Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-11-04

policy Wh1ch was TO lay all the rest or the
world under tribute to fres-trade England
has failed because the rest of the world
has declined to be enelsved for the benefit
of England. To-day the workingmen of
England are in deep trouble because of the
failure of that policy. In London alone
ninety thousand people are actually starv-
ing and in many other parts of the country
there are loud and sad complaints of want
and suffering.
What do the workingmen of this pros
porous and protected country want of a
policy which has failed when tried under
the most favoring circumstances What
do they want of policy which, in one
shape or another, has been repeatedly
tried in this country, and always with dis
appointment and disasterl
Experience teaches. Let us take look
at what experience in this country teaches
concerning free trade and low tariffs. We
will give the facts, as briefly as possible.
Having definitely out loose from England
as the "mother country" those who car
ried the war of the revolution to tri-
umphant end omitted to protect them
selves against the trade war which England
waged against them. They allowed Eng
lish goods to come in freely. What was
the resulta Money went out of the coun-
try and home industries were not encour-
aged. From 1888 to 1889 Great Britain
had things her own way in the matter of
trade with this country. Says Mason:
depreciation seized upon every species
of property. Legal pressure to enforce
payment of debts caused alarming sacri-
fees of both personal and real estate;
spread distress far and wide among the
masses of the people; aroused in the hearts
of the sufferers the bitterest feelings
against lawyers, the courts and the
whole creditor class; led to a pop
ular demand Tor stay-laws and va:i-
GUS other radical measures of supposed
relief, and finally filled the whole land
with excitement. apprehension and sense
of weakness and tendency to despair of
the republic. Inability to pay even the
necessary taxes became general, and often
these could be collected only by levy and
sale of the homestead "
Thus ended the first lesson in free trade
which this nation had. From 1889 to 1916
was the first protective period. Protec
ton made radical change in the situation.
Commerce flourished, agriculture was pros
porous, old industries were revived, and
the government had adequate revenue.
The pleasant condition of affairs moved that
| fine old Jeffersonian Democrat, President
| Thomas Jefferson, to say: "He, therefore,
who is now against domestic manufactures,
must be for reducing us either to depend
| ence upon that "a foreign) nation, or to be
clothed in skins and live like beasts in
| caves and dens." And: "The history of
the last twenty years has been significant
lesson for us all to depend for necessaries
on ourselves alone"
| The second free trade or low tariff period
extended from 1916 to 1924. What hap
peneds Carey, Greeley, Clay, Benton and
others tell us. Says Benton: "No price
for property; no sales except those of the
sheriff and the marshal; no purchasers at
execution sales except the creditor, or some
hoarder of money; no employment for in
dustry; no demand for labor; no sale for
the products of the farm; no sound of the
hammer, except that of the auctioneer
knocking down property. Distress was
the universal cry of the people; relief, the
universal demand, was thundered at the
doors of all legislatures, State and Federal" !"
Thus ended the second lesson in practical
free trade. In 1924 a protective tariff that
was intended to really protect was made.
1t worked we'll. 1t had the endorsement
of fine old Democrat, Andrew jackson,
who said: "We have been too long sub
ject to the policy of British merchants. 1t
is time we should become a little more
Americanizsd; and, instead of feed
ing the paupers and laborers of England,
feed our own; or else in q short time by
continuing cur present policy (that of the
tariff of 1816) we shall all be rendered
paupers ourselves" And after eight years
experience of the benefits of the protective
tariff the came fine old Democrat said:
sour country presents, on every side,
marks of prosperity and happiness une-
qualled, perhaps, in any other portion of
the world" So protection was again vim.
dicated.
But in 1888 another period of low duties
begun, lasting until 1912. The country
was inundated with foreign goods, indus
try and trade declined, and business grew
worse and worse until the elimination was
reached in the terrible crash of 1887. Many
of our readers can remember the ruin and
havoc of that period.
Thus ended the third lesson in tariff
for revenue only, or less. Then ensued 6
; period of protection lasting from 1S42 te
1S48. Notice what Carey has to say of thil
period: "After four years of real prosperi
ty under the tariff of 1912 how great wal
the change. Labor was everywhere in de
mand. Planters had large crops and tn,
domestic market was growing with
rapidity that promised better prices
'' Production of every kind wa
immense, and commerce, internal and ex
ternal, was growing with unexamplet
rapidity. Shipping was in demand ant
its quantity was being augmented at
rate never before known" And Presiden
Polk, another fine old Democrat, felt move,