Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1891 — Tariff Shot. [ARTICLE]

Tariff Shot.

The period from 1846 to 1861 is the one to wh ch the high tariftitesof to-day refer as our “free trade” period. They do this because the tariffs during, this period were revenue tariffs, the operation of which put a 1 producers on a plane of equality and gave special privileges to nono. Tho farmers therefore got the full value for all of their products, while the manufacturers were unable to combin * and could not therefore exact a tariff bonus ftom the tarmors. In speaking of this period. Mr. Blaine says, In his “Twenty Years of Congress:” “The principles embodied in the tariff of 1846 seemed for the time to be so entirely vindicated and approved that resistance to it ceased, not only among the people but among tho protective economists, and even among the manufacturers to a largo extent. So genoral was this acquiscencc that In 1856 a protective tariff was not suggested or even hinted by any one of the three parties which presented Presidential candidates. ”

Tho reason why the people, especially tho farmers, wore satisfied with the tariffs of 1846 and 1857 was because they got tho full value of their products. The reason why thoy are not satisfied now is because they do not get the full value of their corn, wheat, oats and other produce. From 1847 to 1861 tho average price of corn in New York was 69.7 cents per bushel, represented by After our years of high protection tho tho price of corn in New York from 1877 to 1891 averaged 54.1 cents per burhel, or During our revenue period from 1847 to 1861 the price of anthracite pig iron at Philadelphia, according to James M. Swank, of tho Iron and Steel Association, averaged $26.25 por ton, represented by During tho past fifteen years, in spite of great improvements in production, the price of the same quality of pig iron averaged $22.15 per ton at Philadelor Under our revenue tariffs it took 37.6 bushels of corn to buy a ton of pig iron, or this Under high tariffs, however, it has required 40.9 bushels of corn, or nearly 33i bushels more to pay for a ton of pig iron. This comparison is not open to tho charge "tH it there have been great improvements in tho machinery used in raising corn, and none in that used in producing pig iron. On the contrary, tne reverse has been tho case. The truth of this charge of shot is that the corn producers have not been, nor in the very nature of things could thoy be, protected; on the other hand, the tariff on pig iron has kept out foreign competit on and thus enabled the Iron men to combine to keep up prices as high as possible. To this extent high tariffs have affected the corn producer in that it lias required nearly throe and one-half bushels more of corn to buy a ton of pig iron during tho past fifteen years than it did from 1846 to 1861, a period which the high tariftites of today dciisively call our “free trade” period.