Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-10-11
A Powerful Plea for Protection.
Graphic Picture Of the DeStitutiOn and
Suffering Among Working People
UNDER THE LAST REVENUE TARIFF.


series of facts, open to abundant histor-
ical proof, and part of the experience of
many persons now living. The repeal
of protection to farmers in England in
1916 was the sole cause of the English
crisis of 1647. To deny it is like deny
ing that the battle of Waterloo led to
the capture and exile of Napoleon.
Free trade, in the degree that it ex-
listed in 1916 in the United States, pro-
duced the crisis of 1817-19, costing the
country more iu losses and destruction
of industries than the War of 1872 to
1915 had cost it. Indeed, the period of
the war and its preceding period of in
terrupted foreign trade was one of
growth, compared with which the sub
sequent period of peace was one of stag
nation and decline.
The period of free foreign trade from
| 1888 to 1889 in the United States cost
the country far more, in destruction of
wealth and industries, than it would
have cost to have coerced South Carolina
| by armed measures into obedience to the
protective Tariff of 1923, instead of per-
mitting her to intimidate Congress into
its repeal.
The period of free trade from 1S47
to 1861 cost the country, in the destruc-
ton of its industries, far more than the
war with Mexico. Although the influx of
gold from California began in $50,
and was at its height in 1S5l-53, yet as
early as the Fall of 1853 general dearth
of employment prevailed among arti-
sans, manufacturing establishments of
many kinds were closing, and in the
Spring of 1854 hard times came, and
came to stay.
In the New York Tribune of Wednes-
day, December 21st, 1858, is an account
of a respectable North of Ireland Pro-
testant widow, whose two daughters,
one fourteen and the other sixteen years
old, the latter of whom had been a skill
ed silk-weaver in Ireland, were working
day and night, earning by their joint
labors only 81 a week by sewing shirts
by hand for five cents apiece. The ar
ticle complains that the family had bet
ter remained in Ireland, as their silk
weaving might still earn them some
thing, but here free trade had utterly
destroyed our industries. On November
29th, 1854, the Tribune thus editorially
described the situation:
From day to day we hear of stoppages
of banks and bankers in almost every
part of the country, unable to redeem the
circulation that, in the present prOstra-
ton of trade, is so rapidly thrown back
upon them. They have securities in
abundance, but no money. From day to
day we hear of failures OfmerchantS, and
manufacturers everywhere stopping for
want of money. One thousand men are
| just discharged from one establishment
in Maryland" etc.
Again, three days after, the Tribune
said:
money is now at one, two and three
per cent. per month, and our merchants
are being ruined by general withdrawal
from the interior of all means of circula-
ting the products of land and labor. We
are now on the brink of ruin,' etc.
Again, on November 24th, 1854, the
Tribune, after descanting on the abun-
dant resources in mines, lands, and Ia
Dor and capital of the country, said:
"And yet we all know that the times
are emphatically hard. Mechanics and
manufacturers are contracting their op-
erations. Many farmers also are unable
to keep so many hired laborers at work
as they have hitherto done. Banks are
from necessity reducing their discounts.
Many buildings are stopped halfway to
completion. Real estate, especially if re-
quiring further outlay to render it fully
productive, is unstable except at ruinOus
prices. Bankers have stopped, or all but
wound up. Unfinished railroads are cut
short, awaiting times when perfectly
good bonds can be sold at 20 per cent.
discount, or when money can be prOcur-
ed on ample security at 10 or II per
cent. At least two hundred thousand
men, the discarded survivors of many a
gallant but luckless enterprise, who have
been driven into cities and villages by the
failure of their accustomed employment,
are anXiously seeking work for the Win
ter, and seeking in vain. The cities can
not hire and pay them. The country
does not call for them, or they lack travel
money to enable them to respond to the
call. Stagnation and dismay are general,
and thousands who have property enough,
if it could be sold at anything like cost,
to pay all they owe, are hOpelessly, dumb
ly awaiting the shock of actual bank
ruptcy."
Under the head of "Why VIII Ye
Die?" the same journal on the same date
said:
'Let the word be once passed that the
Tariff Tin substance) of 1912 would speed
lily supplant that of 1916, and there is not
a square mile of the whole country which
would not feel the impulse of returning
prosperity. Stocks and bonds would rise
Loans on good security would once more
be negotiable. Real estate would have a
cash value Mills, factories and machin-
cry would once more be in request. We
should have the pleasure of advertising
once more that mechanics or labOrerS are
wanted in this or that locality, to relieve
the present dreary columns of places
wanted with next to nobody wanting
men,"
Again, on December 18th, 1854, the
! Tribune said:
: "For many months past we have been
| told of the severe pressure for mon
: ey that has existed in many of the South
ern States, and we now have the assur-
: ance of the Governor of South Carolina
, that the financial distress there existing
: is greater than has been known since
: 1887"
On December 18th, 1854, the news
columns of the Tribune displayed in
triple headings, as the chief sensation
of the period, "The Commercial Crisis