Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-12-08
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Henry A. Major............ .Au'l'liAe.
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the coed old days of ssfree trade and
sailors rights" and not a thousand
miles from this spot, the first locomo-
tive of a newly constructed railway
line passed through the "back settle
ments" at night, and the frightened
people who turned out to see it are re-
ported to have decided at once that it
must be either the devil or high tariff
Well, this monstrosity is both; 1t IS the
Devil and High Tariff!
shall not detain you with a history
of tariff legislation in the United States.
The spirit of free trade lowered over
the cradle of the first tariff-ffty years
before the principle Of free trade pre-
vailed in England-which is q sufficient
answer to the lie that, in demanding
Justice for our producing classes, we
are copying England. We have had
eight fuil-grown, life-size tariffs, which,
in turn, have given birth to any num-
Der Of children, legitimate and illegiti-
mate, some of them healthy and sound
of limb, but most of them cripples.
For present discussion we need only
consider the two last, the Morrill, tariff
of 1861, and, for the matter of that, the
Morrill, tariff of 1883, for they are much
the same, like Mrs. Malaprop's Mr..
Cerberus, sstwo gentlemen in one."
The tariff of 1861 was confessedly a
war measure. No one pretended that
it was to survive the q 1t was q
voluntary sacrifice upon the affairs of
patriotism. But, instead Of repeating
It with the other war measures, which
with the advent Of peace were erased
from the statute book, the protection
lists, who had got their hook deep into
the pills of our tariff system, have con-
triyed to retain all its bad features, and
to sneak into it some of the vilest jobs
of which legislation can be accused;
What weuld you say if 1 should tell
you that, nobody knows how, nobody
knows by whom, there was Struggled
into one of the "supplemental acts"
under which from time to time a pre-
tense of modification has been set up,
a clause allowing foreigners-English-
men, Frenchmen, Russians, Turks and
Chinsse-to come into our ship-yards
and buy and build ships free Of duty,
and prohibiting our W citizens from
doing the same thing? Well, such is
the fact. The only limitation put upon
the foreigner is that, when he has avail
ed himself of the privilege accorded
him, he shall take his duty-free ship
away with him, SO that our people shall
get no benefit from it nor our suffering
ship builders be deprived of the oppor-
tunity to rob their countrymen. This
act, which should have been entitled
can act for the relief of John Roach,
and for other purposes" crept into the
so-called erevision" Of 1872; it was
transferred thence to toe revised
statutes, and, to bind it still faster, it
was re-enacted by the new tariff, and
there it may be found by anyone who
wants to know what is the matter with
American shipping. And yet, in the
face Of such a measure, we had a con-
gressional commission for months wan
dering up and down our Atlantic sea-
board with a d~ark-lantern and a spy
glass, seeking, or protesting to seek,
reasons for the decline of u carrying
trade. Still we are told we must not
overhaul our navigation laws for that
tsWould disturb tho business of the
country"
During the war many OF II ships
sought shelter under neutral flags. The
government set up a claim OF indirect
damage for these at Geneva. And then
it turned about and made the exclusion
of these very ships perpetual. Yet we
must not lay a finger upon eur naviga-
ton laws lest we ''disturb the business
of the country"
In the eyes of protection the t'busi-
ness Of the country" is the business of
the protectionists.
In his admirable work upon Political
Economy, Prof. Perry gives two Curl
Gus examples Of the sort of "reform"
the protectionists managed from time
to time to get into the Morrill, tariff of
1861. If they were not SO serious, and
at the same time 80 typical of a bad
system, they would be amusing. In
August, 1866, flor the purpose of in
creasing the duties"-under the pre-
lection idea, mark you, it is always
increasing" never decreasing" the
duties-it was provided by congress
that the costs of transportation, ship
ment, commissions, brokerage and all
similar charges should be added to the
invoices value of imports to make up
tsthe demnition sum total" on which
the duties should be levied. This ap-
piled to s'all"dutiable imports except.
Now, what do you suppose was ex-
cepted? Medicines? No. Surgical
implements? No. Books, perhaps?
Not a bit of it. The doctors were too
poor to have a lobby at Washington,
and the publishers, it may be, were too
busy robbing foreign authors. or too
well satisfied with the good thing they
have in the tariff. That which was ex-
copied was long c%ombing, or curpet
woolsS costing tWelve cents or less per
pound. There was already a high duty
on carpets. The people were compel
led to pay this high duty or 90 with
out carpets. But, not content with
this, those blessed infants, the carpet
manufacturers, were able to obtain ex-
emption tor the raw material entering
into their business, at q time when the
rates were increased upon all other
dutiable goods. Thus they robbed the
carpet buyer both ways at once; and,
says Prof. Perry, ttten days before this
act went into effect" it was, 1 take it,
passed in order to keep the carpet
looms from stopping and thousands of
poor working men from being turned
out to starve, 'fthe Hartford Carpet
Company declared a semi-annual d.
vidend of twenty per cent, and its
shares were announced a worth $275
each, with the dividend off," And
still the carpet people are not happy,
but are working their fingers to the
bone to keep the workingmen of Amer
lea from an inundation of Chinese
cheap labor. But we must not touch
the tariff, fer that would "disturb the
business of the country"
The other instance cited by Prof.
Perry is equally significant and shock
ing. In October, 1871, occurred the
great Chicago fire. The winter fol-
lowing an act of congress was passed
exempting from tariff taxation, for one
year only and for Chicago alone, all
building material Except lumber. For
once the iren men, the glass men, the
lightning-rod agents and the curtain
canvassers were caught mapping. Chi
cago was free to rebuild herself Of any,
thing and everything except of "lum-
ber." On every wood wall, floor, roof,
w;ndow aosh 6ooruov oha ha1 RI nov