The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-09-25

i AT Wilmington, Ohio, on the 9th, there
!. was q grand Republican rally. Judged. b.
Foraker was announced as the principal
speaker, but the striking event of the oc-
| casion was speech from Hon. II. Savage.
prominent lawyer of Wilmington, and
until now was one of the most prominent
and reputable Democrats Of the Buckeye
State having voted, Invariably, as he
stated, for twenty years for the Demo
cratic candidates in State ard National
elections After a brief introduction. and
reference to the large number of letters he
received, making inquiry whether he in
tended to support Blaine and. Logan. he
discussed the woolquestiQna and the record
! Of the. two parties in reference to it. j. Re-
ferripg tethe resolpti9nA Off Mrs,. Converse,
Democrat. of Ohio, offered, ins the House
on..the 9TH of April, 1854, to restore the
tariff ON this articles and the vote of the
parties on it--Ayes, Republican, so; DEM
osrats. 80. Nays, Republican, u, Demo-
GRAFT. 114--thusl showing what party are
supporting the wool.growers. heprOceeded !:
The radical difference between the two
great parties to-day is protection to Amer
| lean Industries and productions against
| free trade, and the people ought not to
delay choosing the side they believe to be
right simply ON account of old party preiu-
dice. Are you free trader? If so your
proper place is with the Democratic party
as the representative of that doctrine Are
! you in favor of building up home aud home
productions, and diyersifying the pursuits
t0e<.
a grand, Self-suStaining nation independ-
ent of any and all other countries? If 80.
you belong in the ranks of the Republican,
party. 4e,,aa. 80 -a....,..e.s .,.lI t,..s
But am told by. the free trader that
the duties that protect American indus
tries raise the price of the article protected
just the amount of the tariff and they cite
in support of this assertion the report OF
David A. Wells made to Congress, about
1869, and lay especial stress upon that part
of his report in which he discusses the duty
on steel, iron and steel rails and pig iron,
and claims that our manufacturers add the
duties to their production, and that in con-
sequence of the limited importation of
these articles. that it costs the people $3.50
for every So that the treasury realizes
from this duty. l give the figures from
memory, and they may not be exactly cor
rect, but they are near enough so for the
purpose of illustration. Mr.. Wells uses
these articles for the purpose of illustra-
tration, claiming that the same result fol-
lows all other duties assessed on articles
which come in competition with American
industries, all of them being, as he claims,
a tax pnre and simple. and that they al
ways raise the price Just us much as the
amount of the duty. want it understood
at this point that Mr.. Wells wrote this re-
port after he had visited England and had
been tinctured with English free-trade
notions and doctrines. But shortly before.
perhaps in 1867, he made report to Con-
gress in which he used this language:
1T is also represented to the Commits
sioner that since the introduction of the
manufacturers of these grades of steel in
the United States OF since 1853, the price
Of foreign steel of similar quality has been
very considerably reduced through the effect
of American competition, and that the
whole country in this way has gained more
than sufficient to cOunterbalance the tax
levied as protection for the American
steel manufacture, which has grown up
under its influence" In connection with
the foregoing statement, he recommends
a high duty upon steel, and says if not
laid that the industry will be prostrated in
the United states.
Now, either Mr.. Wells was radically
duties on steel and steel rails do not have
the effect he ascribes to them in his En-
glish free-trade report of 1863. But if any
thing more is wanting to demonstrate the
falsity of his later theory, we have it at
hand. In 1864 We did not have Il single
establishment in the United States for the
manufacture of Bessemer steel rails. AT
that time England charged our people $3.50
per ton in gold. which was at that time
above 200p cent, which added to the
freight, made every ton of rails, when de-
livered in the United States, cost our peo-
pie $500 in currency. Under the influence
of this protective tariff. which Mr.. Wells
and his free-trade followers 1nveigh against
our heOple began to look about, to see il
they could not produce these rails.
The result was the establishment of the
Freedom works at Harrisburg. and no
sooner was it ready to take orders than the
English manufacturer dropped the price
to $l30 per ton. Other manufactures soon
sprang into existence here: one at Troy,
N. y; one at Chester, Pa; one at Cleve-
lands, o., and others in different parts of
the country, when, 10 and behold in less
than four years the price of these rails un-
der the healthy competition in this coun-
try dropped to $50 per'ton, and l am told
they can be purchased now for less than $50
per ton. This does not look much like
protection has had the effect to raise the
price OF these articles at least.
But the most Important effect to the
Masses especially the farming portion of
our people, is that this and other protected
manufacturing business takes from the
farming interests from two million five
hundred Thousand to three millions of
hands, together with their families, in all
from eight to ten millions people. who
70 NO fo6 nd al
ducts of the farm and sheep husbandry:
thus creating a home market which gives
good prices for those articles, whereas if
these people GhuS engaged We're thown
back among the agrlculturaliStS of the
country they would become producers in
stead of consumers of the farm products.
and all would have to look to foreign
market for the disposition of their surplus.
1t does not require the exercise of great
intellectual powers to see that such state
OF affairs could not do otherwise than de-
press the price of everything the farmer
has to sell. That the opposite of this state
Of affairs is brought about by protection,
we have only to look to the past history of
the country. Our Government was Under
a revenue for tariff from lS46 to the pass
age of the Morrill, tariff of 1861. For some
years prior to 1916 we had protective
tariff, which had Observation-Disclosures to
some extent, so that in 1850 we had. hands
engaged in manufacturing to the number
of 957.059. During the decade following.
under a revenue tariff. the number of
hands increased to l 81 ,246, an increase of
S53,1ST. During the next decade, nine
years OF which was under the Morrill,
tariff, they increased to the number OF
2, 250, 1858, an increase of 939,652 nOtwith-
the fact that for four years of
this decade our country was swept H..