Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-23


DEVELOPMENT UNDER PROTECTION.
Measured by its usefulness in the devel-
opment of the country the protective tariff
is again unfailing. No nation i'll the world
has reached such a degree of development
as we have attained in the last 30 years. In
every department of industry, in everv ave-
nue. of human endeavOr, we have illustrated
the most marvellous advancement, and in
those years we have risen in industrial de-
velopment to the very first rank in manu-
featuring, agriculture and mining, leading
every other nation in the world. tits said
by our opponents that this system enriches
the few and impoverishes the many. Wealth
in England has been concentrated in the
hands of the few to a far greater extent than
in the United States. Cardinal Manning, in
December last wrote as follows on the sub
ject, speaking of free trade.
"But it has created two things-the irre-
starvation wages of the labor market. We
have these two worlds always and openly
face to face-the world of wealth and the
world of want; the world of wealth saying
in its heart, 4 sit as queen over all toilers
and Traders and the world of want not
knowing what may be on the morrow"
whether in the factory or on the farm, are
richer in real wealth than in any other
country on the globe.
MORTGAGES OFTEN MEAN PROSPERITY.
1t is also said that protective tariffs have
increased the mortgages of the country.
This Is an idle and absurd statement. Let
me remind you that mortgages are not
always an evidence of poverty. They are
much oftener the best evidences of prosper
ity. admit that mortgages given for liv-
ing expenses, for grocery bills, for taxes,
ETC., do give evidence of the poverty of the
mortgagor. But ifa workman In this city, ,hav-
ing accumulated S, 900, concludes he, wants
to buy home, and finding one which will
cost him s., ,00o pays 81, coo in cash and gives q
u1O tpa orn a a a
money, that mortgage is not an evidence
of poverty. 1t is the strongest evidence
of the thrift and prosperity of the mort
gngor.
tor and founder of the New York Tribune,
has summarized in a most striking manner
the effects to the country OF the two tariff
systems. III 1869 he wrote:
"Our years of signal disaster and depres-
sion have been those, in which our ports
were more easily flooded with foreign goods;
those which intervened betwixt the recog-
milton of our independence and the enact
ment of the tariff Of 1883; those which fol-
lowed the close of our last war with Great
Britain and were signalized by immense i'm
portations of fabrics; those of 1912, when
the compromise of 1888 began to be seriously
felt in the reduction of duties on imports,
and those of 1S54-57, when the Polk-Walker
tariff of 1916 had had time to take full effect.
No similarly sweeping revulsions and pros
trations ever took place-I think none could
take place-under the sway of efficient pro-
lection. Mr.. Clay, in 1882, after promising
that the seven years preceding the passage
of the tariff of 1924 had been the most dis
astrous, while the seven following the pass
age of the act had been the most prosperous
that our country had ever known said this
Transformation of the condition of the coun-
try from gloom and distress to brightness
and prosperity has been mainly the work Of
American legislation, fostering American
industry, instead of allowing It to be con-
trolled by foreign legislation, cherishing