Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-03-09
vERsfONrAsANAss.

VERMONT As An ASS.
In the February number of the
New England Magazine, Prof. A. L.
Perry of Williams College has an
article on what he calls "Protection.
isn," in which occurs the following
remarkable paragraph:
Vermont has been the faithful and deyot, d
ass bearing the heavy utensils of the protcc-
ZIONIST family, eating in the meantime little
or nothing of the promised hay and grain,
feeding on the chance thistles of the road
side, and growing leunerand more dilapidat
ed these p years aback. In the present year
of Grace, 1851. the people OF Vermont seem to
be first waking up INTO the consciousness,
that they have been and are the dupes and
victims Of miserable protectionism Wool,
an important product with them, owing to
the enterprise of their ancestors lsuch as
Consul Jarvis and his contemporaries, has
been lower in price the past few years than
ever before IN the history of the state. Do
mestic manufacturing establishments, which
| they fi2ttered themselves would start up and
thrive under the boosted Encouragement, and
so constitute a growing home market for
all theirngricultural products, are actually
fewer in number and smaller in compass
than they were in the year 1850 Population
IN The little cen n,tIN cath rs Il W Lole il sta
tionefy or declining. Farms all over the
state IN the districts more removed from
the centres, once ploughed and reaped, are
II ow abandoned of their owners to pasture
and forest. Almost everything which YER
mOnters have had to buy ha9 been artiticialiy
raised in price by the wretched fraud of pro
| tectiOnism, TO which in an evil hour they
| gave in their adhesion and even enthusiasm
and almost everything they had to sell, inclu-
| ding their wool, has been diminished in
price by the same double-workmg subtilty of
infernulism. y market for products is PRO
ducts in market. If misguided legislation
keeps out of a country by means of taxes de
signed for that purpose, products that other
wise weuld come in to Il profit such short
! sighed action keeps in of npcessit, domestic
products that would otherwise go out to Il
profit. Young Vermonters have gone west
in crowds to raise wheat, now selling in the
Chicago market fol sixty eight cents-the
lowest price in histOry-bVcause the law for
bidstheir taking pay for wheat in foreign
products on natural and profitable conditions
1t would be difficult to bring into
the same compass greater array of
misstatements and illogical conclu-
sions than the foregoing paragraph
contains. In the first place it is not
true that the population and manu-
features Of Vermont are on the de-
cline or even at a standstill. In 1860
the population was 3l5, 098; in 1870
it was 33O,55l and in 1850 it was
332, 2e6.
Here was steady gain, though
not large one. But when we take
INTO account the fact that heavy
losses by war occurred during that
time-and it is to the everlasting
glory of Vermont that hers was
HEAVIER than those of any other state
except Kansas-and when we re-
member the further fact that it was
during this period that the greatest
emigration to the West took place,
there is groHnd for congratulatiou
that our population did not fall be.
hind.
AS for manufactures, the tota'
number of establishments in Yer
mont in 1860 was 1888; in go il
was 2874. The capital employed
in them in 1860 was 50, 59S,6l7; il
80 it was $23, 265,224. The average
number of hands employed IN these
establishments in 1860 was lO,497
in so it was 1880. The wages
paid in 1860 were $1,000, 1856; in 81
they were S., lG4,479. The value o.
materials used in 1860 was $7,6O8,
sos; in 1880 it was $l8, 33O,677. I'll.
value of the product of the factor
les in 1860 was $l4,635O07; in 1885,
it was $3l ,354,366.
And yet this eminent free-trader
to whom the census returns are jus
as accessible as they are to us, say
that Vermont's manufacturing es
adjustments care actually fewer il
number than they we're in 1860. Al
argument which proceeds from falls
premises can never convince intelli
gent and honest men. We are JUS
asinine enough in Vermont to wish
to know, first of all, whether we ar
dealing with truth or with falsehood
We admit that there has been
shrinkage in the farming industry
This has been due to two causes
r ri The growth of some of our vii
lagos at the cost of taking peopl
out of agriculture, and 2 the I'm
precedented development of tn
West, which has had the two-fol,
effect of drawing away our youn!
people and sending cheaply grow
products to compete with our ow
: in our own markets.
{ Not an iota of this shrinkage
traceable to "protectionism." O
the contrary, if there had been n
protective tariff, the competitio
" would have been greater, becaus