The luPEXDixx; Crisis. PROTECTION MUST BE MfllNTfilNED, OR PfiST BITTER EXPERIENCES OF DEPRESSION WILL BE REPEATED. TWO PICTURES: PROSPERITY UNDER PROTECTION, AND STAGNATION IN THE EREE-7RADE~DAyS. THE DUTY OF THE GOVERNMENT IN REGARD TO THE INDUSTRIES OF THE PEOPLE. 1>IITLADELPHTA; HENRY CAREY BAIRD & CO.. INDCSTRIAL PI BLISIIERS, BOOK.SEU.ERS AM) l.MPORTERS. 510 Walnut S t r k-e t. 1887. prefatory note. T -IT • ori Ki.' f»Tavitv of the crisis with which our in- P’'dL”rt'‘and o^Szation are threatened by the lukewarm friends, 1 dustnes ana ^^ese industries, which are the basis T rr r» u® ^ »“■"• -r- r;"■« master of our Tariff History, David H. Mason, of Chicago. , • , 7u as we had, in a measure, recovered from the prostration and rum of V sto the iireteiided friends of Protection in Congress made haste to :e].me du « " ^ and give us the Tariff of March 3d. .883, with he r«ult that we hale had four more years of prostration and rum, culmi. mttil' in widespread discontent of the bone and sinew, the laboring masses, “the land. Once more to reduce the tariff will be once more to produce ruin and disaster and invite discontent and disorder. - irVe are ever to have peace—which has been denied us for now more than a quarter of a century—it is about time we began. To reduce duties on im¬ ports and again prostrate our industries is to deprive us of that true peace which can alone rest on the basis of such prosperity as w'ill enable each and every laborer to dispose of his labor power on the instant of its production; for such power is the most perishable of all commodities, and is lost for ever if not at once utilized. The Tariff of March 3d, 1883, has already deprived American labor of remuneration to an amount equal to thousauds of millions of dollars. To promise to the laborer cheap products at the cost, to him, of the market for his own labor, is a mockery and an outrage, which he will resent, and that, too, in a manner which politicians will not fail to under¬ stand. Will these politicians then take warning, ere for their own thrift it be too late? If so, let them ponder well the truths herewith so well and so forcibly presented for their instruction and guidance. HENRY CAREY BAIRD, Rome, Ihma', fanuary 25///, 1887. ev V THE IMPENDING CRISIS. To the Editor of the Ixter-Oceax ; In 1877, I began to warn the country to exnert extraordinary crisis in our tariff systera-a crisis^ greater thsn"^'”''' one in our liistory as a nation—greater because iff ihT ' f"’’ iiiniiences concurring to bring it^bout and because of indilstriai development to be\ffec,ed disa,,fr,;isrb; Now that crisis is alarmingly near, even ar nnr Ar. ve the signs of the times cai/diLrn its ra^id aplach plications and dangers which it threatens are agitating mid , ' r'^ law-makers at Washington. ^ pnzzlmg our THE DUTY OF THE HOUR. How best to prevent the accumulation nf cnmi.rc Treasury is the problem which presses for solutimi. Eve™ m"r‘ot of‘wh"'!' ever Jiarty and e.specia!ly every Republican (because thf RennWi,’.. ^ IS distinctly committed, in its platforms and in d^e laws to ? principle), should at once take his stand, unmistakablresolutely Santis against any and every attempt to reduce or to repeal anv dm which has in it any protective force Let not t ^ imports be surrendered in Vny directio^Trieithe^^T aw “ eSf ' products-neither of wool nor of sugar iTie cr,^fr, any more weakening of tariff protection. Comrressmen who'vnte . Ot(>l > -|l inirort tlllt:c» - i lt ari r :nt)f t.n 111, ^ 1. , will virtually vote for afinancial crash and a period of excessilely hard tim” These results are ascertain to follow as night is to follow the setting sun PROTECTION IS GOVERN.MENt’s SOLE FUNCTION. .Although God has constituted man a social being, so that the race is everywhere and always found in communities, yet maids nature is such d,at his feelings which centre upon himself are very much stronger than his svnw pathies which go out toirard Ins fellow-creatures. In odier words “he feels more intensely what afets him directly than what affects him indirect y through others. In all the elements of reality and importance his own pains, troubles, desires, plans, appear to his mind far superior to those o other people Consequently, every person has a higher regard for what he conceives to be his own safety, or his own welfare, or his own happiness, than he has for the safety, welfare, or happiness of others; and, when these come in opposition, is ready to sacrifice the interests of others to his own Om of this constitution of man’s nature arises in society a univers.al tendency to strife between individuals, leading, unless prevented, to wrongs, oppres¬ sions, and crimes of every sort. Restraint thus becomes indispensable for the preservation and for the advancement of society. That restraint in¬ variably takes the form of government, which is found, of some description wherever there is a community, either civilized, barbarous, or savage. THE SOLE PURPOSE SO'^ernment is, therefore, for protection. “Will anybody den) It. hat use, then, in having a government? It is scarcelv possible to conceive of any other use. All the functions of government, legislative, judicial, executive and whatever, in all their branches and acts, resolve them- 3 sc’lves into this-to protect the persons and rights of the people. What else L a government to do? For a government to .l.sclann pro eel,on ,s monstrous. And it is not only the duty of government to protect the people in their persons and rights relative to one another but in al their rights as a body politic relative to other bodies politic—that Is, relatne to other States and nations. No one will tiispute this axiom, or die comprehensive coiistriKtion put upon it. Protection is the apiiropriate function of govern¬ ment. It has no other. Any other is a usurpation. •\ necessary deduction from these premises is that the people have a nglit to demand protection from their government ; for that is simply a demand that the government shall perform its obligation to the political community whose safety, welfare, and happiness it was organized to serve, particularly in the case of the United States, from the fact that, after a very bitter and dangerous experience with the disasters of the free-trade system, the present Union was formed, under the jiresent Constitution, principally for the purpose of enabling Congress to protect home industry by duties on im- ])orts and by navigation law's. Since this jiower is jirohibited to the States, it must have been conferred upon the General Government with the view of being EFKlClF.N'Ii.V AND WISEI.Y ADMINISTERED so long as the Constitution should last. I'liis inherent and manifest pur¬ pose, w'hich necessarily implies obligation on the ]>art of Congress, w'ould be assailed and vancpiished by allowing the iiower to slumber in lethargy, or to ’ 103,000 in 1816, prostrating the establishments set up during hostilities. Moreover, a popular clamor arose, like that nowadays, for a reduction of war taxes. 'Phe doubled duties were reduced in the tariff of 1816. England, freed by the result at Waterloo from the entanglements and pres¬ sure of many consecutive years of war with France and Bonaparte, was ■ y i lLlilLi l IB mm l iw from bis place in Parliament, told his countrymen that it was well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures in the United States \yhich the war hid forced into existence, contrary to the natural order of things. I hat nolicv was remorselessly pursued toward this country, with crushing effects. The nine years which followed the peace covered a period of increasing stagnation and gloom. Labor and production were without a market; coin so disappeared from circulation that it could not be found in the pockets of the people ; and the general depression showed itself in the public counte¬ nance Relief was sought and found in the protective tariff of 1824, made more efficient by the tariff of 1828. While these TWO MEASURES WERE IN FORCE, the country enjoyed unparalleled prosperity. Employment was plenty, with wages high. Capital went rapidly into manufactures. Money became abnndanu In 1834, the government had paid the debts of two wars, owed nothing, and had full coffers. Meantime, to smooth over the nulhfica ion controversy, the compromise act had been passed in 1833, Tan r 1834, and providing for a periodic reduction of the taiiF until June 70 1842, after which no duty was to exceed 20 per cent. All protective nfliience ceased within two years. In 1837, a financial tumb ed ^ try and trade into ruins. Distress was universal, and matters went from bad to worse. Before the compromise reached its close, the Na lonal Treas¬ ury was empty ; the government was deeply involved in debt; the ^ of $12,000 000 coiihl not be borrowed at home or abroad ; and the Ire 1- dent, unable to draw his salary, had to obtain money by resorting to he Washington brokers. The people demanded a return to defensive duties, 6 and the protective tariff of 1842 was the result. Business revived under it L bv miic. An immediate development of manufactures was commenced. Labor, skilled and unskilled, came into general demand. money soon was abundant. Government-and people were quickly extricated from their embarrassments. Prosperity reigned all over the land. 'I'hen came a retrograde step-the act of 1846 ^vhich was “ a tariff for revenue with incKlental jirotection, as its projectors termed it-a measure in which every duty was an ad valorem. Manufacturing industry at once began to decline, but a succession of extra¬ ordinary events-failing crops in Western Europe, the discovery of gold in California, the demand upon us created by the war with Mexico, and by the Crimean war—for a time mitigated the evil effects of the ncvv tariff By iSco however, our iron and coal industries were a wreck. We barely p- caid a financial revulsion in 1854—the year of the reciprocity treaty with Canada on free-trade principles. Another heavy reduction of the tariff took place in 1857. Soon after, in the same year, a monetary panic precipitated veneral ruin upon the country- Hard times continued until the rebellion. During the last days of Buchanan’s administration, the Morrill bill, protec¬ tive in aim, was placed on the statute-book. The system thus begun was made stronger and stronger for eight or nine years. Never before did we have such an immense development of resources, production, employment, wages, prosperity, comfort, and national vigor. In 1870, the FREE-TRADERS GAINED SOME CONCESSIONS in the tariff of that year; in 1S72, they secured heavy reductions in a wide range of duties. In 1873, as a consequence of this destructive legislation which h ad pnnrmous imDortatioiis.. a- finnnrinl collapse precipitated business into sudden ruin. Six years of increasing haii* times followed. In the spring of 1875, the concessions to free-trade princi¬ ples were nearly all withdrawn by the restoration of the 10 per cent, reduc¬ tions in 1872, and some new elements of protection were added ; but pros¬ perity did not return until 1880, for it is much easier to tear down than it is to build up. Besides, the recuperative legislation in 1875 tlkl not amount to as much protection as there was before tariff reduction in 1S72, because the decline of the gold i)remium was ping on, and every fall in it was equivalent to a decrease of import duties, and because the great drop in wages and prices throughout Euro])e was tantamount to a further decrease of our duties. Then, in compliance with a clamor for a revision of the tariff Congress once more tried the experiment of lowering the standard of pro¬ tection; that, too, when the falling price of silver was energizing COMPETITION FROM INDIA in cotton and wheat. Since then, sinking wages and prices in Europe have operated with the force of an additional reduction of the duties in the tariff . ^fotection has not been diminished enough to preciiiitate a panic yet sufficient to jiroduce a sort of dry-rot hard times, fierce discontent cul- minating in strikes and lockouts, and the promi.se of deejier complications Ihus does a century of experience demonstrate the fact that every time the country moves toward the practice of free-trade doctrines, and in exact jiroportion to the movement in that direction, there is an infliction of hard imes; but that every time the country moves toward the jiractice of pro¬ tective principles, and precisely to the extent the.se are applied, there is a mnpH ^ extensive and unvarying experience, trumpet- toned in the empha.sis of its Ie.ssons, almost irrepressibly suggests that the 7 I hard times may be turned into prosperity, and the threatened surplus of revenue prevented by a single act of legislation—that is, by advancing the tariff rates on foreign merchandise until every branch of home industry has the fullest jirotection, and the income from customs is reduced to tlie required sum through the shrinkage of imports. Such a measure, including among its provisions tin plate, iron cotton-ties, steel wire-rods, and other neglected manufactures, which greatly need to be revived, would, within ninety days of its ])assage, jrlace general business on the high road toward jrrosperity, quell the spirit of discontent, and cause the future to glow with bright prom¬ ises. The people always hold THE PARTY IN POWER RESPONSIBLE for hard times. Between the administration of Martin Van Biiren and the administration of Abraham Lincoln, the Democratic party was thrice hurled from power by the votes of the people, and, in each case, after the ruinous effects of an anti-protective tariff, enacted by Democratic majorities in Con¬ gress, and approved by a Democratic President, had been rendered manifest by time. The election of Harrison, in 1840, was an uprising of the American masses against the intolerable distres.ses caused by “the tariff for revenue only,” which culminated in the panic of 1837, and the frightfully hard times afterward. In that Presidential campaign the tariff was a distinct and prom¬ inent issue. In 1848, or about two years after the free traders’ ad valorem tariff of 1846 had gone into operation, Taylor was elected over Cass. Other issues besides protection were pushed to the front in that Presidential year, yet the successful candidate was represented as a sound exponent of Whig principles, of which the tariff was one. Lincoln, when first elected Presi¬ dent, stood upon a protective-tariff plank drawn by the greatest of all the defenders of protection, Henry C. Carey. The people in i860 did not fail ai tkff tiw jX i r ty w.bjd} J^ad ENACTED THE DESTRUCTIVE TARIFF of 1857 and plunged the country into the vortex of monetary and industrial disaster. Even as recently as last fall, the voting masses rebuked with great severity some Democratic leaders who had made themselves dangerously pre-eminent in trying to force legislation into that course which leads straight on to panic, ruin, and hard times. The Republican party has been in the same condemnation. That party had the Presidency and large majorities in both branches of Congress until it fell from grace on the tariff question, and the fruits of its lapse had become fully manifest. Less than fourteen months after the famous ten per cent, reduction of a wide range of duties had gone into effect, the panic of 1873 came like a clap of thunder. At the Congressional elections in 1874, the people rebuked the Republicans for placing the country on the road to in¬ dustrial ruin, in response to a false popular clamor for the reduction of war taxes. The House of Representatives, in which tariff bills must originate, was turned over to the Democracy, with a large majority, and was continued in their possession, though with lessened majorities, until the P'orty-seventh Congress, while the Republican majority in the Senate was CUT DOWN TO LESS THAN HALF, and put in course of entire extinguishment. In 1876, the voting masses had abated so little in their resentment that the Republicans retained the Presi¬ dency by only one electoral vote, amid much friction and serious danger. By 1880 prosperity had returned, because enough of protection had been restored in 1875 to slowly overcome adverse circumstances. Toward the close of the Presidential campaign in 1880, the Republican leaders boldly 8 and persistently presented the tariff issue, which the Democrats evaded, shirked, or ignored. 'I'he Republican attitude found a cordial response from the peoi>le, who gave Garfield a majority of fifty-nine electoral votes, replaced the House of Representatives in the hands of the Republican party, and about wiped out the Democratic ascendency in the Senate. At the close of the Forty-seventh Congress, the Republicans, misled by a clamor for a revision of the tariff, passed the act of March 3d, 1883, by which protection was re¬ duced below the needs of the country, followed by slowly increasing stagna¬ tion, paralysis, and bankruptcy, with universal discontent and industrial disorganization. Promptly the voting masses held the party in power re¬ sponsible FOR THK LO.SS OF FROSPHRITY. Even although Mr. Rlaine had urgently opim.scd the tariff legislation in 1883, and although he advocated protection w'ith signal ability and with grand persistence, everywhere placing that issue in the forefront in his nu¬ merous .short .speeches in the Presidential campaign of 1884, he could not cpiite overcome the distrust of the peo])le, lest the professions of that year might turn out to be no more reliable than the professions of 1880 ; hence was beaten in a way that was scarcely more than just enough to be called defeat; but the House of Representatives was given again into the keejnng of the Democracy, with a heavy majority, evidently for the purpose of allow¬ ing them another trial. As the confidence then repo.scd was grossly violated by attempts to enact a wholesale reduction of the tariff, and by other meas¬ ures of an allied kind, calculated to precipitate a vast amount of public dis¬ tress, bankruptcy and ruin, the people, at the last foil’s elections, administered a rebuke to the marplots, part of which rebuke consisted in reducing the Democratic majority in the next Plouse of Representatives to little more than a nominal ascendency. Thu s is it very ijlain that the voting masses hold the party in j)owcr to a very strict accountability for the existence of hard times, and for neglect to pass such laws as wdll create a betterment. WH.Vr MUST NOT 15 F. DONE. All evidences point to the fact that the majority voice of ]>opular’ojdnion is hostile to any legislation which would diminish the protective force of the tariff. What the people want is more jirotection, not less—more defence against foreign competition, not less. There are various ways by which a surplus of revenue may be prevented, but the one plan which the i)eople will not tolerate, because it surely involves wider depression, greater em¬ barrassment, larger distress, is a reduction of imjxirt duties. The dangers from suriilus revenue are as nothing compared with the dangers from le.s- sened protection in the tariff. Enough protection is not there even now% Unless duties can be advanced to the point of decreasing revenue, the tariff should not be touched. Is the appeal to patriots? Then who among them would be such a traitor as to aid in placing his country on the road to in¬ dustrial ruin ? Is the appeal to partisans? Then who among them would fovor any measure destined to wreck the prospects of his ])arty and to drive it in humiliation from jiowor? Is the apj^eal to ambitious lovers of self? Then who among them would wish to vote himself into condemnation by his constituents, destroy his chances of re-election, and insure his retirement to the obscurity of private life? Be sure of this—that the rights of the peo¬ ple to be protected in their industries and in their employments, no less than in their persons and their lives, cannot be either ignored or assaulted with¬ out meeting with punishment, sooner or later, at tlie ballot-box. David H. Mason. Chicago, December ijth, 1886.