The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-03-27
The Tariff on Wool.

One J. ID. Porter recently sent COM
munication to the National Lire Stock
JOWnol, in which he said: zone OF
writers in the February number of the
JOu1m0i claims that large mai )rity of
the people of this country favor pro-
tective tariff. | think such an assertion
is an insult to the intelligence of the
people, Mr.. Albert Chapman answers
as follows in the same publication:
Will Mr.. j. ID. Porter please explain
why the claim, that ''majoritv of the
people of this country" is an insult to
the intelligence Of the people, while the
truth is, these same people sent ma
jority Of members Of Congress to vote
to sustain the principle of protection
by voting down that "tirst firm step
towards free trade the Morrison
bill,' and have just elected another
House of Representative, with larger
majority in favor of protection than the
one that voted down the proposition
to take even one step towards the op-
posite policy, free trade?
Is it not a greater insulttO the intelli-
gence of the people to assume that only
one farmer III ten, or 422,j 9i are WOOL
growers, when the census tells US that
over million are wool-growers? Is it
not another insult to the intelligence
of the people to affirm that the tariff
enhances the price of clothing to the
consumer. while the price of clothing,
as well as everything we manufacture
has steadily declined under protection,
than it is to affirm that the tariff enhan-
ces the price of wheat and other farm
products, when it has been proved
more than once or twice that it euhan-
ces the prices of those products to es.
tabllsh manufacturing industries all
over the land, giving employment to
laborerS, making them consumers of
those products, instead of competing
producers of them creating home mar
ket, instead of depending upon foreign
ers to fix the price of our surplus, which
they will always do to their own advan-
tage, and making us dependent upon
wars and famine abroad, to get paying
prices for what we can spare?
1t is not an insult to the intelligence
of the people to affirm that free trade
will inevitably destroy our home man.
ufacturing industries and enable for
eigners to fix the price of the mannfac-
tured articles they send us, as we'll as
the price of the produce we send them
TO pay for the same. The insult to
common sense comes in against him
who supposeS the foreigners who fix
the prices will not 80 fix them that they
will buy of us cheap and sell to us dear
and charge us cost of transportation bott
ways.
Is Mr., Porter sure that he does moi
insult the intelligence of the people
when he asserts that we never had s
time OF more general prosperity thar
from 1876 to 1861? 1t is true that the
wars in Europe during those year,
helped us out Of the depressing effec
of the reduction of protection by tho
tariff of 1916 but when tn Jse European
nations could turn their attention tC
production, instead Of consumption
aud destruction, the full force of tn,
loss OF that protection came upon us
eliminating in almost general bank
ruptcy in 1857, and from that to 1856
laborers were suffering for want of EN-
ploymsnt, and the government, as vel
as individuals, was bankrupt, borrow
ing money in time of peace to pay it
ordinary running expenses.
The same dog that bit us in 1857 CAV
us another bite in March, 1888, onl,
the teeth did not get inserted quite a
deep, and, thanks to the strong consul
tuition we have built up under the pro
tective system of 1867, we have bee
better able to stand the wound; all
the insult to the Intelligence and CON
mon sense of the people again comes i
against him who supposes the exper