Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-10-13
OUR, TARIFF HISTORY.
George Ticknor Curtis Again Exposes
the Fallacies of the
POSITION OF THE DEMOCRACY.
Statements That Refute the Free Trade
Chicago Platform.
FEATURES OF THE ORIGINAL STATUTE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrspArcH.; /;


tis, the eminent Democratic constitutions
lawyer and author, giving his reasons fol
repudiating the tariff views of the Demo
| cratic platform and the candidates who
stand upon it, was made public to-day. Il
| is addressed to Wilbur f. Wakeman, Gen
eral Secretary of the American Protective
Tariff League, and says:
The first Congress, Washington and all his
Cabinet, and the entire generation of men
by whom the Constitution was established
knew perfectly well that encouragement
and protection of manufacturers was one oi
the objects for which the revenue power wa.
granted. The nonsense OF tariff for revenue
only could not be perpetrated by that gen.
Grafton. But new comes Mr. Grover Cleve.
land, in this year of our Lord 1892, and says
virtually that he knows more about the
purposes for which the Constitution was
made than the men who made it. He says
virtually that if he had been President OF
the United States in 1889 he would have
sent the first revenue bill back to the
House with veto message in which he
would have told that body that they must
alter the preamble so as to make it read
that tariffs should be imposed tor revenue
only, otherwise he could not sign it. 1 did
not suppose him to be so ignorant of politi-
cal history as his letter of acceptance shows
him to be.
The Part Played by Madison.
Mr.. Madison took leading part IN con-
Quoting the first revenue measures through
the House of Representatives. As soon as
he had introduced the subject of revenue to
be obtained for the expenses of the new
Government and list of articles to De sub
jected to the new duties had been laid be-
fore the House, the subject of protection
was brought into the discussion by an oc-
currence which is of marked historical in
terest. On April 4, 1889, a petition was
presented from the tradesmen, manufacture
ers and others of the town of Baltimore. 1t
set forth, "That since the close of the late
war and the completion of the Revolution
they had observed with sincere regret the
manufacturing and trading interest of the
country rapidly declining, and the at
tempts of the State Legislatures to
remedy the evil failing of their object; that
in the present melancholy state of our
country, the number of poor increasing for
want of employment, foreign debts accumu-
lating, houses and lands depreciating in
value, and trade and manufactures languish-
ing and expiring, they look up to the Su-
preme Legislature of the United States as
the guardian of the whole empire, and from
their united wisdom and patriotism and
ardent love of their country expect to re-
ceive that aid and protection which can
alone dissipste their just apprehensions and
future by imposing on all foreign articles
which can be made in America such duties
as will give decided preference to their
labor, discountenancing that trade which
tends so materially to injure them and i'm
poverish their country; that they have an
nexed a list of such articles as are or can be
manufactured among them, and humbly
trust in the wisdom of the Legislature to
grant them, in common with the other me-
chanics and manufactures of the United
States, that relief which may seem proper. I"
This petition, although coming from a
single town, called upon the new Congress,
as the Supreme Legislature of the Legisla-
ture of the United States, in the broadest
terms, to apply the principal of protection
SO as to benefit American labor and to dis
countenance that freedom of trade which
tended to injure the industry of our me-
ohanics and manufacturers
Protection in Its Broadest Sense.
It asked for such legislation not only in
regard to articles then produced, but also in
this country; thereby proposing that the
legislation should aim to continue the pro-
lection heretofore Intellectually extended by
the separate States to manufactures al
ready established, and to raise up those
which might be established in the future.
The petition made no reference to the OBJ
tanning of revenue for the uses of the Gov
eminent, but it presented the encourage
ment of our own manufactures as the pri-
mary object to be accomplished in the lay
ing of duties on foreign products. Still, it
necessarily proceeded upon the idea that
the duties would be laid in the exercising
OF the taxing power which the Constitution
had conferred on the new Government
The exercise of this express power would
convey with it the implied power to lay the
duties SO as to benefit opr own industry,
because such q power is inherent in any
Government which possesses right to Sc
lect the objects of taxation and to determine
the rates of duty to be laid on them. 1t does
not appear that similar petitions in relation
to manufactures were preferred from other
quarters of the Union in the same formal
and direct mode, but 1t is quite apparent
from the discussions that ensued that the
representatives. of different States urged the
interests and wishes of their constituents
upon the same grounds.
Inc only D1uerence Oh Op1n1On.
The Baltimore petition was referred to the
committee of the whole, and then the debate
proceeded at intervals from April II to May
2s. In this long and able discussion there
were differences of opinion developed upon
the question of framing permanent system
of revenue, or adopting temporary meas
ure. At length, however, the matter settled
down to the latter course as the only one
that was then practicable. As each article
that was proposed to be included in the bill
was taken up and considered, the debate
turned upon the questions of imposing some
duty on it or letting it come in free; of the
amount of duty that would be collected on
it; and of the influence of that duty upon
the encouragement or encouragement of
American manufactures and productions
There were at the same time no official
statistics that would furnish safe basis of
that could be derived from the
official statistics of few of the States, and
the representatives. of different sections of
the country could speak with some certainty
in regard to the amount of present impcrta-
tion of foreign products, the extent to
which 1t was proposed to lay specific or an
ad valorem duty, the bearing of the imposi-
ton on our own industry, whether that in
dustry was comprehended'i in the interests of
or OF products Of the soil, or
if shipbuilding, or navigation was duly con-
sidered.
The reader who may examine this inter-
esting and instructive debate, which ende
IN the framing of our first revenue law, will
find, among other things, curious discus
sion on the effect of imposing duties on
ardent spirits, and on molasses In reading
WHAT Do YOU THINK OF IT7
But One Opinion Possible.
Disorders ara rampaut throuohout the |