The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-03-16
The Tariff Question.

put money in the pockets OF the planter at the
expense of the slave, and the other enriches
the manufacturer at the expense Of the me-
chanic.
Ii the planter of othe- days, in pointing, as
an evidence of prosperity, to his broad acres
whitening with cotton; to the comfortable
cabins and the little naked negroes sporting in
the summer sunshine, could have added, that
just on the hill yOnder is school house where
these youngsters are to be educated if he
could have said "These men have little homes
of their own. They have cottages and plats
OF ground and each year are adding to their
value and attractveness They are free to 60
where they Can earn the highest wages. can
keep them only so long as they find it to their
advantage to stay with me, and know that
must pay all my profits will allow to retain
them" If the planter could have made an
swer in this wise. then our contemporary might
be able to draw parallel between slavery and
the protective tariff. There is no statute which
forbids our mechanic from fleeing to the Ar
cadia of free trade; there is no fugitive slave
law to apprehend him the moment he trans
crosses the bonds of his masters pleasure, and
there is no power on earth to bind him hand
and foot and deliver him again to the thraldom
of his captivity. The whole universe is his.
He may be slave in one sense of the word,
but his emancipation can be accomplished
only by the same power which pronounced the
edict against him: "In the sweat of thy brow
shalt thou eat bread"
We cannot lay our hands, just now, upon
the vote on the Wood tariff bil-a practical free
trade measure. We do know, however, that
| instances, manufacturing districts. The pa
tron of the bill, himself, was from the first
manufacturing State of the Union, and his
colleagues from New York-such distinguished
leaders of the Democratic party as 8. s. Cox,
Abram s. Hewitt, and Carkson N. Potter,
voted with him. 1t cannot be claimed, there
fore, that the contest was between the repre-
sentatives of agriculture on the one side and
the representatives of manufacturers on the
other. State delegations were divided. The
| Republicans of the South voted against the
| bill and the Democrats of the North voted
for it.
| The indicators next claim is that the farm.
ers furnished $500, 100000 of the exports last
year and received no protection. 1t was by
means of protection that they were enabled
to furnish anything tor export. Under the
shadow ola strong tariff the machinery for
preparing the soil, planting. harvesting and
threshing was provided; railroads were built
and transportation afforded. In the good old
days OF free trade the farmers raised just what
would meet the home consumption, and had
supply the domestic demand but sell 500, 000,-
900 worth abroad. Certainly they have no
| cause to complain.
| But we are told that if one of this unfortu-
nate class, these poor farmers, wishes to build
a house, he must pay a tax of IS per cent. on
paint, 80 per cent on window glass and so on,
and that his wife must pay tax of IS to 70
per cent. on an alpaca dress, 70 per cent. on
spool cotton and 35 per cent. on needles. And
yet, with all of this onerous taxation the farm
er pays about one-half the price now that he
| paid in 1860 for these same articles, and for
every product of his farm he now receives
/ much more than he did then. AS to dress
! goods, cottons imported at fifty cents before
our mills were built, have been exported al
six cents under high tariff and of better quail
ity. Cotton hosiery was reduced in price one
half from 1860 to 1890. Delaines, formerly
imported at 35 TO so cents are made here now
at Is and 20 cents OF equal quality, and SO on
through the whole list Our farmers wives
wore cotton and linsey, made with their own
hands, in free trade times. The finer grades
| Of goods were too expen sive to be thought of.
| Now few of them can be seen in the simple
tnomespun garments. Cashmers and alpaca>
and silks have superseded the products of the
farm ioom The farmers wife finds it cheaper
to buy these than to resort to the old process
of manufacture. Our friend of the VSndicator
| may pile his tariff per centages just as high as
he pleases. When actual results demonstrate
that under this so-called ruinous policy all
classes of manufactured goods are cheapened,
it will take some time to convince the sensi-
bic people of this valley that they are suffer
ing for free trade again. He may spend hours
in impressing upon the busy housewife the
fact that she is paying 70 per cent. tax on
spool cotton, and when his whole magazine
of argument and statistics has been exhausted
she will quietly reply that under free tradea
dozen eggs bought only one spool of cotton,
whilst now they are worth half dozen
| spools.
| A sufficient answer to the VSadicator's state
ment that the European mechan cs are better
paid than those of America is found in a COM
parison of the condition of the two classes In
this country our mechanics are prosperous and
happy. A majority OF them own real estate.
| Their houses are neat and tidy. inviting and
| comfortable. Their children are educated.
| Their wives devote their time and energies to
! making home attractive, and the men are in
| dependent. The whole family is veil clothed
well fell. enjoys its holidays and recreations,
| and at the end of the year, if prudence and
economy are exercised, q little store is laid up
against the needs of rainy day. In Europe
quite another picture is presented. The me-
chanica classes are, as rule, dissipated and de-
pressed. Home to them is anything but at
| tractive 1t is the abode of squalor and
wretchedness, of dirt and discomfort. Few OF
them own the roof that shelters them for the
night Their wives and daughters are, IN
many instances, unsexed by having to contend
for livelihood in the ranks of men. Year in
and year out they labor for barely enough to
keep body and soul together and no hope of
independence ever brightens the way. The
condition of the unsklled laborers those with
out trades, is even worse, The commonest
comforts of life are unknown TO them.
Our contemporary complains that there is
no protection for our home mechanics against
this European labor, when it chooses to immi-
CRATE to America; that the paupers OF Europe
may come to this country and contend on an
equal footing. This is just as it should be.
Our mechanics are not afraid to match their
skill and industry against any class, provided
the conditions are the same. Should English
mechanics settle among us, they would soon
become imbued with that spirit of manly in
dependence which characterizes the mechan-
les of this country. The ambition to secure
home; to accumulate property; to render their
families contented and happy, and to loosen
the letters that bind down to a single vocation |