Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-04-02
FRIDAY MORNING. APR. 2, 1Ss
FREE ADMISSION OF ORES.

FRIDAY MORNING. APR. 2, 1856.
FREE ADHESION OF ORES.
The proposition of the Morrison tariff
bill to admit raw materials free of duty
Is, as we expected it would, working
upon Virginia. There is no State in this
Union that has more at stake than Vlr-
ginia in seeing that iron ore, coal, copper
and tin are not admitted from abroad,
free of duty, and the proposition to sacrl-
flee her chief interests ought to animate her
representatives in Congress to an aggres-
siye war upon the Morrison bill. A bill
which receives the support of the Wes-
tern idea and the N ew York City idea of
tariff lis not the bill for The newly opening
up country of the Southern States and is
likely to receive the same opposition among
them it is now receiving in Virginia.
A public meeting has been held at Wythe-
vile and resolution adopted asking our
representatives in Congress Ito vote in
favor of retaining the present duty on all
ores and their products-rather to increase
them than to diminish them" The Lynch
a resolution declaring that ''such a re-
moval of tariff would be fatally Injurious
to the mining interest now in operation
in Virginia." and declaring the sentiment
of the Chamber to be sin favor not only
of retaining the present duties on ores and
their products. but also of increasing them
should any change be made" The prac-
tlcal operation of the free raw material
clause of the Morrison bill is simple enough
in it's effect on the South-as simple, and
lust about the same, as shutting down the
water gate at mill. In the last twenty
years mines, furnaces. manufactures IN
iron producI-taking this for illustration
have made rapid and to the older
manufacturing States, menacing pro-
gress. They have gone so far as to be
entitled to the name of competition. Fur
naces and factories are moving South to
the neighborhood of cheap raw material.
There is mode to check this. Let In
raw material dug out Of the ground by
pauper labor in Europe: the furnaces Stay
where they are and the South relapses
a bugaboo used for the maintenance OF
Protection, or is there something really
In it to damage the iron producing
of Virginia? We will say that miner In
Virginia gets 81 day for his labor. La
Spain, the same days work is paid twenty
cents. To deliver ton Of Virginia ore On
the seaboard costs from $1.50 to So. The
ore from Spain is delivered by ship at the
same port as ballast. A ton OF Spanish
ore can be landed at Baltimore for S.. The
Valley of the Shenandoah, the Valley OF
the James, and the Southwestern part OF
the State TEEN with ores. The ground
above those ores is already being stirred
by developing industry; the question now
is, whether our representatives will MOI
make determined fight against tht
scheme to envelope these resources III
silence again. This is public peril, from
which we expect to see the congressional
delegation of Virginia united in saving
their State. This is tariff reform" that
draws blood. It has gotten beyond the the
orizing point, when it aims blow at
representing a company having 81 900,
600 invested in IRON works within hei
borders, to arise in public meeting and
admie that if this bill passes his com
pany is ruined. 1t is beyond theOrlZIng
when an industry which means year,,
expenditure of $1,S72,000 in actual
cash in the State, is menaced. Foreigr
ore has already, even under tariff,
crushed the Central Iron Co. of Virginia
which had $500. 900 invested in South
western Virginia? What would it do with
no tariff. Tariff reform, tariff equallz4-
ton, is concededly wanted, but not tariff
destruction.
Virginia has mixed delega tion On the
the floor of the House. but we do not be
lievs one of them will ever consent to this
clause of the Morrison bill. With such
unanlmity, there should also be activity
The very presence of such a bill before
the House, damages Virginia by the un-
certainty it begets. Capital will not look
towards an uncertain field for investment
and every day the Morrison bill ponds
with its blow at the vital interest of the
new South, adds that much more to retard
her revivlng industries. Every day this
threatened evil hangs over the undevelop
ed resources of our State adds to the
81 artainty Of their development; fol
1tal, like labor. must have employment
and if it does not find it in one place. vii
go to another. The opening Spring, when
prospecting parties of capitalists com
mence their tours, is bad time for the
Southern States to have written over theiI
mineral lands-"This property may bs
worth millions or it may not be worth its
taxes" During the perilous days Of re
construction the Southern members who
had seats on the floor of the House made
Congress fairly hum with the activity Of
their resistance to unjust legislation. The
free ores and coal clause in the Morrison
bill is as menacing to the prosperity oil
this section as ever the reconstruction
acts were to it's liberty, and yet we hear
little from Southern members-eithei
Democratic or Republican. Is it that there
ia something in the soil and climate of the
South that grows men fitted for party poll
tics only, land units them to appreciate the
it..ee-tanoe of economics The apathy OF
both the Democratic and Republican con-
gressmen from the South, except when
party ascendancy is at stake, almost
points to that solution. The success of
such hostile measures as the free ore bill
and the failure of such friendly measures
as the Blair bill would possibly call the
attention of the South to the Importance
of dropping the practice of sending whole
State delegations of lawyers to congress
and revolutionizs them to the extent OF
securing the election of good leavening
of nractical common sense husIness man