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war, and have not taken the first step since the war closed to recover it. Now, pray, what had the protective tariff to do with it? How could it affect it other than by reducing our exports and imports? But it has not reduced them. They have been surely and steadily increasing from $687,192,254 in 1860, until last year they reached the enormous sum of $1,613,770,633.

No, Mr. Senator, not protection, but war did the mischief; folly and cowardice have prevented all reparation. In the earlier days of the Republic, when England undertook to weaken our growing power on the seas, to defend it we declared war, expended $150,000,000 and thousands of precious lives; in the latter, when the same England, taking advantage of our distracted country, wickedly and selfishly succeeded in accomplishing what she ignobly failed in before, we allowed her to triumph, lest the representatives of the people should, forsooth, be taunted with voting for subsidies. But, sir, a discussion of the question of the restoration of our "swelled tonnage" of the past is hardly legitimate to the measure now under consideration, and I refrain, simply asserting that Senator Beck's method of restoration is utterly delusive; that free trade in ships, the repeal of our navigation laws, could not possibly have any result other than the immediate closing of every ship-yard in the country, the entering into other trades of all of our skilled workmen, the placing of our country at the mercy of England in event of war, and the complete surrender of our coastwise trade.

Mr. President, I have endeavored to show that the doctrine of free-trade sprang from a selfish and unworthy purpose; that while marvelous changes have been wrought in our country, slavery abolished, labor elevated, industries devel oped and multiplied, the Democratic party still adheres to the dangerous heresy; that free trade is antagonistic to our institutions and to our civilization; that its adoption would

necessarily degrade our workmen, reduce their wages, and have a tendency to unfit them for American citizenship; that protection has invariably brought us prosperity, increased wages, decreased cost of manufactures, and furnished a ready market for our farmers; that the best interests of all our people will be secured by a continuance of this the Republican policy. But, sir, I recognize as an important ⚫factor in this that our tariff laws must be harmonious, just, and equitable, and that the existing law does not in all respects answer this demand. Since the distinguished Senator from Vermont [Mr. Morrill] gave it to the country, so-called amendments have been made to it from time to time, some healthy, some unhealthy. The condition of business, the requirements of trade, the necessities of the people have changed; the rulings of the Treasury Department have modified its terms; there are excrescences that ought to be removed, rates too high that should be reduced, and in some instances too low, requiring raising; some articles now free should be taxed, and many now taxed should be made free. What is the best method of procedure? I have taken part in the House of Representatives in two revisions of the tariff, and in the Committee of Ways and Means in one attempted. This experience determines me in favor of the pending bill providing for a commission.

Mr. President, I thank the Senate for its indulgence.

CHAPTER XXIII

NECESSITY AND BENEFITS OF THE SPEEDY REDUCTION OF TARIFF TAXATION.*

BY HON. D. A. WELLS.

I

DO not propose to occupy any time this evening in discussing the tariff from the standpoint of theory, or abstract principles. Protectionists are never weary of asserting that only theorists, book-worms, college professors, and persons corrupted by British gold and foreign influences advocate free trade for the United States; that it is not practical, or, as that eminent statesman, Warner Miller, when taking the chair of a Protectionist Convention some time since, expressed it when he said: "We plant ourselves on protection as a matter of fact. The professors tell us that free trade is perfect in theory, but it can't be applied to us. It would not correspond with the facts." And this idea, sedulously inculcated and reiterated for many years, has undoubtedly taken deep root in the minds of our people and formed the basis of a prejudice, which more than almost any other one agency has hitherto contributed to oppose the growth of liberal commercial sentiments in this country. But be that as it may, the time has now fully come when the friends of free or freer trade in this country may boldly and profitably challenge and meet the Protectionists on their own ground, and discarding for the time being all reference to

*This speech of the Hon. D. A. Wells was delivered in the Cooper Institute, New York city, Nov. 22, 1883.

political economy and philosophical theories, discuss before the American people the question of the tariff and its reform from the exclusive standpoint of our experience and the actual and prospective industrial and financial condition and necessities of the country.

And first in the order of such experience is the fact, which even those who take but the smallest interest in this subject are beginning to recognize, that owing to our great natural resources, our rapidly increasing population, the increased use and power of machinery, and the energy of our people, the power of domestic production continually tends to be, and in most departments of industry is, far in excess of the power of domestic consumption. In the case of agriculture the fact is so obvious that no confirmatory evidence is necessary; but, if any is needed, it is all sufficient to call attention to the enormous surplus of food and cotton which which we now export to other countries, and to the circumstance that these exports during the last ten years have increased out of all proportion to any increase of home population. And in respect to our so-called manufacturing industries, it is only necessary to refer to the general complaint that business, though large (as it necessarily must be to supply the needs of a nation of 56,000,000) is, through excessive competition, conducted with little profit; that a very large percentage of that small part of our manufactures which can be subjected to foreign competition and which have been stimulated by high protection has either suspended wholly-like many of the iron furnaces and rolling mills, or have in a measure curtailed production without avoiding heavy losses-like those of cotton, wool, and silk; that manufacturers in certain lines of the two last named articles especially, have only been able to dispose of their surplus stocks by forced sales at auction and at prices less than the cost of production; that failures and fires (the latter the inevitable indicator and concomitant of bad times) are

increasing at a rapid and alarming rate; that the wages of manufacturing operatives almost everwhere throughout the country are undergoing extensive and, as the manufacturers claim, necessary reductions, while the purchasing power of wages is not increasing in any equal measure; that the opportunities for employment are conjointly becoming limited; and, finally, that artisans especially imported from foreign countries to work in certain employments (e. g., glass making) in the United States are returning to Europe, with a view of bettering their condition. And lest I be accused of exaggeration in my statements, I would here ask attention to the following letter, written under date of Sept. 24 to the New York Tribune, by Andrew Carnegie, the well known iron maker of Pittsburg, in which he says:

"Much as I regret to say it, I believe that matters will grow worse for some months before manufacturing interests can reach a profitable business. A much more decided curtailment of production must take place before there can be any improvement. This will be brought about naturally by the prevalence of such ruinous prices as will compel manufacturers to stop producing goods in advance of the country's needs. But as great loss is entailed by curtailment of production, the works are kept running to their full capacity, although prices have fallen to figures which leave even those manufacturers who have unusually favorable facilities little or no profit, and entail a positive loss upon the average manufacturer. I think the wages paid at the (iron) mills on the seaboard of the United States to-day are about as low as men can be expected to take. In the West, notwithstanding a recent agreement of the men to accept a reduction of thirty. per cent., it now seems probable, from the very unsatisfactory outlook, that they will have to be asked to work for still less."

And since this was written more iron and steel works have suspended operations, and more men have been thrown out of employment, and wages have been still further reduced.

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