Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-10-06

of the southern democrats, the tariff
duties, already too low, were reduced
and the country plunged deeper in the
slough of calamity. The laws of 1876
and 1857 were intended as tariff for
revenue only measures. However,
their failure to meet the demands of
the government is amply demonstrated
by the figures of that period. From
1S47 to 1857 the expenditures of the
government exceeded it's revenues by
$21, 10000 and the public debt in-l
creased in the same period S13.149,629.
Under the amendment of 1857 the debt
increased to 1861 to the amount of
$46,000,000 and the expenditures of the
nation were SIT ,234 JIG in excess of the
revenues for the same time.
So disastrous were these years that
President Buchanan, democrat, in his
last message in 1861, officially declared
of that period:
with unsurpassed plenty in all the
productions and all the elem ents of ma
tural wealth our manufactures have
suspended; our public works are re-
tarded; our private enterprises of the
different kinds are Abandoned; and
thousands of useful laborers are
thrown out of employment and reduced
to want. We have possessed all the
element of material wealth in rich
abundance, and yet, notwithstanding
all these advantages, our country I'M
its monetary interests, is in deplora-
Bile condition"
In this passage President Buchanan
depicts the utter failure of free trade
to meet the demands of the United
States and assure prosperity to its peo-I
pie. So it has been and so it will ever
be.
Blind to the lessons of years of bit
ter experience the democrats in 1860
again declared in favor of progress
sive free trade throughout the world"
However, the great majority of the
American people had to come to real
ize this free trade policy as the
cause of all the distress and want that
had visited the nation under its regime
and led by the newly organized re-
publican party emphatically announc-
ed at the election that year their be-
lief in the policy of protection. During
the more than forty years since that
time the people of the United States
have, with one short intermission of
four years of calamity, enjoyed the
benefits of protection and under its
benign care the nation has risen to
place among the nations Of the world
such as was scarcely dreamed of by
the founders OF this republic
In 1861 the republicans in congress
enacted the protective law known as
the Morrill, tariff and from that time
to the present protection to home in
dustries" has been one of the founda-
ton stones of the republican party
doctrines. During the thirty years
following its adoption the protective
principle was the basis of all tariff
legislation and though its supporters
were called upon many times to de-
fend it against the onslaughts of the
democrats, it stood as beacon light
guiding the interests of the American
people onward and upward to a degree
of development that had never been
dreamed of before.
Scarcely had the protective law been
passed when the country was plung-
ed into the most gigantic struggle for
life that was ever experienced. For
four long years the country was torn
by civil war that at times seemed to
shake the very foundations of the gov
eminent and millions in men and treas
ure We're laid as sacrifice upon their
country's altar. ere this awful conflict
was brought to a close. 1t may be
admitted that all these things without
a high tariff, would have caused tenn
porary revival OF business, but it
would have disappeared at the close
of the war. Soon after peace was de-
clared it was estimated that the pub
lie debt amounted to 1884, 649,626 and
it is now admitted by all intelligent
persons, except free traders that the
funds to successfully carry on the ne
bellion could never have been raised
without that high tariff.
For years the democrats have been
talking about capturing the markets
of the world" The means by which
they would do this have varied with
the years and during this thirty years
OF protection the friends of the policy
have been called upon to defend it
from some new vagary by which the
democrats proposed to effect their.
world conquest. In 1876 r. J. Walker
proposed free trade for our agricultu-
raj products claiming it would effect
this end. Instead our exports of bread
stuffs fell off from $6S,00O,0 in 1S47
to $21,000,000 in 1851 and the loss was
greater the following year.
Next, the democrats put up the cry
of give up free raw materials and we
will take the worlds markets How
ever they have never been able to give
clear definition as to what they mean
by free raw materials" The fallacy
of this proposition has ofen been
shown. In the eighties cotton was
free raw material, yet in 1889 our ex-
ports in manufactured cotton goods
in yards. 42,331,OS less than in 1883
and in value s2,7O6,3S3 less. In 1889
our manufactured goods in this line
amounted to S2500OO.O0O, fully equal
to the output of the English factories.
For many years when raw material
was imported to be manufactured and
again exported, 80 per cent of the i'm
port duty was related. this under the
Mckinley law was increased to SO per
cent giving nractical1v frpe ia w ma