Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-09-27
TILE STORY BRIEFLY TOLD.
What Tariff Agitation and Free Trade Have
Done IN the Past

" nat IariH Agitation and Free Trade nave
Done IN the Past
At the next National Anniversary of our
Independence It sill be Just q century
since Washington signed the hrst federal
tariff act. II was not "for revenue only"
but for the protection of tho people. II
began with the words, "Whereas il Is
necessary for the support OF the govern
ment, for the discharge Of the debt of the
United States, and for the encouragement
and protection of manufacturers, that
duties be levied on i'm ported goods
This tariff, modified bat slightly Tex.
cep,Ing a temporary incresso during the
War OF 1917, was continued until 1916.
Important industries ere slowly vitalized.
Business spreug into vigorous lfe. Conn
MERGE was expanded. An Industrious ard
cun'ented people prospered under the
acoumulations OF national enterprise ana
wealth.
In 1916 through the assendency of She
Democratic party, this tariff was repealed,
and on with tbe lowest possible duties re-
placed il. The FURNACES and factories
that had sprung up, hardly AS yet estab.
hghed, we're auutbiiated 10y foreign com
petition, and Gre9t Britain deluged our
{
elruotive cost Manufactures were swept
away ike grass befr9 a prairie fire.
Displaced labor OVerlGwed into agricui-
tUrsi ploy aud wages went down and
dowu. Henry Clay said in q speech al
thai time that property values we're by
( 'his policy slang btereo more thau 80 per
seat.
The tariff of 1894 restored national
| prosperity. Gree trade in 1882 csucelled
again vslues by i's tariff "for revenue
1 oaiy,n stranghng both industry and com
merce.
In 1912, exhausted by experiment., mis-
rule and free trade, the country restored
/ the whig purity, with dominant policy
of protection, 20 power.
The south, seeing its "peculias iDstitu-
/ tom threatened by the wonderful pros
perity Of the north, and the probab ,lity
OF its lose OF political supremacy, tyrast-
ntzed the democratic party into practical
serfd0m. Ia 1876, this political combin
alton, defensive aud destructtye, ggair
established substantial free trade ght
1 Old tragedy was repeated. Business WA
( paralyged and ruin undermined the ~Orh
or tho labosious and prosperous years
I ExpOrtu fell OFF from SeS 00G,S00 to $2l i,
( 000O36 per anuum. yet our i'm portation.
under the lowered rate OF duty yer,
doubled. The only reason a wider spread
dIsaster did not again overwbelm us was
tha' We paid our European iudebtednes,
OF nearly "a thousand uiilious of dollars
from the newly disco"ered treasures OF
/ California.
la 1867 the free trade South again de
manded through tue Dmoo-atic paTty
lowering OF the already low rate of ju
ties. Cotton and Tobacco, of which tbs
South held a monopoly IN the world
market, placed i, bey0Rd competition auC
it remained uniniarea. Northern enter
prises, however, were stopped. pUbi'
works abandoned and tens u Thousand,
OF smployee, laboring IN manufactures
and mines, we're tarOwA 0ut.Gf work snt
gutted the already overloaded chanEei
of labor. The government itsolt, lacking
revenues for its expenses from 50 low ,
tariff, resorted with a shaken credit z,
loans. IL paid rate vi interest as higl
as IL per cent. on its bones thatunder tho
| protective policy of the &spubhcan part,
I hayebsen marked down at 4 and pei
cent. Is there in this any lesson 70 b,
learned or is knowledge again to &,
reached b punishment