Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1889 — WEARY OF THE TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

WEARY OF THE TARIFF.

NEW ENGLAND IS READY FOR REVENUE REFORM. Protected Manufacturers of Iron, Glass, and Dumber Assert that They Will Be Driven from the Field Unless There Are Radical Changes. [Washington special.] Senator Butler, of South Carolina, a member of the select committee of the Senate on the trade and commercial relations of the United States and Canada, is very hopeful concerning the growth of tariff reform in New England. He says the disclosures made by the witnesses before the committee at its recent session in Boston in regard to the condition of the iron and glass manufacturers and some other lines of business in New England were surprising and instructive. Every witness advocated free trade with Canada as indispensable to the prosperity of those manufactures in New England. Some witnesses went so far as to say that without free coal and iron ore and a greatly reduced rate of duty on pig iron the iron manufactures «f New England must perish; that the competition of Pennsylvania,Maryland and the South, where the factories were located near the raw material, was ruinous, and this was true of the glass factories also. A large majority of the witnesses urged the removal of the duty on lumber in the interest of New England trade, and most of them thought cotton manufacturers could hold their own against Southern competition in the finer goods, but appeared to concede that in the coarser fabrics the South had very largely the advantage. Some said that with a sharp reduction in the duty on cotton goods the South could continue manufacturing and make money, while the New England mills would have to stop. When asked if tariff Reform is making perceptible progress in New England, the Senator replied: “I have no doubt that is. Many of the witfltesses, however, declared themselves protectionists in everything except those articles that would help New England. As to these they were free-traders. As to relations with Canada, some favored annexation, others preferred commercial union, and others, again, wanted a reciprocity treaty. You see, free coal and free iron ore and a reduced duty on pig iron would enable the New England manufacturer to get coal and iron ore from the maritime provinces and pig iron from England and Scotland. There is where the shoe pinches closest and they clamor for free trade in these articles and protection in everything else. Of course Ido not include tariff reformers who want a fair and equitable readjustment all along the line. The most curious part about this whole business is that the statement was made before our committee that so disastrous has been the Pennsylvania and Southern competition in the iron industries that those that were left had been sustained by the degradation of American labor; that there had been a mere change of masters from England to Pennsylvania. This was a most astonishing admission, especially from that quarter. “Testimony was taken on the fishery question, and incidentally on the transportation problem. One most intelligent witness spoke earnestly in favor of free fish for the workingmen in the boot and shoe factories and for free potatoes. The potato bug has ruined their Irish potato crop, and consequently they wanted free Canada potatoes, and the master builder wanted free lumber, and so they went. Read that testimony when it is printed. It is instructive, interesting, suggestive, some of it bordering on the ‘cheeky,’ other parts on the frontier of despair —all instructive. You have heard of wanting to see how the cat will jump. Watch that tariff cat in New England. He is going to give trouble.”