Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-04-27

lCou tuc OIucI ud1 III lIco-IIdu
paper the amazing statement that tn,
theory of home markets was a moderI
invention of protective mOnopOlists Il
divert and mislead. And the gentleman
from Kentucky (Mr. Carlisle) piled VI
against it both sophistry and statistic:
in 4 most alarming way. But the con
soiing fact came to me as an agricultural
producer that that same home market
however damaged by the millions ol
engaged in mining and in, manufacture
ing who necessarily feed off of it, and
who live plentifully. consumes 90. pei
cent. of all our nine billion dollars
weE1h of food products. And this Is 9
plain fact that no skill of dialectic sub
tleiy can theOriZe away, that the more
OF our population engage in employ
meAts other than agr. culture, by so many
nlefe consumers will those products
have. and.by so many less competitors
and producers will agriculture have.
nbe advantage of the home market
is one offithe oldest elements of econ
onlle science. Two thousand years
aga5i Xenophon urged upon his
Alderman countryman that in default of
the domestic market for food that would
hase resulted from proper development
OF he mineral treasures with which
tag soii aboanded agriculture had be-
cocse impossible, many having been
foleed TO abandon it, becoming usurers
or Eskers. In the early history OF ear
owH one, Of the. leading and
ayoped reasons for pr0teciHg Tnanufac-
tur& IVES fcf fhe bensfit and In. thein7
terSst Of agriculture. Those wise and
practical men never dreamed that the
increase of home consumers DECREASED
the home demand. Doubtless they
wOGfds have been amazed at some of the
inventions of free-trade theorists which
have been defended in this discussion.
FREE TRADE AND HARD TIMES.
T3e lessons of our history attest moth
ngnore absolutely than the fact that
prosperous and protected manufacturers
male prosperous agriculture. With
equai step they have thrived or Ian
guisAed. Before the tariff of 1924 our
manufacturing Industries were pros
trate. What was the condition of agri-
eultpre? On the floor of this House
Henry Clay declared that successive
untArashed crops of grain had perished
"a msrket," and that there was ian uni
versal complaint of the want of en-
plostnent. and the consequent reduction
of wages"
PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.
TIis condition of things throughout
the country brought about the protec-
tive tariff of 1924, under which all the
industries of the people revived, and the
years which followed were years of
prosperity and development. OF the
seven years which followed, Henry Clay
said. in 1882" eff any term of seven
years were to be selected of the greatest
prosperity which the people have en-
joyed since the establishment of their
present Constitution it would be exactly
that period of seven years which imme-
lesse-S .ee PASSAGE of the tariff
Mr.. HEwITT-Will the gentleman tell
US how it was from 1873 to 1892
Mr.. UPDEGRAFF-I will. There was
at that time a worldwide depression in
business which extended to all CONNER
cial nations; with which our tariff had
only the effect of helping US to recover
several years before free-trade England
did. The London Times in 1880 said
that it was our returned prosperity
which gave the first rallying impulse to
England when our industry was pros
trate and her labor unemployed. Our
country was carrying the burden of
great debt such as no nation has ever
borne, and yearly reducing it by mil
lions.
Mr. MCMILLIN-The gentleman has
jnst said that we were paying that
enormous debt under protective policy.
L wish to remind him that the protec-
tive policy had been in full blast for
more than twelve years when the finan-
cial crisis occurred. r
Mr.. UPDEGRAFF And l wish to re-
mind my friend from Tennessee OF what
he is overlooking, that the debt was no
outgrOwth of the tariff, but the legacy of
the greatest and guiltieSt rebellion the
world ever saw, which had been "in full
blast" for four years, costing in money
more than 81, 900, 100000. Fortunate for
us was it that we had such revenue
system under which that great burden is
being taken from the necks of the peo-
ple-$114,O00,O0 within the last year
and the nation goes on undisturbed in
its great career of prosperity and power,
of growth and greatness and glory, as no
nation of earth ever did. Applause on
the Republican side.)
Mr.. Chairman, last evening when /
gave way for a motion that the commit
tee rise, 1 was alluding to the prosperity
that comes with protection. With free
trade come disaster and depression. So
it has always happened in the history of
our country, prosperity comes with pro-
lection. Depression and disaster with
free-trade tariff. OF course it is purely
accidental, but so it constantly happens.
Our free traders have trouble with our
present unparalleled prosperity. The
gentleman from New York (Mr.
Hewittl says it comes sin spite of pro-
tection," and predicts the direst calami-
ties that will soon overtake the coun-
try from too much industry and too
great prosperity. He admits we are
now "the most prosperous people in the
world add pay the highest wages" but
protests that protection deserves no
credit for this, as it only hindered our
prosperity. 1t is rather an astonishing
coincidence, when we remember that in
Jul PIOOCOblOh hao AONOA OCOh
able to prevent prosperity, while free
trade or low duty tariffs have always
succeeded in doing 50.
Let us give an evidence and illustra-
tion of this truth. From 1928 to 1882,
under fair protection, our iron product
increased So per cent. In 1882. under
compromise, the duty was reduced to 20
per cent. ad valorem, and so from 1882 to
1912 our iron products did not increase
a single ponnd. Under protection from
1912 to 1s46 the iron product increased
400 per cent. Then came the Walker
revenue tariff of 1916, and from that
year to 1860, during what the gentleman
from Kentucky Mr.. Carlisle calls "the
golden era" the increase was only II per
cent. for the whole IA years, while from
1861 to 1876, under protection, it has in