Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1885-12-25
Free Trade and Protection In
America
IT,. tt,, udttrr M Tho fnndnn Ttmeg.

To the Editor Of the London Illie8'
sm-ObserylDg that. in the contro.
versy between "free trade" and flair
trade" the example Of America Is re.
feFred to on both sides, / beg your per
mission to state a very few Of the most
important facts with relation to the
results Of a protective policy In Amer
lea, combining myself TO those which
are absolutely undeniable by any truth
full person, and the statistics OF which
can be readily given, II desired by you.
The United States began in 1859 a
"faiT trade" policy. imposing protect
i've duties upon the ground that all
other nations did so, and that we must
use our tariffs and navigation laws as
a basis of negotiation with foreign
powers. OF course, this theory failed
to work, and fair trade developed into
protection for its own sake.
~ In 1916 the highly protective tariff
then existing was repealed and a tariff
for revenue substituted. This still
afforded a protection of Is to 30 per
cent. on all the principal manufactures,
which, however was only about half
as much as had been given before.
In 1857 this tariff was again reduced
by one, fifth. In 1861 the rates of 1876
were restored, and somewhat in
creased. In 1864 an enormously pro-
tective tariff was enacted, which re-
mains substantially in force. The
period from January l, l847, to March
l, 1861. is, therefore, a low tariff
period, while that from July l, 1864,
TO the present time is one of high pro-
tective duties.
ps The increase of general wealth,
measured by assessed valuations, went
on at a tar greater ratio during the low
tariff period than ever before or since.
Roughly stated, the wealth of the
nation increased about twice as fast
under the low tariff as it has since, the
decennial increase under low tariff
being over 100 per cent and under
? high tariffs averaging less than 20 per
cent.
The development of manufactures,
which was the great object of the
high tariffs, proceeded more slowly,
upon the whole, than under the low
tariffs. A few manufactures favored
by special bounties form exceptions to
the rult, but the rule is as here stated.
The general increase in the net pro-
duct of manufactures between 1850
and 1860 was at the rate of "a per
cent. between 1860 and 1870 deduct
ing the initiation in prices, caused by
paper currency 48 per cent, and
between 1870 and 1880 Sc per cent.
The periods of commercial depres-
sion, and especially of disaster among
manufacturers, of closed mills and
furnaces, and wholesale discharges of
workmen, have been at least three
times as long and severe under high
tariffs as under low tariffs. For three
years past most Of the iron furnaces
have been closed, and last month only
225 out of over 700 were in operation.
Yet pig iron has a protection" of about
"a IS per cent.
~ Wages of men employed in the pro-
tected industries, and those dependent
upon these (such as coal) have fallen
40 per cent. in the last fifteen years.
American workmen do more than
twice the work expected from Eng
lishmen, and do not now average more
than one-fourth greater wages.
American wages have not risen as
much in the protected manufactures
as Lancashire wages in the same time,
while the hours for labor are much
longer with US and the pressure much
more severe than in England.
The shipping interest has been
struck with dry rot, and our foreign
shipping trade almost annihilated. Our
shipping increased at such IA rate,
under our low tariffs, that if it had
continued at the same pace until now
it would have amounted to l4,00O,O00
tons. 1t is, in fact, only 100000
tons, or 1,350,000 tons less than in
1860. Foreign competition has not
been excluded, but has only varied in
IOrms lub IdIllo lIOlu 4OOl W 4OOO
have been framed by the pig-iron in
terest, yet the importations of pig
#on and iron ore have been vastly
greater during the last six years than
they ever were under a low tariff. The
only seasons in which our imports fall
off are those Of domestic disaster and
distress. Our only effective protection
consists in our own periods of panic
and poverty.
The reduction Of railway changes on
heavy goods, such as metals, since 1870
has more than counterbalanced the
increase in the tariff On such goods
since 1869, so far as the country west
of the Allegheny Mountains is con-
cerned. Thus in two-thirds Of our ter
ritory the effective protection to iron,
steel, ETC., has been really reduced, in
spite of the tariff. But it is precisely
in this section that the progress of
manufactures has been most rapid, its
pace being nearly thrice as fast as in
the East, where protection has really
been increased, while the vast major
ity of the iron and steel manufacture
has passed from the East to the West,
Thus the march of manufacturing de-
velopment has been toward the dis
\ tricts which have every year less and
lo,, oroEookiOD oOoinst tho oomnpfiOn