The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1882-01-26

The Tariff.
We make the following further ex-
tracts from the great tariff speech of
Senator Beck, of Kentucky, delivered
in the Senate OH the 10th inst:
AMERICAN SHIPS DRIVEN FROM THE
CARRYING TRADE oF.TIIE WORLD.
To day as then, only much more
now, the American ship is driven
from participation in the carrying
trade of the world. Foreigners are
our carriers, factors, brokers and insu-
rance agents in our commercial rela-
ton with the rest of mankind, and
make us pay them over SIS 3,000,000
year for their service; that Is prOtec-
tion against foreign pauper labor with
a vengeance. Ii they so TO war with
each other, and destroy each others
ships, our goods go to the bottom OF
the ocean and there is no redress, al
though we may be at peace with all OF
them. Can a more degrading or hui
initiating condition for Il once great
maratime country be imagined? The
80, 900 gallant sailors we had in 1860
are all gone, or are in the service of
foreign nations, except the few who
hover along our coasts, protected by
the monopoly of our cOastWise trade.
Little wonder the senator from Yer
mont never alluded to our carrying
trade in his panegeric on the prstec-
tive tariff. He knows that he and his
cO-protectiOnists have destroyed the
mercantile marine of the United
States, and he shrewdly avoided all
reference to it. That alone will con-
denim his protective system with all
disinterested, right thinking men the
world over. The charges in our plat
form that the Morrill, tariff has cut
down the sales of American manufac-
lures at home aud abroad is true.
High prices have curtailed sales at
home. Men neither can nor will buy
at eXOrbitant rates rs freely as they
can or will at fair prices and the re-
ports of our miserably meagre exports
of manufactures show that we aban-
dOned all efforts to secure any reason
able portion of the trade of the world
when our protected manufacturers Sc
| cured from the senator from Vermont
and his friends the modOpoly of lay
ing heavy tribute on our own people.
THE I.ABORER, ,SWINDLED AND HONEST
MERCHANTS BANIRUPrED.
The charge that the American agri-
culturist is swindled by the existing
| tariff is too Obvious to need illuStra-
| tiOn when a laborer who is glad to
work for Sc a week has to pay So for a
coat or blanket that is worth only So
and can be bought anywhere else in
the world for $3. He is unjustly de-
prived of One-half of his weeks labor
and ne sOphistry can gainsay it. 1t is
no consolation to him or his children
that some nabob in New England by
the authority of congress has pocketed
half of his hard earnings. The next
charge, namely, that it costs the peo-
pie under the Morrill, system five times
more than it produces to the treasury,
was accurately or conclusively proved
| by Mr.. Beck from official reports, and
then said: The senator from Vermont
and his allies in their zeal-that is a
better word than folly-in 1875, restOr-
ed the 10 per cent. protection we had
taken off in 1872, and instead of in
creasing the revenue, as they pretend
Ell they would, the returns for 1877
show a loss of revenue of $29, 900, 600
instead of the increase they predicted d.
Our resolutions of 1876 and 1880 close
by charging that the Morrill, tariff
| ''fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest
officials, and bankrupts honest mer-
chants" In proof of the truth of all
these allegations 1 need only refer to
the somewhat celebrated dinvestInation
made in 1874 into what was known as
| the moiety system, when it was prov
ed conclusively that in silks and other
high protected goods smuggling was
the rule rather than the exception !;
that the most honest and intelligent
merchants did not dare to take their
own goods from the custom house
without aid from experts. That is an
outline of the working of the system
which the senator from Vermont is so
proud of, ana for the perpetuation of
which he appeals so warmly and earn
estly to let HIM have a commission OF
his allies, SO as to prevent at least this
congress from considering or exposing
it's enoImities. 1t is against the con
tinuance OF such u system that pro-
test and insist upon prompt and decis-
i've action by the representatives of the
people at as early a day as possible.
ENGLAND GAINS AND AMERICA LOSES
BY OUR PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
Having shown by the history of
com merce that England has always
lost ground when under high tariff,
Mr.. Beck continued: All our resour-
ces are incom mparably greater, and we
are not cursed or hampered with any
of the blighting influences of class
domination which centuries of mis-
rule have fastened upon her people.
1t would be strange, as the senator
saws, if Americans should sleep and
allow England with all her draw backs
and hindranceS to nonopollZe the
trade and commerce Of the world.
If he and his allies had not handicap
ped us so heavily by his restrictive
protective tariff we would have been
se far ahead in the race for CONNER
cial supremacy to-day that when the
cry went up from an anxious world,
Who is first !? the answer would have
been flashed along the wires to the re-
mostest corners of the earth, "Amer-
ica," with no second in sight. En-
land, after centuries of restriction,
prohibition, and protection, which
brought nothing but strife, debt, and
ruin, threw off all shackles and re-
strictions, and invited n free, fair con-
test for the trade of the world, and We
have not only surrendered it to her,
but with machinery equal at least to
the manual labor of all the males liv-
ing on the globe, the owners of it and
their advocates here say to her, Take
it; supply the l ,4OO, 600, 600 people out
side of our limits; we will not inter
fere; our farmers shall supply you
food rs cheapIy as any European pau
per will all we ask is that the Amer
lean congress will prohibit our 81, 0,000,-
! 600 of people from buying from you