The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1894-01-24
A PROTECTION PANIC.

SIR: One would think, from the
prolonged howl which the protec-
tionists have kept mp over the pam
ic Of 1893, that the country bad.
never experienced a panic before.
under protection, and that such a
thing could not happen under that.
policy.
l suppose to jog their memories
slightly in regard to a little affair
of that kind, clear cut protection
list specimen, not alleviated in the
slightest degree by tariff reform,
but a real representative, high
toned Republican, American policy
protection affair.
1t began in 1873 when everything
was booming-the protective policy
in full sway-speculation rampant.
The whole country literally was
on a grand spree.
Railroad building for 1871, 1872
and 1873 averaged $500 miles per
annum, against less than 2, 500 miles
per annum in 1866, 1867 and 1868.
Pig iron was $40 per ton, bar iron.
500, steel rails 5000 per ton. No
tariff reduction in view to scare
protected manufacturers into fits
and relieve the consumer of his bur-
dens.
Had the spectre of tariff reform
confronted them then and threat
ened reduction of the tariff equiv
alent to 10 per cent. upon the whole
sale price on an average, every
manufacturer would have rushed
before the Ways and Means Com
mittee aud protested that it was
the utter ruination of the country,
and of his business especially.
The crash came, and within one
year pig iron fells19 per ton, bar
iron $50, and steel rails $50, an ay-
erage decline of about 40 per cent.
Compare this with 1s73-pig iron
fell 50, bar iron 81, steel rails 81, an
average of 10 per cent.
But it did not stop there; it kept
on for five long years, and in 1878
pig iron had fallen s31, bar iron s53
and steel rails SIS per ton, an aver
age decline of 60 per cent. in price
during this Republican protection
panic of 1873.
Wool and the panic of 1873: The
three varieties of Ohio washed wool
January, 1873, averaged for fine 90
cents, medium 6s cents and 65 cents
for coarse. In April (three months
later each had fallen Is cents per
pound. By July the decline had
reached 20 cents per pound, but did
not stop there, for during the last
year of the panic it averaged SO
cents per pound lower than at the
beginning.
But the same fellows who engineer
ed the panic of 1873 are having CON
vulsions over a decline of 8 cents
per pound in wool for 1898, which
decline was directly traceable to
the policy which brought on The
panic of 1873. -
The decline of 1893 in iron and
wool began in Jnne with the Sher-
man silyerpanic, not in March with
the Inauguration of Cleveland, as
some would like to prove, but can
not.
Cotton and the panic of 1873
Raw cotton before the panic of 1873
was % cents, at its close in 1879, IL
cents per pound, a decline of 80 pr.
cent.
Standard calicos and cotton goods
kept step with this protective music
to the extent of decline averaging
one half.
When you place the business of
the country on protective stills, its
collapse is only question of time.
The panic of 1893 would have
come, without regard to the party
in control, for previous legislation
had created the conditions, and the
result is before us.
Let us examine further into the
commercial aspects of this panic of
1873.
For the previous FIVE years the
business failures had amounted to
an average of 3,186, averaging
eighty-seven million dollars per
annum, which was bad enough,
when we take into account the pop
ulation and wealth of the country.
In 1873 the storm burst and
5,1s4 firms went down with a loss
of two hundred and twenty-nine
millions of dollars.
Since this country is so per cent.
greater in numbers and wealth in
1898, the liabilities of 1873 are