The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-01-01
De Senate ana House Of Represent-

prosperous, aud IL is Inc earnest wish OF all
those engaged nrthem that the causes which
nave produced reviva+Of business shall not be
affected by the action OF congress.
Some of these causes appear 70 be almost indie
pendent of legislative power, Ywhiie others are
clearly within your control
For several years the farmers have been favor
ed with bountiful crops, and there has been a
foreign den and for such surplus of these crops
as the domestic market could not absorb. The
large sales abroad OF our agricultural produc 3
have increased our supply of the precious met
ais Europe sending us her gold because we
W. uld not take her merchandise. Mining enter
prises IN the Rocky Mountains have been prose-
cuted with great energy, and have added largely
to this supply. Resumption OF specie payments
has been made possible through our accumula-
lions of gold and silver. The business OF the
railroads had gradually improved prior to re-
sumption, in consequence OF the foreign demand
for our agricultural products, and during last
year and this year they have been able TO lm-
prove and extend their transportation facilities
Their orders for rails, cars and locomotives gave
a fresh impetus to the iron trade of the country
Just prior to resumption, and this. imp etus has
since inereas ed from month to month. With
and the reduction of values to a gold
standard came general disposition to invest in
productive Industries capital that had for years
been locked up in safe places. The setting free,
through resumption, OF the boarded capital of
the country has combined with the foreign de-
and for our crops, the activity of the railroads,
and the improvement in the iron trade to infuse
new life into all our Industries, and to-day, as
we have said, this country is again prosperous.
Our great manufacturing industries are fully
employed there is work at fair wages for all
who wish to work money is abundant; prices
are remunerative. Our prosperity has even
overleapeu our own bounds, and England and all
Europe share in it, Lord Beaconsfeld has re-
Gently declared that such bated prosperity as
Great Britain enjoys to-day Is largely due to the
demand from the United States. The London
Times goes fal Their and says that the revival of
Brush trade, 80 far as it is healthy and has
promise OF permanence, has been due to the
recovery of industry in the Uuited States"
But the most important reason for the present
revival OF prosperity in this country remains to
gf.f I'D On has fhn
main agent in giving new hope and new life to
cur industrial enterprises. 1t greatly ameliofa-
ted the hard times which succeeded the Danic of
1873 by securing to home labor the supply of the
home market. By employing their own people
i'll the production OF domestic manufactures it
prevented the drain Of our precious metals to
Europe to pay for 1oreigu manuf ctures and it
compelled Europe to return to u.s. in payment
for our agricultural surplus. our petroleum. and
other products, hundreds of millions of our ma
tional, state and other bonds, thus not only
reducing the principal OF our debt to Europe but
OF it to ouI own people. 1t compelled Europe
also to send us within the past few months over
sixty-five millions of dollars in gold. Thus the
balance Of trade, always an important factor in
the prosperity OF any nation, has been turned in
our favor by protective duties. In the four
fiscal years which ended on the 3Oth OF June last
our exports of merchandise exceeded our i'm
ports OF merchandise seven hundred and fifty
three millions OF dollars, and that much Of our
months from June 81 to @ ODER 81, 1879, the ex-
cess Of our exports of merchandise over our i'm
ports OF merchandise was eghty-six millions of
dollars, and in the same four months the excess
OF our imports OF specie over our exports of
specie was hfty-one millions of dollars. Up to
Novem Der 20 our imports OF specie from the Both
OF June had exceeded our exports OF specie over
sixty-five millions of dollars. Ii the balance of
trade had been against US if our gold and silver
been sent there in increased quantities to pay
for goods Of foreign manufacture; and II we had
not this year received large quantities OF foreign
gold, no man will pretend that we could have
resumed specie payments in fact, or that our
national debt could have been funded at low
rate of interest. Confidence could not have been
restored, for there would have been no Su bStan-
tial basis for 1t to rest upon. HOarded capital
would have remained boarded; industry would
not have been q uickened and prosperity would
not have returned.
Our protective tariff is entitled to credit for
the prosperity which rules to-day for still an
other reason tt ali the reasons which have been
named. During the hard times of the past few
years no criticism of our protective policy was
more frequently uttered both at home and
abroad that the charge that it had unduly and
unwisely developed Oar mai ufacturlng indus
frieS. Mills, and factories, and workshops were
established, and mines We're opened which, We
We're told, were not needed and hence no
operated. The fact was ignored that these enter
prises owed their existence to legitimate de-
mand for their prOductS-a demS nd fully as legit-
mate as the present extraordinary demand for
our agricultural products. To-day all fair men
must see, III the light Of the revived prosperity
OF our industrial policy which was so loudly
proclaimed during our hard times was fala-
cious, like most adverse criticisms OF our pro-
Iective policy when put TO The test OF experience;
for, without the iron and steel works, the ma
chine shops, the opened Mines the cotton ana
wooden and silk factories. tie pottery establish
ments, and other enterprises which protective
tariff called into existence before the panic of
1873 the prosperity which has this year stlmua-
Ted all the energies OF fifty millions of people,
and excited the wonder OF every other nation,
could not have come when it did. Without our
iron and steel works, our locomotive works, our
car and machine shops, how could rallroa DIS have
had their wants supplied Without these and
other manufacturing enterprises how could our
people have been generally employed, as they
now are and without this employment how
could tn ey lave become prosperous Instead of
protection having stimulated the undue devel-
opment OF our industries, it is found that we
have not enough iron and steel works, nor
enough opened mines, to meet the country 8
wants
Our wonderful manufacturing progress during
the past twenty years. the great increase in our
population in that time through Immigration.
the opening cultivation of millions of aces of
farming lands in the Great West, the uncoverng
OF our mineral resources, the building of new
lines OF railroad in almost every state and terri
our material development in recent years have
been mainly produced by the wise tariff of 1861
industrial development OF the country, aud
made it almost independent of foreign countries
for supply OF manufactured pro lucts. Without
these benefcent enactments We could not have
endured the strain OF our civil war we could
not financially have survived the panic of 1873
and we could not have emerged from the hard
of this years prosperity.
II the foregoing statement be correct, it must
follow, we respectfully submit, that the inffu-
ence which have caused our present prospe rity
should be permitted to continue in full force if
this prosperity is to be permanent. 1t would
clearly be unwtse TO repeal the homestead law or
to enact any other legislation that would restrict
the development of our agricultural resources
and ability to supply foreign markets with our
agricultural PRODUCTS. II would be euuaiIy
unwise to disturb in any way the settlement Of
our financial difficulties which preceded the re-
,yNfro Of for a.
would once again unsettle values and create dis
rust where confidence now exists. 1t would, in
our opinion, be still more unwise to abandon the
policy OF protection to home industry, for to DO
his would open our ports to vast importations
Of foreign merchandise, the effect of which would
be to close American workshops or to reduce the
wages Of our workingmen to the European
standard. The abandonment OF the protective
policy would also have mother injurious effect
ny enabling the European purchasers Of our
ag icultural products to pay for their purchases
merchandise instead Of in gold and national
Of trade once more against us, thus diminishing
our supply of the precious metals and endanger-
ing the permanence OF resumption.
1t NAV be said, however, that reduction of
the duties on foreign commodities would greatly
aid us in securing an entrance for our manufac-
lures into foreign markets and an increase in
our agricultual exports. To this it may be brief
~ answered. first, that prose- ut tariff does not
except in few instances impose duties on TIL
raw materials OF manufacture, and that, conse-
quenty, it does not increase the cost o manu-
featuring domestic products; second, that there
IS now allowed, on all exported articles wholly
manufactured OF imported materials, ON which
duties have been paid, drawbac1 nearly equal
IN amount to the duty paid on such materials
and third, that foreign COUNT les do not GUY our
agr1ca tural products because we buy their man.
ufactured products as is abundantly proved by
recent statistics, but simply because their own
harvests are inadequate and they can buy our
provisions and breadstuffs cheaper than they
can buy them elsewhere.
II protection has benefited all the industries OF
The country and injured none of them, why
should not all political parties unite In continu-
the workingmen of all parties desire its continu-
ance, why should it be disturbed? Have they not
IN i've years of low wages suffered enough II
its tendency is to reduce prices to consumers
and supply employment to our own people, why
should the business interests OF the country be
threatened up n every re curing session of Con-
grcSs with legislation that would benefit only
foreign manufactures? If Germany has but re-
Gently re-estabshed protective duties and is
prospecting under them, and if prosperous France
adners t)-day to her protective tariff more tena-
ciously than she has ever done. why should we
now change our revenue policy for England's
benefit?
We earnestly depreciate the renewal at the
pres Mt session of Congress OF any agitation OF
the tariff question. Duties now so adjusted
that they yield a liberal revenue to the Treasury
and also promote national industry and prosper.
ity. The wisdom of our tariff system has been
abundantly Justified by its fruits, the chief Of
which is the general and fairly rewarded employ
ment 1T has given to our own people. II errors
Of Interpretation have been committed; or il
there is occasional Vagueness OF meaning
ri 10 tbo Iano