The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-10
INDIANA AND THE TARIFF.
EXPERIENCE OF A HUNDRED YEARS.
How the State Gained Under q Low Tarin,
and How it Has Lost Under n High
Tarin-A Lesson From IrcIand's His
tory-Fruits OF Unjust Taxation.

tory-Fruits OF Unjust Taxation.
While the wide difference in per centage
of increase Of per capita wealth between
Indiana and the manufacturing states is
startling, the difference in amount OF
per capita wealth is still more so. In
1850, when the average wealth OF the
Hoosiers was S205 each, Pennsylvania $
average was sos, and Massachusetts
1872 more than ours. In the ten years of
low tariff from 1850 to 1860 we gained
on them, until Pennsylvania was only $95
and Massachusetts, only 500 ahead of us.
In the twenty years of high tariff that fol-
lowed they gained on us so rapidly that in
1880 Pennsylvania was S409 and Massa-
chusetts Sis ahead of US. This, be it re-
membered, is the difference in apparent
wealth, the difference in real wealth being
much greater.
1t is also noteworthy in this connection
that there is large item of gain to our
foreclosed property. L quote the follow
ing from a recent number OF the Chicago
Times:
in Boston. Loan agencies are established in
almost every village of the West. The New
Hampshire savings bank loaned on western
farms in 1886 Sl2,113, 5O0.75; in 1887 Sl4,276,-
56l.99. A Vermont editor has asserted that
that state has loaned on western farm mort
cages double her assessment. The Hartford
insurance company holds 100000 on west
ern farm mortgages. The Boston loan COM
pany holds $76,O00,000. The Etna life in
sprance company by its own report said
hot h,A n. 81
sum Of $35, ,S34.Sl, and the total number of
loans in force Dec. 81 1884, was 1912. The
Connecticut mutual life insurance company
ported Oct. 10, 1887, the total amount loaned
in the West on real estate mortgages at SS5,-
5O5,o95.76. These statements show who own
the West II there is any doubt TO who
owns il now, one item in the report of the
Connecticut mutual life insurance company
VIII dispel it: The net gains sales of
property taken in foreclosure to July, 1857,
were $74S, 1905"
Gains like this one OF three-quarters of
million by one company are not in
Guided in the estimates before given; nor
are those further gains frequently made
by buying in property at a small figure
and holding judgment for balance over
the debtor. have in mind piece OF
property mortgaged for s. 800, sold and
bought in by the company Tor $1,000, now
five thousand dollars hanging over the
mortgageor. Many people in Indiana
know of similar instances. Now what is
this bringing us to? In what will it re-
suit? Is it not evident that we will be
reduced TO the same relation to the manu-
featuring states that Ireland holds to
England, and for precisely the same
reason2 The greater part of our land will
be owned by eastern capitalists and the
greater part of our people will be tenants,
because we are continually taxed for their
benefit. Ireland was brought to her
present condition by continual taxation
for the benefit of English capitalists.
Let us look at the case Of Ireland for
moment, for our analogy to her is very
close. You have probably heard republic
can statesmen declare that ireland was
ruined by British free trade" for n great
many OF them are saying so. That state
ment must be startling to an Irishman
who knows anything about the history of
Ireland land most Of them do, because it
is equivalent to saying that the oppres-
! sfOns under Which Ireland has suffered
for eight hundred years are purely imagin
ary, and the people of that country have
been rebelling and fighting against some
thing that was really benefit TO them.
That may seem like wild statement, but
1t is necessarily true, for England had a
most thOrOugh-going, iTOn-clad system OF
protection until 1916, and If Ireland has
been ruined by English free trade it has
been since that date. Up to 1916 Ireland
enjoyed the blessings OF the English pro-
tective system, which, according TO the
republican doctrine, must have been
good thing for her; and therefore
her Ormonds, Grattans, O'Connells
and other heroes really did not know what
was good for them. Any indianapolis
high school boy ought to blush for the ig-
nOrance of person who SAYS that English
free trade ruined Ireland, for he learns in
his school history that the system of
colonial taxation, which drove-the Ameri-
can colonies TO revolution, was a system
which England followed everywhere with
her colonies and dependencies. lie learns
there that when England put tariff tax
on tea the patriotic free traders OF Boston
went on the English ships broke open the
caddies, and poured the tea into Boston
harbor, and so opened the revolutionary
struggle.
What did ruin Ireland? Aside from the
bloody wars about religion and kings and
the like, with which our Anglo-Saxon and
Celtic forefathers occupied so much of
their time, the most injurious thing
to Ireland has been the persistent
taxation and oppression of that
island for the benefit of English manufac-
turers. Away back in l69S the English
wooden manufacturers became jealous of
the growth of the wooden manufactures of
Ireland and petitioned through the house
OF lords for their suppression. Accord
ingly, In that year, tax OF 20 per cent.
was imposed on the expectation of Irish
broadcloth and 10 per cent. on all other
wooden goods. At the time this act was
passed the trade OF Ireland was flourish
ing. Part of the wooden goods were con-
sumed at home and the remainder were
sent TO the northern nations of Europe,
from whom came Gin exchange, timber,
iron, hemp, fax, pitch, tar and hard dol
lars" This trade was at once DESTROYED;
the manufactures were DESTROYED part of
the woTkmen went to England and over
stocked its labor market; part went to
France, Spain and the Netherlands, and
built up manufactures there that not only
took the markets formerly supplied by
Ireland, but also cut in largely on En-
glands market. In the course of years
this became largely read justed and English
manufacturers reaped the reward of greed.
In 1866 the exports OF wooden goods from
England were Ell ,795, 971-from Ireland
e246
The English wooden manufacturers
had prior to this law been protected" by
an act requiring that every corpse should
be buried in wooden shroud, passed in