The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1893-05-06
TARIFF NOT THE CAUSE.

SATURDAY MAY 6, 1898
TARIFF NOT THE CAUSE.
The Albany Democrat is always CT
thodox in matters of political faith,
and it never deviates from party lines.
In the following it makes vain at
tempt to bolster up the cause of free
trade:
"With hope of strengthening
the cotton trade the planters at the
south are being importuned by the
southern press and southern fnanciers
to reduce the acreage of the crops.
The question is being met upon the
basis of over production. This is not
the trouble nor is it the proper PAM
acea. The trouble is that our tariff
laws have alienated our export trade
and the proper panacea is revision OF
the tariff. With millions of people in
semi-nude condition in other lands,
being unable to obtain either the raw
or manufactured material by reason OF
the embargo placed upon American
products, the incongruity of the claim
of over production at once suggests it
self. As long as there is demand
for any commodity, even though there
be an unsurmountable barrier between
the buyer and seller, though there be
surplus the fault is not over produc-
ton but under consumption. By
our obnoxious tariff legislation we
have engineered bitterness and in
spired retaliation whose sweeping
effect is now being felt by the pro-
ducers, not of cotton alone, but OF all
farm products; not by the cotton plant
ers of the south alone but by the pat
rons of husbandry the country over.
To produce less would afford tempor-
ary relief to the producer but it would
mean corresponding increase in the
cost of living to the whole industrial
world. 1t would add to the daily ex-
penses of the tradesman thereby plae-
ing the burden upon the shoulders of
those already within the shadow of in
dustrial slavery. With large per
cent. of the people of Europe in the
throes of starvation and want he i'm
peaches popular intelligence who as
sesses the blame for inactive markets
up to the workings of the laws of ma
ture."
The fact is we'll known that during
the last few years the culture of cotton
in Egypt and Indian has diminished
the British demand for this American
product, and, where before the war the
looms of Manchester depended on i'm
ports from the southern states they
now receive the raw material from the
colonial dependencies. During the re-
bellion the blockade was so efectual
that England was forced to look else
where for supply, and her attention
was attracted to the favorable climatic
1e kka kvsa od
Cotton as monarch was dethroned at
the time the southern confederacy fell
to ruins, and it can never reassert its
sway in the United States. If slavery
had continued this staple article could
be produced as cheaply in South Car
olina as in India; but not with free
labor in this country.
The tariff en- imports does not in
crease the price of the export article
to the foreign consumer, and if there
is demand for our goods in other ma
tions there will always be sales But
with the favorable climatic conditions
in India and Egypt, and the mere pit
tance paid to laborers, it would be 1m-
possible for US to place the raw ma
terial in the English markets at as low
prices as those countries do, even if |
the tariff were abolished and there was
the broadcast reciprocity between this
nation and England. It-is the object
of protection to build up manufactures
at home SO as to create local demand
for all raw material that can be pro-
duced, and thus decrease our depend
ence upon foreigners. England buys
our wheat when she cannot procure
supply from Russia or Egypt, and the
price in Liverpool is governed by the
crop of these countries. A similar
rule applies to cotton, and if the south
desires to keep good market for this
product she should have more factories.
Diversified industries are always ad-
visable for growth and development,
and the south should not depend on
sugar and cotton, nor the west on wool
and grain. Vary the productions of
the soil, open up different avenues for
and the number of con-
sumers will always be equal to the
supply of all articles. The intelligent
understanding of the law Of supply
and demand should regulate the crops
grown the world over, the same az it
does the price of boots and shoes and
hats and coats.
THE BLOUNT MISSION.