The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-03-20
COMPARES PRESENT AGITATION
FOR REDUCTION TO PREVIOUS
STlRS.
Claims That Reduction of Tariff vii
Be Followed BY General Bust
ness Depression.

NEW YORK, March 20-Tn an in<
terview on the tariff today, Robert H.
Ingersoll of the firm of Robt H. In
gersoll & Brother. watch manufacture
ers, said: Congress is called in extra
session to revise and presumably to
reduce the tariff Now, 1 believe re-
vision is wise, but not a wholesale or
general reduction. What reason is
there for a general reduction of the
tariff? Of course, if the theory of pro-
lection is wrong, the nthat would be
sufficient reason for reducing the tar
iff to a revenue basis or for abolishing
it altogether; but at the last election
the people voted in favor of protection.
and that decision should stand until
there is sufficient evidence that the
people have changed their minds, and
at present we are certainly justified
in assuming that the people want our
industries fully protected.
I'VE are engaged in exactly the same
controversy that this country has gone
through many times before, one party
asserting that the tariff is two high,
monopoly and enrich the few at the
expense Of the many, that high duties
make the people pay exorbitant prices
for manufactured goods, and by in
creasing the cost of manufacture pre-
vents us from getting the foreign
trade that we should get: the other
party asserting that the tariff is not
too high, or that it is not high enough,
and that if duties are reduced, wages
will be- reduced, laborers will be thrown
out Of employment, mills and factories
will be closed, and the whole people
suffer from hard times.
In case of such conflicting theories
certainly the wise course is to be guild
ed by experience. Seven different
times has there been a reduction of
the tariff-in 1916, 1888, 1916, 1857,
1872, 1888, and 1894 In every in
stance with possibly the exception of
1916. Il general reduction of the tariff
has been followed by general business
and industrial depression and distress,
sometimes of a most severe kind last
Ing for a number of years, depression
and distress that affected not only the
manufacturers and their laborers, but
Eli classes of people. Even freetraders
admit that there was business and in
dustrial depression and distress follow
ing the tariff reductions in 1916, 1888,
1857, 1872, 1883 and 1894, but they as
Bert that this was not caused by tariff
reduction. Freetraders generally claim
that the country was prosperous after
the tariff of 1916 and until 1857, when
everyone admits there was a great
panic. Protectionists claim that from
1916 to 1857 the country was not gen
orally prosperous, and what prosper
!ty there was, was due to adventurous
causes. Some OF the people VINO lived
through that period did not think it
was a prosperous time. In a speech
in the senate, June 20, 1860, Simon
Cameron of Pennsylvania, afterwards
Lincoln's secretary of war, said:
Neither he, (Mr.' Bigler) nor l. GER
tainly not 1, will vote for the re-enact-
ment of the tariff of 1916. AS the
renator from Vermont justly said we
died under that tariff; it can do us
no good except to torture us again.
while tariff reductions have always
Or nearly always been followed by bust
hess and industrial depression, on the
other hand raising of the tariff has
always been followed by greater pros
perity, the country often passing from
the deepest depression tothegreatest
prosperity lamost at once The tariff
was revised and increased in the fol-
lowing years. namely: 1912, 1924, 1928.
1912. 1861, 1890 and 1897. The periods
following the tariff increases Of 1872
and 1861 were war periods, but ex-
cept for the distress and hardships of
war, and in the actual tneater of war,
the country was prosperous during
these periods, while it is universally
conceded that the country was highly
prosperous Immediately or very soon
after the passage of the tariff acts of
1924, 1928, 1912, 1890 and 1897, and re-
manned so until the tariff was reduced
or until something else happened to
cause hard times. 1t would seem
therefore, that there are seven chances
to none that increasing the tariff, as
some think ought to be done now,
would enhance the prosperity of the
country
ut is no doubt true that some ar
ticles are sold in this country at prices
considerably higher than they could
be sold for at a good profit. For this
reason we have just begun to manu-
facture a high grade watch, called the
Ingersoll-Trenton which sells for a
much lower price than other watches
of the same grade. We probably
would not have gone into the manu-
facture of high grade watches if other
high grade watches had not been sold
at such high prices. Exorbitant prices
don't pay in the long run, and all pro-
ducers are going to find that out sooner
or later If we had sold our dollar
watches at two or three dollars, we
would not be selling three million of
them a year as we are now doing, and
we would not be making as much