named in the tariff laws to the price of his
productions Does he make no allowance for
the effect of home competition upon prices
Has he closed his eyes and mind TO the fact
that in adequately protected Industries in this
country of ours, in which raw materialsare so
accessible, and in such variety and abundance,
home competition invariably cheapens com
modities while improving their quality?
In the course of the investigation by
that much abused body, the Committee on
Ways and Means, which has patiently
and carefully sought instruction from all
who could impart Experimentation we exam
ined the paper question and found that in the
whole list of ingredients entering into that
IL 10 hat al,a
than at any preceding period were the only
ones the manufacturers of which were protect
ed by an adequate dnty, namely, paper pulp
and alum. Why? Why, in view of such facts,
will the gentleman assume that duties are
added to the cost of domestic productions? 1t
is never true, and we were selling in the time
of the depression steel rails as low as they
could be bought in England. We sold steel
rails during the time of the depression as low
as they could have been bought in England
Mr.. Tucker. understand the gentleman to
say that steel rails were sold as low as they
could be bought in England.
Mr.. Kelley. Yes sir.
Mr. Tucker. What time was that?
Mr., Kelley. At the period of the greatest
depression.
Mr. Tucker. Fix the date; when was it?
Mr.. Kelley. Well, will say the date of the
EXTREMIST depression, when the importation of
foreign and the production of American rails
had both ceased.
Mr.. Fucker That was the time when no
iron was sent into this country, and the fires
in every furnace had died out under your high
protictiye tariff.
Mr.. Kelley. The fires of the furnaces of
England had died out under free trade. [Ap-
pause, Under free trade sir, not only had the
fires gone out in British forge and furnace, but
spiders wove their webs about the looms and
spindies Of Lancashire. We have sent Gov
eminent ship to feed people who live under free
trade, and who were brought to starvation, not
so much by the failure of crops as by the depres-
sion of British trade. Sixpence pays labor
er's passage from Ireland to England, but be-
cause there was no work for able-bodied men,
skilled or unskilled, in free-trade England or
Scotland, short crop brought famine upon
the Irish people.
Where will the gentleman look for mar
ket for the productions of his State under
revenue tariff? Would he ship all the wool of
Texas to foreign countries? Would he prefer
having but one market in which to sell, that of
London, to having two, that Of London and
that of the broad United States? The com