The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-02-28
4 SIMPLE INDUSTRY,
" hith has been Ruined by High Pro.
tettiya Tariff.

From the New York Herald
Il wish the Herald would take the
trouble to make Il test OF the useful in
duStrias wiped out by the high war tar
i'll, said Il gentleman whose CONVERSE
ton on the probable results of taxation
for revenue only was reported to YOU
some time ago. The tariff, made BY
monopolisls under the pretence that it
was needed TO raise the largest possible
revenue, struck "a deadly blow at many
truly American industries. | wonder the
so-cal.ed free traders have never made a
list Of them. Il would be instructive
just now. Take the smelling of copper
ores as one example. Unemployed skilled
labor, it was an important industry. Civ
ing employment to many men around
Baltimore aud al some other points, ]
think III Massachusetts,. We have the
richest aud most abundant copper ores
in the world Nature has so favored US
that The notion Of oar copper mine owners
needing additional artificial protection is
nonsense on the face Of it. But before
1861 We had large trade with Chile
which bought from US great quantity OF
American manufactures, giving US in re-
turn Chilean copper ores, which were
brought as return cargoes in America
ships and smelted here by American work
men. When, during the war, everybody
rushed for high tariff, the Lake Super
Tor copper owners took care to get their
share Of the fashionable protection They
got so high tariff put On foreign copper
ores as to exclude these entirely.
Now, observe what resulted; first, the
smelling works, purely American indus
tries, were crashed out at once. / saw
the ruins some years ago. The tariff
prohibited them from getting their raw
materials. But that was only the begin
ming. Our ships carry American manu-
features of various kinds to Chile could
no longer bring return cargoes Of Chilean
ores. Without cargo both ways no man
can probably sail a ship. At first our
Yankee captains tried carrying Chilean
ores to England, but that sent them home
empty. The English seeing our blunder
sent English manufactures in English bot
toms to Chile and freely took in exchange
the ores as return cargo. Thus our Amer
lean manufactures of furniture and hun
dreds of other articles lost a valuable
market by the high tariff on copper ores.
So you can see that in order TO enrich the
Lake Superior copper mine owners. who
employ comparatively insignificant
number Of men in ono of the least desira
bic and less paid of all the occupations
mining for days wages-the high tariff
men destroyed, first, American smelling
works, and, second, a valuable shipping
trade, and finally destroyed large and
rapidly growing market for great variety
of American manufactures-a market
which the English now, thanks to this
single instance of so-called protection to
American industries, almost mon0polize,
and which is so valuable that they run
Il semi-weekly line of very large and finely
fitted steamers to Valparaiso.
Now what has happened to the Amer
lean manufactures of copper goods?
This:-The protected copper mine owner
actually charge American manufacturers
more tor their protected copper than they
sell the same copper for to foreigners in
English and other European markets.
Thus our home manufactures of copper
goods are oppressed in favor of foreigners,
and this is called protection to American
industry.