The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-23
THE FACTS ABOUT THE NATTER.

Newspaper controversies are usually profit
less. and they are particularly so when
upon one side assertion takes the place OF
proof. Thus, when the Journal asserts that
during the period of the Walker tariff,
which practically extended from 1a7 to 1861.
and local paper jumps in to remark that
'of course" the Journal is mistaken and
says that Mr.. Blaine was emphatic on the
point that ii was one of great prosperity.
it is not profitable to waste space in con-
tentlon.
The Journal did not state that there was
not apparent prosperity in this country a
portion of the period that the free-trade
tariff act was in force it merely stated
that two important industries prac-
tically ruined, particularly the first manu-
featuring industry of the country at the
present time-iron production and manipula-
ton. Professor Thompson. of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, is a good authority.
On page S5s of his Political Economy he
says:
One-third of the furnaces and iron mills
of Pennsylvania ceased operations soon
after the Walker tariff was enacted, many
being sold out by the sheriff and the rest
sorely crippled. The iron men met and ex-
postuated, etc.
This is a fact which no one who is candid
and informed upon the subject will deny.
The Journals critic would have his readers
ornI
that the country prosperous during a
considerable portion of the fourteen years
that the Walker tariff and a modified form
thereof was in operation, and that this
prosperity was in consequence Of such
tariff. The assumption is misleading; in
fact. il is false. Mr.. Blaine never said any
thing of the sort. In his Twenty Years of
Congress- Mr. Blaine gives both sides re-
garding the cause of prosperity during
portion of the fourteen years. AS a pro-
tectionist the following is his explanation
of that prosperity:
Assertions as to the progress of manu-
features in the period under discussion are
denied by the protectionistS. While ad-
hitting the general correctness or the free
condition of the country, they call atten-
ton to the fact that directly after the enact
ment of lsi6 the great famine occurred IN IN
short crops in Europe. The prosperity
which came TO the American agriculturist
was therefore. from causes beyond the sea-
A new and extended field of trade was
opened by the discovery of gold in Califor-
MIA, in which we had the monopoly, and an
enormous surplus of money was speedily
created from the products of the rich mines
on the Pacific coast. At the same time
Europe was in CONFUSION from the revolu-
tons of 1918 and production was materially
hindered over a large part OF the continent.
This disturbance had scarcely. subsidized
when France. England and Russia engaged
in a wasteful and expensive war, which
began in 1888 and ended in 1906 which IN
creased consumption ana a decreased prodG I
stored in Europe. when foreign looms and
FORCES were set agoing with renewed
wheat and when. at home, the output of
the gold mines suddenly decreased, this
country was thrown into distress. followed
by panic and long years OIL depression.
That is what Mr.. Blaine says for himself
as to the causes of the general prosperity
of the country during a portion of the
Walker tariff era and the disaster in which
it eliminated Years before the tariff was
an issue. in a speech upon general topics.
Mr.. Blaine said in regard to this matter
The policy of free trade. as embodied in
the tariff of 1916. had. in ten years, caused
such a large importation of foreign goods
that, besides all shipments of produce
and all the earnings of our commercial
marine. il drained us of $00.000,000 of gold
TO make good the balance of trade
against us.
Mr.. Buchanan was inaugurated in March.
1857. four months before the modified free
trade tariff went into effect. In the open
ing paragraph of his message of Dec. s,
1851, he refers to the condition of the coun>
try after six of the revised and eleven years
of the Walker tariff, as follows:
In the midst of unsurpassed plenty in all
the productions of agriculture and in all
the elements of national wealth we find our
manufactures suspended our public works
retarded. our private enterprises OF different
kinds abandoned and thousands of useful
laborers thrown out of employment and re-
duced to want.
Such are the facts of history. Pages
could be added, and the older men in this
community. like Mr.. Taylor. of Chandler &
Taylor. and George Merritt will affirm their
truth from their experience.