The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-12-15

Morrison's horizontal reduction scheme
could only be to let flood of foreign
productions pour in to overrun the
American market. The wool-growers
and growers of hemp and flax have
been selected by the free-trade reform
ers as the victims of their proposed new
experiment. Mr. Morrill, contended
that the cause of the recent dullness in
American trade was not overproduc-
ton but overimportation-the report
of the treasury department showing an
annual importation of some $3.50 ,000,0
worth of manufactured goods, nearly
all of which might as well have been
produced at home. While all home
manufactures had been wonderfully
cheapened, foreign competition had be-
come unbounded, and protection against
undergrad foreign labor could not be
abandoned. 1t required an extensive
acquaintance with the entire products
and readjust tariff rates. Interests so
deep and far-reaching should be in
trusted to friends, certainly not to
those who had shown purpose to
strangle them. Protection was not re-
quired solely for or by manufacturers,
but for the industrial autonomy of the
nation-for the general welfare of the
whole country-and revision of the
tariff called for much patient labor, and
should be grounded upon established
facts, instead of upon a theory which
makes statistics and history and expe-
rience go for nothing The senator,
further discussing the benefits of the
protective policy, said:
The whole amount raised by the tariff is
used for the support of the government and
for no other purpose. To this end duties
upon imported foreign articles are imposed
and they bear very lightly upon our own
people, as foreigners must bear very con-
siderable part of the burden before they can
have any license here to sell their COM
modities. AT the same time the duties are
found to be a powerful stimulus to Ameri-
can enterprise, which soon brings forth
similar articles either of better quality or
at a cheaper price, and there is not now
single manufactured article which has ever
received tariff protection that has not been
vastly reduced in price from the competition
arising therefrom. In the long run a pro-
tective tariff is, therefore, for the advantage
of the consumer. The range of articles for
popular consumption is enlarged and
offered at popular prices. Beyond all doubt
incidental foreign exclusion promotes Amer
lean industries and their growth Americans
prosper by reason of this comparatively
easy method of supporting the government,
and much more prosper by the policy which
secures to the whole people profitable and
diversified employments.
After reviewing some of the fallacies
of the free-traders, he spoke of the
effects of free-trade in Great Britain.
No country has recently suffered more
from the depression of trade and in
dustry. After showing that the effect
of the free-trade policy upon Great
Britain had been disastrous, he spoke of
the state of the revenues. He admitted /
that the extinction of the public debt
had proceeded so rapidly that there was
a temporary surplus. What should be
done with it?" was a fair question.
Some of surplus would have to be
used for new navy and for seaboard
defences, and then the internal revenue
tax on tobacco may be wholly surren-
dered. The consumption of tobacco
added much to the working-men's cost
of living and to them the repeal of the
tax would be substantial boon. The
duties on raw sugar might also be
either wholly removed or cut down to
the lowest point from all countries
which do not impose duties, and then
generous bounty might be granted to
all domestic sugar. A revision of the
tariff at an early day would be emf
nently desirable, but the work should
not be entrusted to those who are color
blind and who can see nothing but re-
duction or abandonment of all duties.