Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-02-03

tariff must end with the war When the
new tariff was to be formed, popular cry
arose against war duties" though the coun-
try had prospered under them despite the
exhausting eject of the struggle with Great
Britain But the prayer of the people
answered, and the duties dropped
from the tariff of 1916 The business of the
county was speedily Frustrated. "he peo-
pie were soon reduced to as great distress as
i'll that melancholy period between the close
of the Revolutionary war and the organiza
ton of the national governmeut-17S5 TO
1883
Relief came at last with the enactment of
the protective tariff of 1924, to the support of
which leading men of both parties patriotic
ally united for the common good. That act,
supplemented by the act of 1928, brought
genuine prosperity to the country.
Sectional jealousy and partisan zeal could
not endure the great development of manu-
features in the north and east which followed
the apparently firm establishment of the pro-
tective policy Out of this strange complica-
ton came the sacrifice of the protective tariff
of lS24-2S and the substitution of the COM
promise tariff of 1888, which esta blished an ad
valorem duty of 30 per cent. on all imports,
and reduced the excess over that by 10 per
cent. annual sliding scale for the ensuing ten
years.
The apprehension of evil soon became gen
erai, public confidence was shaken, the panic
of 1887 ensued and business reversals were
rapid, general and devastating. There was
no relief to the people until the protective
tariff of 1912 was enacted; and then the
beneficent experience of 1924 was repeated on
even a more extensive scale. Prosperity
wide and general, was at once restored
During this long period free trade tariffs
were thrice followed by industrial stagna
ton, by financial embarrassment, by distress
among all classes dependent for subsistence
upon their own labor. Thrice were these
burdens removed by the enactment of pro-
tective tariff. Thrice tho protective tariff
promptly led to Industrial activity, to finan-
cial ease, to prosperity among the people
1t is true that a financial panic occurred in
1878, and its existence would blunt the force
of my argument if there were not an impera-
lively truthful way of accounting for il as a
distinct result from entirely distinct causes
The civil war, which closed in 1861 haH sac
ri1fceti on both sides vast amount of prop
erty. Reckoning the money directly ex-
pended, the value of property destroyed and
the production arrested and prevented, the
total is estimated at 50 co., 100000.
AMERICAS GROWTH SINCE 1862
Notwithstanding the evil prophecies on
both sides, the panic did not come until eight
and a half years after the firing of the last
gun in the civil war, Nor did it come until
after two great calamities in the years imme-
diately preceding had caused the expendi-
ture of more than 5000, OOO, 900, suddenly
withdrawn from the ordinary channels of
business The rapid and extensive rebuilding
in Chicago and Boston after the destructive
fires Of 1871 and 1872 had a closer connection
with the panic of 1878 than is commonly
thought Still further, the six years de-
preston, from 1878 to 1879, involved individ-
ual suffering rather than general distress
The country as a whole never advanced in
wealth more rapidly than during that period
Viewing the country from 1861 to 1889
full twenty-eight years-the longest undis-
turbed period in which either protection or
free trade has been tried in this country, |
ask Mr.. Gladstone if a parallel can be found
to the material advancement of the United
States.
In 1860 the population of the United States
was in round numbers 81 100000 At the
same time the population of the United King
dom was in round numbers 100000 At
the end of twenty years QSS0, it appeared
that the United States added nearly $50. OOO.-
100000 to her wealth, while the United King
dom had added nearly $4,000, 100000, or
about one-half. The United Kingdom had
added 100000 to her population during the
period of twenty years, while the addition to
the United States exceeded $4,000, 600.
In 1860 the average wealth, per capita, of |
the United Kingdom was 81 600, while in the |
United States it was but $3.50 In 1880 the |
United Kingdom had increased her per capita |
wealth to 81, 230, while the United States had |
increased her per capita wealth to SS70. The |
United Kingdom had in twenty years in |
creased her per capita wealth % per cent,
while the United States had increased her per |
capita wealth more than 93 per cent. If al |
lowance should be made for war losses, the |
ratio of gain in the United States would far |
exceed 100 per cent.
HOW PROTECTION HAS LOWERED PRICES
John Edgar Thompson, late president of |
the Pennsylvania Railroad company, pur |
chased 100 tons of steel rails in 1862 at q price
freight paid to New York; duty of 45 per |
cent. unpaidl of SOB "A gold coin (By way |
of illustrating Mr. Gladstones claim to |
superior quality of manufactures under free |
trade, the railroad company states that nElny |
of the rails broke during the first vi<seer's |
trial. In 1870 congress laid specific duty |
of S2S per ton on steel rails From that time /
the home market has been held by our own |
with steady annual fall in /
price, as the facilities of production increased |
until the past summer and autumn, when
steel rails were selling in Pittsburg, Chicago /
and London at substantially the same prices
ocean honestly believe that American rails
could ever have been furnished as cheaply as
English rails, except by the sturdy competi
ton which the highly protective duty of 1870
enabled the American manufacturers to
against the foreign manufacturers |
in the first place, and among American manu-
facturers themselves in the second place!
English steel for locomotive tires imported
in 1865, duty paid, was thirty-four cents per
pound in gold. At the present time 1885,
American steel for locomotive tires, of as
good quality as the English steel formerly
imported, is furnished at four and three
quarter cents per pound and delivered free of
cost a. the point where the locomotives are
These illustrations might be indefinitely |
multiplied In woolens, in cotton in leather
fabrics, i'll glass, in products of lead, of brass,
Of copper; indeed in the whole round of
it will be found that protection
has brought down the price from the rate
charged by the importers before protection
lad built up the competing manufacture in
America For many articles we pay less than
S paid i'll Europe. If we pay higher for other
things than is paid the sea today, |
figures plainly indicate that pay less than |
we should have been compelled to pay if the
protective system had not been adopted, and
beg Mr. Gladsuone's attention to the fact
hat the American people have much more
aherewith to pay than they had or
,ould have under free trade
UNPARALLELED RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION
Mr.. Gladstone boldly contends that keep
ng capital at home by protection is dear pro-
luction, and is a delusion from top to bot
ON" | take direct issue with him on that
Between 1870 and the present
ime considerably more than 100000 miles OF
abroad have beeh built in the United States
The steel rail and other metal connected there
With involved SO vast sum of money that it
,ould not have been raised to send out of the
country in gold coin. The total cost could not
lave been less than $1,000, 100000 We had
/ large interest to pay abroad on the public
lebt, and for nine years after 1870 gold was
1t premium in the United States. During
hese years nearly 10000 miles of railway
we're constructed, and to import English rail
ind pay for it with gold bought at a large
premium would have been impossible. A
7ery large proportion of the railway enter
orises would of necessity have been aban
Toned if the export of gold to pay &c the rails
lad been the condition precedent to their
construction. But the manufacture of steel
'ails at home gave an immense stimulus to