The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-01-14
THE TARIFF;
ITS HISTORY

Washington, Jan. 14-While endea-
voring to reach a decision on tariff e
vision%-E is. being pointed out the
Ways and Means committee of Con
gre might with profit consider the
conditions under w~nich~our forefather
statesmen were led to impose the
first high tariffs.
Before the Civil war the tariff sys-
tenn lac been devised to raise rev
nue. principally, the protection of do
nestle industries from foreign compe-
being only a secondary issue.
place a temporary a on foreign
Igoods," had been the plea of the man
~ufactors, simply to enable us to get
our factories up and business going.
Once we are on our feet o may take
away the tariff. We will hen be able
to face the world on even terms"
So the acts of 1924, 1928 and 1892,
were passed to give American con.
Germs a chance to get ON their feet.
When the Civil War broke out tariff
was relied on solely to raise revenue.
The governments expenses ran up
to $4,000, 900 a day, and it was found
xpedient to take everything and ev.
erybody. Conditions so far as taxa.
ton was concerned were very similar
to those OF the days of tax-ridden
England after the Napoleonic vars,
when there were taxes upon every
article which enters the mouth, or
covers the back, Or is placed under
the foot, taxes upon everything which
it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell
Or taste; taxes upon warmth, light and
locomotion; taxes on everything that
comes from abroad, or is grown at
home"
nonoY1cn IF tho fo~AC 1nUtod dllrInO
the war the manufactures of our coun
try were in rea1 danger Of being exter-
minated. To save them from disas-
ter Congress placed a high tariff on
imported manufactured products, prac
tically giving the American manufac-
tor a monopoly Of the home market.
These protective tariffs we're consid-
cred by everyone, including the man
u~factors, to be merely temporary.
Tariff was understood to be purely
wartime legislation-an unusual meas
ure to meet IN unusual emergency.
Immediately at the close of the war
tax after tax was repealed, the gov
ernment's heavy expenses having di-
minished and the wartime tax not De
ing necessary. Logically, the tariffs
tItdt hdu DCCA dhSOo ~ ChobiC liz
manufactors to stand these taxes
should have been also lifted.
But the manufactors objected. By
this time they had become very pow
erful. From poor, struggling concerns
at the outset of the war, they had ac-
cumulated great wealth. 1t was I'M
der the high protection tariffs of the
war times the oil trust, the sugar
trust and other monopolies hat are
still in existence, were born.
by no means raise the tariffs"
urged the special interests. Free
trade means ruin"
The trusts had already become
strong factors in politics, and so the
hen that laid the golden eggs was not
killed.
Every now and then, however, some
statesman with a personal conviction
the tariff system as it remained was
not fair to the consumer, urged a re
vision. Gen Garfield, republican, in
a speech on July 49, 1868 said There
must be a rational and considerable
ooJuoCAACht vi lhO Idilh.
Grant, in a message to Congress, in
1874, declared 'those ar
ticles which enter into our manufac.
lures, and are not produced at home
should be entered free.
Cleveland devoted an entire mes.
sage to tariff revision. The keenest
grief in his life was that he was pre-
vented, by political chicannery, from
revising the tariff in accordance with
the views of his heart.
Briefly, MIR. Cleveland wanted the
duties reduced on the necessaries OF
life. He favored a tariff measure that
give to American manufactures
free raw material, which he believed
would enable them to produce as
as the foreigner and thus en-
large the market for American made
goods.
Calm and Unconditional as he vas,
Gleveland's pulse must have beat
quickly when Mr.. Wilson, chairman of
the committee on ways and means,
introduced the now famous Wilson
bill. Hal the Wilson bill been made
a law as introduced, Mr.. C~leveland's