Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-02

larS), DuShel. Or course the price never
reached that point, and American w..eat
found no outlet There was a depression
everywhere-worse In Europe even than
in America. The termination of the Ma
poleonic wars had turned lose great
hordes of unemployed, and while there
was no scarcity of foodstuffs, there was
woeful lack of means to purchase
them.
The two most gifted orators of the day
drew rival pictures of the times. Henry
Clay portrayed the country in the throes
of the deepest depression; factories idle;
industries crumbling; men unemployed;
people hungry-these were the familiar
essentials. Daniel Webster drew the an
swering picture. He had not seen in the
situation the things Clay had painted
He saw labor never rewarded with more
certain success; the rewards or eftort
might have been greater, but certainly
they had never been more lasting. On
the whole times were not so bad. Look
ing at the records of the importation or
tea, he found that never was there more
of il brought into the country. And tea
he said, was only a drink of good times.
In this particular he was like Nelson
eW Aldrich, the present chairman OF the
senate finance committee, only Mr. Al
drich takes the apple as his basis. He
keen perception that has made him the
leader of all the leaders of the senate
he saw that when the laboring man ate
apples regularly times were good win
him; while a falling OFF in his demand
for this kind of fruit spelled cores
ponding decrease in income.
The opponents of protection touno
much consolation in the action or the
pnmnanX. WHICH
owned the big cotton mill at Waltham
This mill had survived free trade un-
shaken, and with some improvements IN
machinery it's employees had made II was
able to operate with a profit that showed
an average annual dividend of nearly ~
per cent. 1t did not join in the protection
propaganda. The duty imposed on coarse
cotton goods by the act of 1916 was prac-
tically a duty of so per cent. But the
English discovered that by mixing 10 per
cent of linen in their cotton goods they
could could get them through the custom
houses at the linen rate-15 per cent. Even
this did not deter the Boston company
from remaining satisfied with the olo
conditions.
In making his speech on the iron sched-
ule Daniel Webster preserved 1or future
generations some idea of transportation
Conditions in those days. He said that
the rare on iron from Sweden to Phlla-
delnhia was eight dollars per ton, ana
that eight dollars was required to pay
the freight on a ton of iron for nfty-mhe
haul on land. He therefore concluded thaI
to all intents and purposes Stockholm was
nearer to Philadelphia than New YORK.
so far as shipping rates were concerned
New England rum and Kentucky WHISKY
Joined hands in the protective tarin leg
islation of 1924 The balance-of-trade ar
rument was heard for the first time while
this legislation was being considered, and
also the argument that we must have
high tariff because of the difference in
wages here and abroad. That the bill
was not defeated on its passage to the
third reading on the senate side was
due to the two Tennessee senators, An
drew Jackson and John Henry Eaton. The
final vote in the house was so close thal
sick members were carried into the
chamber on touches in order that their
votes could be counted. In these latter
davs men would pair off under such cir
cumstances, but the legislative pair seems
not to have been invented in 1924.
The act of 1924 apparently gave very
general satisfaction. The press of the
country appears to have acquiesced in It.
Protection was for the second time put
in the saddle, and the country continued
on it's forward march of progress. The
idea at that time seems to have been a
protection that would lead to ultimate
free trade; a protection that would rear
the infant industry and then allow it to
fight out it's own existence. But many
opposed even this sort of protection, TAX
ing the ground that industry, like water,
seeks it's natural level; that to teach in
dustry to lean on the government for
the counterpart of a bounty was to in
duce a spindling like the forest-protected
pine rather than the sturdy, storm-resist-
ing oak that grows in the open and gains
its firm hold In the ground by reason Of
the storms it has to weather.-(Copyright
1909, by Frederic J. Haslxin.)