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

has reached her maximum production. The
production Of Manila is steadily, though slowly,
on the decline. In Java and Sumatrs the cul-
tiyation depends on the forced labor of the in.
habitants and has reached its maximum In
Hintostan English energy and ndcapital are plant
ing new orchards, but the result is in the future.
] answer finally that sheep husbandry
ought TO be encouraged and extended in
tue United States in the interest of the
health of the people. During a large
part of the year the population of this
country makes salt meat too uniformly
staple of their diet If our sheep were
doubled or trebled in number and also
improved in quality it would be hy-
gieBic national blessing.
The rapid and vast diffusion of WOOL
growing in South America, Australia,
New Zealand, and South Africa, where
sheep are neither fed nor sheltered,
would under free trade make a most un-
just and ruinous competition against
the half-fed, balf-clad, semi-bai barrie
labor of those countries. During the
past summer | had an interview while
travelling with an English capitalist who
had invested several thousand pounds
in sheep-raising in South America and
South Africa. He told me that no shell
ter or feed was needed at any season of
the year in those regions. The only cost
of keeping on those vast unowned plains
and pastures was the herding. | asked
him the wages of herdsmen. He said,
From eleven to sixteen pence day
of irrh ffrht
Mr.. Chairman, | do net wish to claim
that the American farmer can compete
with that business On that basis. Thank
God that he cannot. His home of frugal
comfort, bis well-clad children in school,
his responsibilities as citizen, his ex-
penses for schools and churches, and the
public and priva e demsrndS of our civ
ilization, make il impossible; but stand
ing as ole of the foremost captains of
our industrial forces, he can richly re-
turn to the commonwealth fourfold all
that it Justly yields him in the interest
of the dignity of requited labor and of
nationality in civilization.
2 5id PROTECTION AND PRICES.
I The effect of protection in this coun-
try has almost constantly been to reduce
prices to the consumer in manufactured
commodities where our superior ma
chinery, improved processes. our inyen-
tive genius, as well as the conflict of
competition, all combine to produce that
result. dtThe leading products. which
have been naturaliZed by protection,
and which We formerly imported, have
in,a vast majority of cases been cheap
ened. In taking the present standard of
British prices free trade stubbornly ig-
nores the effect of our vast manufactur-
ing competition in that market. Our
enormous production of finished COM
modities furnishes healthy rivalry,
though England s manufacturing capaci-
ty is now estimated equal to the work
power of 650,0O0,000 men. ga7eil5' 81 q
Free trade assumes that the duty en-
hances the price of the article to the
amount of the impost That this assump-
tion is false our whole trade history
abundantly proves, and vet without it
the whole trade theory falls. When, by
the tariff Ofu1S76, minimum duty of
twenty-five cents per square yard was
laid on cotton fabrics, which was from
80 TO 100 per cent. the price was lower
within year. and has never been as
high since: In 1915 the duty on lead
was So per hundred pounds, and the
price was $3.371s per hundred pounds.
This duty was removed in 1847. and a
revenue duty fixed; but in 1919 the
price had risen to S5.67 per hundred
pounds. In further proof of this posi-
tion | read table furnished to David
A. Wells by A. r. Stewart, of New York,
both free-t traders, giving the prices of
certain articles under tie low tariff of
1860, and the protective tariff of 1869.
The comparison -EaaS -@ade for 1s52. hpt-
the articles named are as cheap or
cheaper nowtas at that time. The prices
are gold in 1850 and greenbacks in 1869.
when the premium was so per cent. So
it will be seen that prices with tariff
duty of 80 per cent. are less than those
of the free trade year 1860.
Prices of certain articles under the low tariff
ofl M ha ri nj