Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-05-06
lar. What was the significance of

tional dollar. What was the significance Of
that transaction?
He had been by the power of law COM
PEELED to work one day against his will fol
| an American manufacturer. All of his
hopes, all of his tolls for that day were made
the manufacturer In other words, for
one day he had become slave. Every
dollar of increase in the price OF goods which
the protective tariff occasioned was an hour
or a day, of slavery. He rested his whole
case on the proposition that, subject to the
needs of the government, every man had
| the right to sell where he could get the
best price for what he had produced, and
buy where he could buy the most cheaply.
economy and the plainest teachings of JUS
tice. It individualized men; it begot in
them a spirit of independence; it turned
their eyes from the government to them
selves; it fixed the boundary line between
governmental power and personal rights;
it limited the authority of public admins
tration. 1t taught men that there was no
arm so strong for their support as their
own, and no business so successful as that
which their ability and skill had built up;
it limited the government within its proper
sphere and left individuals free to choose
their own careers, develop their own re-
sources and build up their own fortunes.
THE PRESENT HIGH PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
The present American tariff was a high
protective one. 1t increased the price of
articles imported into this country more
than 43 per cent. 1t was perfectly mani
fest that its influence on our foreign COM
oo,11d np1vy ho doloforfO,1c do
was merely mutuality Of exchange, and
foreign trade was the exchange of products
between citizens of different countries.
Every hindrance to the importation of for
eign goods was an embarrassment to COM
merce, for to the same extent it prevented
the expectation of American goods. The
country could not have large expectation
without having a large importation. Every
tariff duty was a burden on foreign COM
merce, and it was doubly so because it gave
foreign nations an excuse for keeping out
American goods.
More injurious still was the system on
the carrying trade, and it was the question
of only little time when under this policy
the American flag would entirely disappear
from the high seas. The tariff prohibited
the importation of foreign vessels, and
American capital when it desired to engage
in the carrying trade must do so under
foreign flag. On the ship-building interest
protection had been most disastrous.
Nothing was clearer to his mind than that
the destruction Of the foreign carrying
trade was the result of the prohibition of
an American registry to foreign-built ves-
sells and the high price of raw material for
ship-builders The oceans were free to all;
any person might sail whithersoever he
pleased; but in this free for all where was
America? The skill of the sailor of every
nation was there asserting itself except
ours; fortunes were being built up for peo
pie of all nations except ours, and yet this
was an ocean-bound republic. Every rip
pie of the waters on the seashore was an
invitation to enjey the wealth of foreign
nations, and every stormy wave that beat
upon the crags spoke in laundering denun-
citation of policy that would lock America
out of the markets of the world. Loud
applause. God speed the day when the
divine thought of mans brotherhood to
man would succeed the degrading and hui
initiating one of national isolation and for
eign exclusion!
EFFECT ON THE FARMER.
What was the effect of the ruinous sys-
tenn on the farmer? 1t increased the price
of all articles which entered into his daily
consumption, and this increase amounted
to an annual sum of $3.50, 900, 900. For this
there was absolutely no compensation in
the protective system. The system operat-
ing to increase the price of the transpOrta-
ton of grain from the West to the sea-
board, and from the seaboard to Europe.
When the grain of the American farmer
reached Liverpool it came in competition
with the grain of every other farmer of the
world. The protective tariff of America
was unable to help him there, and every
dollar of increase of price which transpor-
tation occasions to him diminished the prof
its of his sales.
But the protective tariff did more injury
to the farmer in the injury it occasioned to
his foreign market. 1t had already robbed
old world. England, because the American
tariff prohibited practically the importation
of English goods, had sought to find food
supplies elsewhere, and under the impulse
of the necessity, the most amazing fact of
modern tunes had been developed, India,
old and effete, had become to Great Britain
the country from which her grain might be
obtained. The effect of this on the mar
kets of the United States within the last
nine months had been decline in the ex-
poyation of American cereals of more than
$4,000, 900 bushels, and wheat had gone
down in Chicago to less than 80 cents. And
this development of the wheat production
of India was entirely the result of the pro-
tective policy in America. 1 say, conJin-
ued he, to the farmers of America, the pros
pect before you is not encouraging now
With elevators and granaries and ware
houses all full of the old crop unsold; with
vast fields greening to the coming harvest,
with crop unexcelled in India, with a
splendid promise among all wheat-growing
nations, and with the price of wheat at less
than 80 cents, the result will be inevitable
that the price of wheat before January
next will not pay for the price of produc-
ton, and the corn raised on the Western
prairies again will be burned for fuel. In
that day the farmers will be beggars in the
midst of their own plenty, paupers by the
side of their own golden-gathered sheaves.
There is absolutely no relief except in max
ing foreign markets for agriculture
The Morrison bill, proceeded Mr.. Hurd,
as it stood, proposed small reduction of
the tariff, which must satisfy for the time
the great agricultural interests of the peo-
pie; but If the protectionists would not lis
ten, would not accept a compromise, in less
than year, the farmers would rise from
the lethargy in which they were slumber-
ing and wOnld overthrow in an hour the
whole protective system.
He went on to argue that the effect of
the system was not beneficial to the manu-
featuring interests, but on the contrary was
detrimental to them in that it prevented
them from securing free raw material.
ooh! if could but burn into the brain of
the manufacturers Of America one senti-
ment," he burst forth, it would be this
"Turn from this constant introspection to
the nations of the world. Down with the
walls! Out to the sea! There are 2,000,-
600, 900 people who want to buy what you
make. Rise up to the truth of the great
thought that these immense peoples can be
supplied by you with all of the instruments
Of husbandry and the tools of arisanship.
But they will not take your goods unless
you take theirs. Let your tariff disappear
and then, obi manufacturers, your atten
ton will be diverted from the home mar
kets to the generous rivalries of foreign
trade, in which a wealth will come to you
of which you do not dream to-day [Ap-
plause