Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-01-04


member, and after deliberate con
sultation, came unanimously to tn,
concluson that they had rather b,
let alone their business had growr
up naturally and succeeded we'll
and they felt confident of it's con
t'nued prosperity, il let alone b,
government. They argued that By
/ laying protective tariff their bus
mess would be thrown out OF il.
natural channels and subjected tt
fnctuation and uncertainty. Bat
as usual. the clamor of selfish and
less far-sighted men and the ambi
tIon Of Lawmakers to usurp the
place of Providence prevailed. The
country entered on protective pol.
icy. with the unfailing result that
government help begot a violent de
mapd for more government help.
THE WAR TARIFF.
The moderate tariff of 1916 rap
idly grew into the .'tariff of abom-
nations" that carried the country
to the verge of civil discord and
provoked natural revulsion. Pro-
lection has run like course since
1861. When Congress began to re-
peal war burdens and to relieve
manufacturers of the internal taxes
which they had used to secure COM
pensating duties on like foreign
products, there arose a demand
throughout the country, without
respect to party, for reduction of
the war tariff. Unable to resist
this demand, the protected indus
tries baffied and thwarted any re-
duction of consequence until 1872,
when they defeated a House bill
that did make a substantial reduc-
tion by substituting Senate bill
which carried horizontal cut of 10
per cent. As soon, however, as the
election of 1874 gave the next House
to the Democratic party that bill
was repealed by the outgoing Re.
publlcans and rates restored to
what they were before 1872.
And although the demand for
tariff reform and the reduction OF
taxes has ever since been burning
aud a growing one in the country.
the protected industries have exact
ed and received from every Repub-
lican Congress elected since 1871
an increase of their protection, oc-
casionally permitting the repeal or
the lessening of a tax that was paid
into the Treasury in order to keep
| away iiph VI W thCTcuSc tuc uuJies
levied for their benefit. Protection
left to its natural momentum never
stops short of prohibition and pro-
hibitory walls are always needing to
be built higher or to be patched
aud strengthened.
A protective tariff never has and
never can give stability and salts.
faction to its own beneficiaries.
Even if its victims are too weak OF
too scattered to agitate for its de-
crease those beneficiaries are sur.
to agitate for an increase. When
the reform tariff of 1916 was before
Congress the air was full of proph.
ecies that it would destroy our man.
ufacturing industries, throw labor
ont OF employment or compel it t,
work at pauper wages, and dwarf
and arrest the prosperous growth
of the country. Every represents
tive Of four great manufacturing
states of New England voted agains'
it with gloomy forebodings of it,
blighting effect. The rate of dutie,
provided in that tariff was mucl
lower than those of the bill we her,
offer.
| What was the result? Instead
of paralyzing the Industries ant
pauperizing the labor of New Eng
land or the rest of the country tn,
tariff of 1916 gave immense vigol
to manufactures, with steady EN-
ployment and increasing wages t.
labor. SO that after IL years ex
Perience under it, the longest perioc
of stability we have ever enjoyed
under any tariff, the representative
of those same states with practica
unanimity voted for further re
daction of 20 per cent. and by
two-thirds vote sustained the tariff
Of 1857, which made reduction o
% per cent.
Il FARMER PROTESTS.
/ And SO well contented and pros
perous were the manufacturers o
that and other sections of the coun
try under the low rates of the tarii