The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-12-02
WHEN WE HAD FREE TRADE.

OF the distress IN the Low TNrtn tosrs'
SOME PREDICTIONS MADE IMMEDIATELY
AFTER THE PASSAGE OF THE WALKER
TARIFF BILL
The country will BE- flooded with for
eign goods, many manufactures will be
stopped, and others will work at half
price; the home market now being built
up will be injured, ruinoasly low prices
of agricultural products will follow,
and the day la5orer will be required to
work for reduced wages The conse-
quence of such excessive importations
will cause balance of trade against us
exceeding the amount Of specie within
the country, which must be sent
abroad, followed perhaps by derange-
ment of our monetary system.-N. Y.
Courier and Enquirer, July 3d. 1S48.
Wherever the news will 60, it will
sound a death knell in the ear Of indus
try and enterprise. No sadder tidings
for many a year have reached all
branches of labor, and the cutlery,
therefore, is general-N. Y. Express,
July 80, 1916.
A reduction OF the prices Of labor is
one of the inevitable effects of the re-
peal of the American tariff act Of 1912
and the substitution of McKay's British
tariff bill. The latter deliberately takes
away the sure protection to American
labor which the act of 1S43 had so hap
PLY and wisely thrown around it. -
Baltimore American, July 80, 1s46.
THEIR FULFILLMENT.
From the New York Tribune, Dec. 49, 1854
We publish, to-day, collation. Of
facts obtained expressly for the Tribune
from the various classes of mechanics
and tradesmen of this city, regarding
the Immediately dreary and prospec-
lively desperate condition of industry
and commerce. To such original state
ments are added extracts from various
journals in different quarters of the
Union, which, with hardly an excep-
ton, exhibit kindred distresses. These
all have the force and iuvulnerab leness
of arithmetical details They prove
that the chief industries necessary to
the life of the nation are now partially
or wholly collapsed; armies of toilers
are hurled from the factory or the
shop into the street. awaking in the
morning to the prospect of stealing for
subsistence or starving outright. This
may be matter of Indifference to the
slave drivers who have shaped the ma
tional legislation of this country from
the start; but to the workmen of the
north, who are not yet on chain gangs,
it is a question of wild extremitles-o1
life or death. In keeping with this
state OF things generally, this city,
which, according to Secretary Walkers
report in 1s47, with his British free
trade doctrines, was to advance males
tically in uubrolken prosperity, up te
the time she became ''the' clearing
house of the world" has, under that
system, fallen to condition which in
Europe is considered the attendant Of
revolutions: ffw instruction there is al
ways accompanied by want of work.
Let us glanae at the industries of our
community.
IRON WORKS.
The iron business in this city is very
much depressed, and large numbers O.
workmen are destitute of employment
In recent tonr through the foundrie'
and machine. shops we learned that
upon the average, not more than hal
of the men are now employed and thu
anticipations> for the future hold ou
still gloomier prospects. In Brooklyn
some 500 menihave been recently thrown
out of employment
PRINTING.
Many oftfie leading offices have dis
charged two,thirds of their employees
and have reduced the remainder to two
thirds of alday's work.
| sTEREoTYPERs..
| This business, as a consequence, ex
hibits much the same state of depres
sion as perwades that of printing. No
more than oue-third of the sAereotyper
fare employed.
| TYPE FOUNDERS
In this branch scarcely anything il
doing. We are informed that one hous'
alone I'M this city, for the past month
showed a decline of business to the ex
tent of some 40, 900 pounds of type.
| BOOK BINDING
OF the 1000 men engaged in thi
branch of industry, between 200 and Sc
are out of work.
| BUILDING
The. builders have scarcely anythin,
under way. A large contracting masol
SAYS that not more than 1000 of tn
900 to 4, 900 masons usually employee,
in New York are now at work. Hous
carpenters are among the principal sud
ferers. Many of the small employer
have closed their shops while the NOR
extensive master carpenters hav
greatly reduced the number of thei
employees and curtailed the hours o
labor of those yet at work. The major
ity of the operative ship carpenters i
this city, numbering many hundred
of men, are now out of employment
and the number augments daily b
the completion of the work in progress
In the nine shipyards of Greenpoint an
Williamsburgh employing on the avel
age, in good season, an aggregate G
1000 persons only 2S7 are at work. Tn
depression in this branch of industr
necessarily affects large numbers c
operatives in other professions, as rope
makers, hlockmakers, curriers', riggel
and host of others.
OF the 1890 plasterers usually en-
rloyed not more than one-sixth, or 90,
are now at work, while of the 1,5C
plum ers it is estimated that not NOR
one-half are employed