Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-10-31
Ellio.t's Debates, vol. S, pag's 43s, 44O,
where You vii, find it.

Ellio.t's Debates, vol. S, pag's 439, 44O,
where you vii, find it.
You are quite light when You say that
Hamilton was q High Protective Tariff
mar. He was also originally In favor Of a
strong government, after the Epgl sn
model of o monarchy "bottomed upon
corruption" and taught that "a public
debt was o public blessing"
You are also right in saying that the
first Congress under the present constitu-
ton did pass law to protect manu-
factu,es. A committee of the upper
houss of the same Congress did slso
recommend law to regulate titles, and
to stylo the President "His RighaeSS."
ANSWER THIS, GENERAL
But do you know what the rata Of
Protection" established by this tlrst
Congress was? 1t was an average OF only
fire per cent Now General, if You believe.
as Won say you do, that ''0ur first Con
grass was right" why do you refuse to re-
ducs q Tsiff which is more than nine
times higher than they established?
Again, on page Z, you evoke the follow
ing extraordinary statement:
'Mr. Chairman, we never had q tariff
for-Ievenue.' free-trade party in this coun-
try until tina disc!ve Y Of tie cotto2-8lp
led the owners of slaves 10 believe that In
Kissing cotton slavery could be made PIT ii
table. Tie idea was to make large pEotiss
by importing such articles rs the COZ d tlon
of slsT Y required free of duty, and sailing
cotton rSised with cheap slave labor at
high prices. Down to that time the states
n en- of the South had been protectlonists,
John G. Calhoun at their head. But the
slluripg grandeur Of the political Utopia
have mentioned was irresistible. Tee
struct9rs ttey had helped to raise was de-
ttoyed by their own hands"
Now, General, where was the cotton-gln
discovered" or las 1 SUP Pose you can J,
invented? It was invented by Eli Whit
ney in 1898. Apply this information to
the ab3vs gasconads quoted from you and
see what
INExCUsABLE AND IRRETRIEVABLE NON
SENSE
you have been guilty Of! You have here
| deliberately asserted that down to that
/ time (1793) the statesmen of the South had
been protsctiontsts, John c. Calhoun al
their head" Now, at this date (1793)
Calhoun was only eleven years old, and
did not enter public life until eighteen years
afterwards! Neither were there any Other
Statesmen of the South, ror of anywhere
else, who were at that time (l793) in ia
vor Of q High Protective Tariff, unless you
call tariff Of ytire PER cent. average n galy
protective.
The first Tariff Of 1859 only established
a duty of fire per cent average; that of 1915
only went to 25 Fer cent, that Of 1924 only
to 331 DEF cent, while the "biu of abom
nations" ss it is now historically known
of 1923, stopped st or nesr your War Tariff
rate Of from 81 to so PEI cent. This In
iuuitous "bill of denominations" Ct 182e
produced civil revolution, and In 1883
Mr.. Clay sllsyed tha imminence of aetna
war by his compromise bill, whereby thu
Tariff was to be gradually brought to th'
revenue standard.
THE TARIFF OF 1912
was rot inte oded as a High Protective
Tariff, and when on the 30th of August
(1942), President Tyler signed it, he sp
proved it-''urdsr executive limitations
as entirely a revenue bill, with incidenta
! protection" And on the Sd of March o
the same = ar, (1642), Mr.. Clay especiall!
disdsined, in language already quoted, tia
this bill, of which he was originally TIM
ration, was int:nied as a High Protective
Tariff.
From that time III til or late civil wal
10 party dared plant itself upon the meas
gre of a super. revenue tariff as a permanen
thing.
During the war, as q war measure, anc
for temporary exigency, as everybody
corcedsd, the War Tariff was enacted. IL
1888, as you very we'll know, the Tariff
Commission recommended an average re
duetion of twenty yer cent. Reduction
has been recommended by every PIeaden
since the war, and by eye'y Secretary o
the Treasury, aod, In some form, by q!
most every prominent statesman OF eithe
party. And yet as soon as
| AN HONEST EFFORT
is made by the Democratic party to reduce
the Tariff, the whole of the protected
classes combine, and are up in arms agains
the people, and t,king shelter under tn
wing Of the Republican party, refuse t.
abate one iot or little Of their eXaction!
and extcrhonate profits.
You say thst the country enjoyed unsx
arap'ei p osperity under the Tar; fl Of 1912
Why do you refuse then to reduce the
pTe eat rate If duties down to that estab
lished by the Ter # OF 1922 You cannot
be jgoorant that that Tariff was, on ar
ave age lOrer than the Mills bill. EXceIt
where spsc fic duties were imposed, thore
were bat three articles which were tax:d as
SIS high as Al per cent, snd they were
lad ej' boots, Teady-made clothing, and
hatters' irons.
On pags IL, you make great stray Of
figures to compare tie growth and progress
of the nation in the two decades OF Pro-
tect on from 1860 to 1880. Your mistake
is to fall iGto q very common species Of
sophistcy, called iiRpericism, VIII Oh consists
in mistakiDg for eauSiHty Eere coincidence
You
HAD AS WELL
attribute the increase in the population Of
London to the prevalence of the London
/ ftg, as to attribute our increase in produc-
/ tions to thu existence Of a War Tariff. On
the contrary, maihtsin that our progress
was made not by the iafue-c e of over