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

| 'noH on Ihd1 highway OI prosperity
which now guides their great career.
But political exigencies postponed it to
a better time. Nor must it be forgotten
that 81, ,1OO, 100000 in gold during that
1 decade had come to us from the mines of
California, without which our condition
would have been still more hopeless.
Another year passed, and December 4.
1860. President Buchanan in his annual
message still more distinctly and urgent
| ly pressed upon the attention of Con-
gress the necessity of getting rid of that
rereRue tariff in its then existing form
In order to secure reUeRsIe. He SAYS:
| 1t is now quite evident that the financial ne
eessities Of the Government will require mod
Ihcatien OF the tariff during your present ses-
sion for the purpose of increasing the revenue.
But then as now assumptions and the
ories were relied upon to overcome ex-
lstlng facts; but theories could not fill
the Treasury, no relief was given. and
SO that golden era closed with Govern
ment borrowing money at high rates for
It's current expenses, and the public
debt daily increasing If that period of
insufficient revenue, of=gnempiOyed la
Dor, Of PROSTATE industries and Of Imam
cial ruin be indeed a golden era. well -.
might any practical man say with Bas
saniO, 4-''-liliI1 '7'IIl-aiis
Z Therefore, thou gaady2 cold. n!dirs
Hard food for Midas, will none 81 thee.ii0itEGs
Before leaving this era entirely, let me .
ADD one other instructive fact in its hisSsI
tory. During the fifteen wears from
lS46 to 1851, under what its friends de-
light to call revenue tariff. we RECEIVES
ed from customs an average revenue a
OF forty seven and half millions of
dollars, never in any year receiving
more than sixty-four millions. It was
predicted that the present law would 10
not produce revenue. It was freely de-
nounced as not revenue tariff During
the hiteen years since the close of the
war 1t has yielded IAN average rev
enue of more than S174. ecu but
The object OF tariff should not be rev..
enue alone, for it should never omit the
Vltally important consideration of pro-
noting and keeping in activity those
great productive industries which are
absolutely necessary to the welfare and
progress of the country.
Nor should itbe forgotten that during
the period of prosperous industry under
the present protective tariff and Repub-
lican legislation labor has been paid and
recognized as never before in our histo-
ry. Not only has it been made every
where free, but dignifed and elevated,
and how surrounds itself with the com
forts and best culture of life.
IRON AND sTEEL.
For centuries past the consumption of
iron has been criterion of the material
growth and prosperity of a country.
The United States consumes per capita
twice as much as England and almost
twice as much as France. In this coun-
try our production of iron is largely the
result of protection. The beni6cent APP
plication of cheapening the processes
and the great increase of products, slim
ulated by competition, have all had
part IN the great reduction of its cost to
the consumer. In 1925 pig iron was
worth $50 per ton in America. Wheat
was worth 50 cents. One hundred and
fifteen bushels of wheat bought ton of
pig iron. Twenty-eigHt bushels of wheat
bought hundred pounds of building
nails. Three bushels of wheat bought
a pair of trace chains. Now nineteen
bushels of wheat will buy a ton of iron,
and two bushels of wheat or two BUSH
els of potatoes or eight pounds of butter
will purchase hundred pounds of
building nails. Two peeks of wheat
will buy pair of trace-chains.
The tariff of 1924 and 1928 developed
an early production of iron in this eeun-
try, but the change in 1892 stopped its
increase for ten years. In 1876 our pro-
duct was 100000 tons, having increased
400 per cent srom 1912 under protection.
For the following fifteen years it in
creased only IL per cent. But from 1861
to 1880 its production had increased
more than 225 per cent. Between 1870
and 1880, though wages were higher by
20 per cent. than between 1850 and 1850,
yet the price of iron TO the consumer
was reduced by S5 per cent. Our great
total of iron and steel products for 1880
was 1885, 14O tons, employing 140,97s
American workingmen, who received in
wages $50, ,476, ,7S5, which means the51p-i
port Of no. less than 100000 American
men, women, and children in American
homes and With the blessing of Ameri-
can free schools to every children. Even
this estimate gives only fraction of the
labor employed in this production. For
gagged in the production of iron there are
at least a score whose emylOy nent de-
Iends on this, occupied in cutting wood.
making coke and charcoal, mining coal
and quarrying limestone, making roads,
building bridges. constructing furnaces
all dependent on this industry and so in
this way engaged in making iron. From
75 to 90 per cent. of this product is la
Dor. The application of labor to our
natural resources is the main source of
our wealth and prosperity. No class are
more benefited by the growth of such
industries than the agrieulturistS. Their
market is enlarged, the prices they re-
ceive for products are greatly enhanced
by the diversion of thousands who would
otherwise have been their competitors
into pursuits which now make them
lifelong customers and consumers of
their products. The millions of tons of
iron we import are so many millions of
days of pauper labor instead of being the
fruit of American labor, blessing it, de-
veloping our own resources and aug
menting our own growth and pewer.
And we shall continue to have cheaper
American iron without reducing our
labor to European wages, unless. as in
1915, the production was crippled when
American bar-iron was less than $50
per ton, and in few years we were
buying British bars at $50 per ton un'
der revenue tariff. Thus American
interests can be built and forest and
field and mine developed and with this
American labor rewarded and made
prosperous.
WOOL AND AMERICAN WOOL.
The production and manufacture Of
wool has become almost a test of the
growing civilization of a country. Hal
lam, in his History of the Middle Ages,
assigns the prosperity of the north OF
Europe to the success of the woolen
manufactures of Flanders and the com