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Each number will contain a Special Discussion of some feature of our Tariff. *' Can there he a higher o fence than a deliberate pei'wrtion of Mttoryforapa/rtiaan pur- pose f It is an offence that no man should he permitted to perpetrate, mthout some rebuke, however great his talents or high his position. Indeed, the greater his talents and the higher the position of the man vho commits the offbnce, the greater the offence becomes. For, of the thousands who may see a mis-statement of historical fact, made by such a man, in the most dogmatic manner, feto tnU sttspect, for i moment, that the statement is not only whoUy grountUess but is at utter variance with the truth." MR. BLAINE ON TARIFFS. An Examination of his Article in the ** North American RcTiew." |By J. Q. Smith. ' y piir be )| foil COMPARATIVE PROSPIJIUTY UNDKR VARIOUS TARIFFS. 89 a partisan ,hout some his talents the offence ct made by it the state- ly of in hi« adstone on on o'l prin- 1 and again sction is the elusion that to tl»e pres- tie historical ;ed and en- les over and kBIFPS I 10 the war ago, in his -that of 1789 "protective" lich nttracted asserted that [lad been ex- tariff law of 3U per cent, erity that fol- rouble to tell the direction ties from the and was, as a iriff rates. I e history em- he does say in the eve of the protective war new tariff was ntry had pros- Jut the prayer iriff of 1816." n. Mr. Blaine ve tariff law." easure, not for ag the rate of off. This was 8 was no popu- by the very act iff law of 1816. first of our long rotection. Col. as brought for- •gislation; made \ iBtead of the ob- licy of the tanfc of manufactur- " great additions " In his debate laration. When Mr. Blaine assumes tliiii tin: tmifT of 1816 was not (iistincily a protective tariiT, he does so in totttl (iisregnnl not only of every authority, but of every fact in connection with it. B«twcen 1804 and 1811. inclusive, duties on imported goods averaged 18.49 per cent. Bt'tween 1817 and 1824, inclusive, they averaged 27.67 per cent. Tiiesc flgtires show thai the Tariff Act of 1816 WHS an Increase of duties of about 50 per cent, ovir tiiose that Imd obtiiinetl from the organization of the Government. And we have the positive te>iitn«>My of Col. Benton, Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster that the increase was miule, not to secure an increase of revenue, but for the sake of protection. Another mistake that Mr. Blaine makes in the extrnct quoted is that the country was prosperous under the war duties, dcspke the exliaustinu: effect of the struggle with Great Britain. Tiie country was not prosperous. Its business was almost paralyzed. Our exports were reduced from $45,000,000 in 1811 to less than |7,000,000 in 1814. Our shipping was almost driven from the ocean. There was scarcely any market for our surplus produce at any price. Prices of manufactured goods rnii to enormous figures. The great interest of the country was agriculture, and its condition was de- plorahle. BtU we «lid have a high tariff for about two years and a half, and Mr. Blaine's theory requires him to find that under It, In despite of the war, the country was pros- porous. The facts are all against him, tremendously against him; but lie docs not falter or hesitate in asserting that the false is true. After assuming that duties were reduced by the tariff of 1816, Mr. Blaine goes on to s;>y: "The people were soon reduced to great distress, to as great di.stresa as in that melancholy period between the close of the Revolutionary war and the organization of the national Government — 1783 to 1789. Col. Benton's vivid description of tiie period of depression following the reduction of duties comnri.ses in a few 11 es a whole chapter of the history of free trade In the United States: * No price for prr»perty; no sales except those of the sheriff and marshal; no purchasers at execution sales, except the creditor or some hoarder of money; no employment for industry; no demand for labor; no sale of tiie products of the farm; no sound of the l)ainmcr except that of the auctioneer knocking down property. Distress was the universal crv of the people; relief, the uni- versal demand.'" This was the terrible condition of the country in 1819-1820 as described, no dotibt truly, by Col. Benton; and which Mr. Blaine assures us comprise*- "a whole chapter of the history of free trade in the United States." This is a grave- accusation, and should be carefully examined. If the condition of the country, as Col. Benton describes i», was actually brought about, as Mr. Blaine seeks to make us believe, by a tariff reduction in 1816, and, further, if no other cause can be found, it must be conceded that Mr. Blaine has made a strong point in favor of a !ngh tariff seventy four ye.irs ago. But even If that were true, there might still remain a question (under Mr. Blaine's theory that the .suitability of a hilc articles Id the New York market for each year from 1825 to 1880. Ad cxaniiuatiou of thcne tables will show Mr. Ulaiiie that for each of the 3'ear8 1843, 1844 and 1845, the average prkes of wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, cotton, pork, L'.'ef. butter, cheese, Ininis, lard, uud tobacco were all far below the mean average prices of the same articles for the flfty-tive years emnruced in tlie tablen. The price of cotton during those three Years did not at an^' time rise to half the average price that obtained between 1825 and 1830. Tobacco did not in either o! those years reach 60 per cent, of the average price. It was not until 184*" that corn, wheat, oats, butter, cheese, beef, or pork reached us high as 80 p'.r cent, of tlie average price of all these years. If Mr. Blaine will explain how the people, then more largely agririiltiiral than now, start- ing with a vast mass of private indebtedness, contracted in a highly inflated period, and compelled to sell their products lower than at any time for twenty years liefore or forty years after, could be restored to " prosperity wide and general at once," by the passage of a law that enabled a few hundred or thousand manufacturers to demand and obtain liigher prices for their products from the people, it will be an evidence of intellectual power tliat even he has not been supported to possess. The truth is, the recuperntion in business came about in a way almost identical with that which took place after the calamitous times of 1819-1820. The worthless paper money passed out of existence. Sounder banking institutions were established, which provided a better currency. Specie began to flow in; our net importations in 1848 amounted to $21,000,000: in 1847 to $22,000,000. The hard times induced the strictest economy. Debts were slowly liquidated or compromised. Gradually prices began to rise, and by thrift and economy, industry and enterprise, and bountiful harvests, the clouds that lowered all arouucl us with so much gloom were slowly dispelled. Mr. Blaine supposes that " plenty and prosperity followed the enactment of the protective tarif! us if by magic." And this is the man who assumes to instruct his countrymen on tb''> problems of tlieir flnancial history! The inference from all this is tljut Mr. Blaine must believe that if we should have another wild period of puper-money inflation and reckless speculation, followed by gen- eral disaster and univereiul break up. there is no possiiile relief except by waving again the "magic" wand of protection, and doubling tariff taxes, however high they may be to start with. THE "rilBB TRADE TABIPFS" OF 1846 AND 1867. In 1846 the tariff was reduced to a revenue basis. It was in force, with little if any change, until 1857. Mr. Blaine cannot deny that throughout all these years the country enjoyed the highest degree of prosperity. But he seeks in extraneous causes the secret of this prospo'iiy. (In case a calamity comes under a low tariff, he can And no other cause for it. though there be a thousand as glaring as tiie sun at noonday.) The flrst reason he alleges as the cause of the general prosperity is the Mexican war. He claims that the taking of a hundred or a hundred and flfty thousand men from the productive labors of peaceful life to send them to Mexico to carry on the war, at the expense of a great sum of money, was a source of prosperity that " reached all localities and affected all interests." I am not going to dispute with Mr. Blaine about this. I suppose he is the only man in the world who does not believe it is utter folly. I suppose there is no other man who does not know that war, always and everywhere, retards the growth of wealth. It would be just as sensible to assert that the huuian system is strengthened and made more vigorous by a fever. Mr. Blaine next names the Irish famine as one of the reasons of prosperity. This occurred in 1847, and did unquestionably add somewhat, for a year or two, to the price of breadstuffs. But it made no demand for additional cotton or tobacco It made no call on us for manufuctured goods. As an influence affecting our prosperity through a long period of time, it was not important. Mr. Blaine next mentions the discovery of gold in California as one of the causes that added to our prosperity. Granted. Between 1846 and 1860 the production of gold and silver in this country was a little le.ss than $650,000,000. When Mr. Blaine comes to con- sider the growth of wealth in this country since 1860. he does not appear to see that a production of the precious metals of nearly $1,800,000,000 between 1860 and 1880 had any influence in producing results that he vaunts so much. He is quite as careful also to leave out of any estimate of the increase of wealth since I860 the enormous addition to that wealth caused by the production of petroleum. When hunting for excuses for our prosper»4y under a low tariff, he can see and magnify every advantageous influence. When considering the increiisc of wealth under a high tariff, he shuts his eyes to every, thing else and cries, " Behold what protection has done!" Mr. Blaine next, and last, alleges as one of the causes of the prosperity of this copn. try between 1840 and 1857 cue Crimean war. He says: "The export of manufactures from England and France was checked; the breadstuffs of Russia were blockaded and could not reach the markets of the world. An extraordinary stimulus was given to all J COMl'AnATfVE PROSPKRITY UNDER VARIOUS TARIFFS. 48 if any uatry secret other first aims clive of a ected be is is no ih of ,beued 8 coitu- actures ed and to all forms of trade in the United States." If Mr. Hlaiuc means in the first clause of this statement tliat tiie exi>ort of English and French manufactured ^oods to the United States was checked, I ciiullcnge the truth of the statement. The allied forces landed in the Crimea in September, 18M. They retired in July, 1856. Our imported dutiable goods, largely manuTacturcs from England and France, amounted in 1851 to $310,000,- 000; ill 1862 to $207,000,000: in 1858 to $208,000,000. These were tlie three years Itctore the war. In 1854 they amouuted to $297,000,000; in 1855 to $257,000,000; in 1856 to $810,000,000. Tliese were the three years «)f the war. These figuies show that we im- ported during the three years of the war $180,000,000 more of dutiable goods than we did in the precediug three years. It cannot be claimed that there was such iin arrent in the importation of goods as to cause an increase of price in those manufactured liere. The imnortatitm kept down the price of home made goods to the low point of protection affordeu b}' the tariflf. Like the Irish famine, the sole direct effect of the war was to en- hance somewliat for two or three years the prices of our breadstuffs. But Mr. IJIaine says that "an extraordinary stimulus was given to all forms of trade in the United States." Manufacturing, I take it, is a brancTi of "trade." If the fact l)e, as Mr. HIaine states it, that an extraordinary stimulus was given to manufacturing, under the very low tariff then in force, the explanation of it is to be foind in tlie fact that the manufactu''. ing interest partook fully, as it always will under natural conditions, and without arti- ficial aids, of the general ])ro8perity of tlie great agri(Hiltural interests. People who remove to the new States of the West from tlie older portions of the country, as a rule, always do so in the hope and expectation of thereby improving their circuin£tauces. In order to do that they are willing to deprive themselves and their families of the comforts and conveniences of old seliletnents. In order to do that tlicy arc willing to break up old and fond associations with kindred and friends. In order to do that they accept all the hard conditions incident to life in a new and unimproved country. For that purpose they struggle and toil and pinch themselves and fainilies throusrii long years. This being the case, it would only be reasonable to expect that property should accumulate more rapidly, in proportion to population, in the Western than in the East- ern States. Under natural couditions that ought to be true; under the low tariff, be- tween 1846 and 1860 it was true. Every figure we have conclusively proves it was true. But. since 1860, under the higli tariff, every fact and every figure demonstrates that the natural and just order of things is changed, and that, in proportion to population, the wealth of the manufacturing States of the East is far outgrowing that of the agricultural States of the West. With all of his ingenuity Mr. Blaine cannot hide this open, pal- piilile fact. The very figures he gives us ])rov'es it is true, and testifies to the monstrous injustice the protective tariff is to the farmers of the West. Mr. Blaine is evidently greatly worried over the marked prosperity following tlie en- actment of the law of 1846. This prosperity was so general and satisfactory that all talk of an increase of tariff rates had long since ceased. The country for the first time since 1816 was at peace on the vexed question. Nay, in 1857 the representatives of the manu- facturing interests of New England joined hands with the planters of the S(mth to cut the rates of large production and as much general pros- perity as any, perhaps, in our history." — {Cong. Olobe, 2d session, 89ih Congress, part I, page 724.) But the panic of 1857 raged as severely in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, South America, Australia and the East Indies as it did here. Surely those countries were not affected in that disastrous way by our low tariff. To show that the theory that the panic of 1857 was caused by the low tariff; that it was of " deadly significance," as showing the disastrou$i results of that tariff, has no foundation whatever. I ask attention to the following facts. The market reports, ac- cepted and published by the Bureau of Statistics as correct, give the following as the average New York prices of our most important articles of agricultural production for the three years immediately following the panic year of 1857: Wheat. 98.02 cents; corn, 72.56 cents; cotton, 11.3 cents; oats, 44.9 cents; mess pork, |;17.12; tobacco, 9.4 cents; lard, 11.4 cents; fine wool, 53.3 cents. Farming is commonly supposed to be one of uiii "permanent industries." About one-half of our people were in 1860, and still are, engaged in that business. How do the above prices compare with the prices of the same products now, in this time, as Mr. Blaine woub' have us believe, of 3uch al)oun»ling and univer.sal prosperity? The Bureau of Statist. v.. gives us as the average Ni'W York prices for the years 1887, 1888, and 1889: Wheat, 88 cents; corn, 50.1 cents; cotton, 9.7 cents; tobacco, 8.6 cents; lard, 7.8 cents. For the years 1883, 1884 and 1885, the averapn price of oats was 37.7 cents, and of mess pork, |13.56; and for the years 1885, 1886 anil 1887, the average price of tine wool, 33 cents. But since these averages were made up there has been a very laige reduction in the value of nearly all these ar- ticles. Wheat is quoted as worth now (March 7, 1890), in New York, %%% cents; corn, 86 cents; oats, 28^ cents; mess pork, $11.25. The Agricultural Department estimates tho value of our cereals (with an increased production) as worth less for 1889 by more than 1100.000,000 than the crop of 1888 was worth. The Department also assures us that though there has been a large increase of live stock, it is worth less to-day than it was a yi-ar ago by $88,000,000. In looking over these figures it would seem not unreasonable that farmers should again like to try a little of the "deadly significance" of the "disastrous results" on their business, wliich so shocks Mr. Blaine when contemplating the condition of the country between 1857-1861. But if Mr. Blaine's extravagant language does not apply to the great interest of agricidture, to what interest does it apply? In 1857, after agriculture, perhaps our greatest single interest was our shipping. What was the disastrous result of our low tariff on that industry? During the three years after 1857 the aggregate American ship- ping that entered our ports from foreign countries exceeded that of the three years pre- ceding 1857 by 689,000 tons. With a population more than twice as great the American shipping entering our ports from abroad has not been as great duiing 1887 1888 and 1889, by 800,000 tons as it was during the years 1858, 1859 and 1860. Our shipping en- gaged in foreign trade was much greater from and including 1857-60 than any other period of eq^ual length during our whole history. It follows, therefore, that the " deadly aigniflcance" and the " disastrous results" that Mr. Blaine has conjured up in •• ! ^# COMPAltATIVK PKOSPEHITY UNDKR VAItlOUS TMiIFF8. 45 3t of our low ship- pre- rican and gen- other , the pin bis imagination about tlic condition of business in oonHcquence of the low tarifif about 1857-1860 does not apply to our shipping any more than to our farming. How was it with the business of our merchants T Our foreign commerce aggre- gated over $260,000,000 more during the three years following 1857 than it did during the three years immediately preceding tliat year. Our exports and our imports both very largely increased. It ought to go without saying that if we had really iMjen in tlie deplorable condition that Mr. Blaine fcvki to make us believe, our imports, at least, should have fallen off. But they did not, for the simple reason that, in despite of the money panic and its results, our people were able to buy and pay for, and did buy and pay for, more foreign goods than they had ever been able to purchase before by many millions of dollars a year. In 1856 our exports were more than two and a half times as much as they were in the high tariff times ten years before, and our im- ports were two and a half times as much as they weie ten years before. These facts ought to be absolutely conclusive that, as far as the mercantile interests of the country were concerned, Mr. Blaine's history is merely leckless assertion. But how about manufacturing? The panic of 1857 occurred near the close of the year. The census sta»'slics of 1860 were for the year 1859. The facts connected with the general business o ♦he country were collected pretty closely on the heels of the panic. The census of that year disclosed the fact that there had been an increase of manufacturing (capital and output) of about 86 per cent, in ten years. In every depart- ment of manufacturing industry the increase ^ ) been notable ; in some it was aston- ishing. The increase covered all textile and n i '.illic fabrics — wood, leather, glass, stone — in short, everything then known or in deniund. To assert that general manu- facturing was not extensively carried on under uux low tariff would not be true; to as- sert that it was not profitable under our low i riff ic equall" untrue, as is pioven by the fact that in the short .space of I'.n years vhe capital enrrt 'ed in it was almost doubled. Mr Blaine quotes President Buchanan's racsv-u^e, m which he is describing the coua.uoQ of things existing in the midst of the -noHi intense period oi the panic excite- ment. No one doubts or disputes that just nt \\v\i time there was a great disturbance of business. No one doubts that for a brief period there was much individual suffer ing. But the people were not oppressed with liigli taxes. The currency of the country was generally in a sound condition, and in a few months all Dianrhes and departments of business were resumed with exceeding activity, and continued highly prosperous until the breaking out of the war. THE WAR TARIFFS — 1861 TO DATB. Mr Blaine says: " In 1860 eight manufacturing Stales of the East (the six of New England, with New York and Pennsylvania) returned an aggregate wealth of |5,123,- 000,000. Twenty years afterwards, by the census of 1880, the same States returned an aggregate wealth of $16,228,000,000. The rate of increase for the twenty years was slightly more than 216 per cent. " Let us see how the agricultural States fared during this period. By the census of 1860, eight agricultural Slates of the West (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin) returned an aggregate wealth of $2,271,000,000. Twenty years afterwards, by the census of 1880 (protection all the while in full force), these same States returned an aggregate wealth of $11,268,000,000. The rat- of in crease for twenty years was 396 per cent., or 180 per cent, greater than the incref'e in the eight manufacturing States of the East." Take these figures to be correct, there are others that must be considered in connection with them in order to understand their significance. In 1860 the population of the six New England States, with Pennsylvaiua and New York, was- 10,474,252. Divide that number of people into $5,133,000,000. and we liave as the per capita wealth of these manufacturing States in 1860, $489. In 1880 the population of these States was 12,824,272. Divide that number into the aggre- gate wealth returned for those Stat'^s in that year, $16,228,000,000, and we ha\'e as \)^h per capita wealf' of New England, Pennsylvania and New York, $1265. This is a.i increase in per capita wealth in twenty years of $776. Now, take the Western States named by Mr. Blaine. In 1860 their total popula- tion was 5,570,356. Divide that number into the aggregate wealth returned— $2,271, 000,000 — and we will find that the per capita wealth in these Western States was $407, or only $92 less than the Eastern States. (Let it be remembered that all these Stales were newly settled, and mainly by persons who, at the time of their removal to the West, possessed but little property, but who, in starting, had acquired, as early as 1860, a per capita wealth more than four-fifths as large as the richest and more prosperous States of the East.) In 1880 the eight Western States named by Mr. Blaine had a popula;rijn of 11,862,492. Divide that number into the amount of wealth which they possessed in 1880— $11,268,000.000— and we have as the per capita wealth of these States 4949. These figures show that the people of these Western, agricultural States only increased their per capita wealth $642 in twenty years, while the people of the Eastern, manufacturing States increased their per capita wealth $776. The difference of their 46 TA RIFF REFORM. I ( per capita wealth under the low tariff was $82; under the bigli tariff for twenty years it was $816. There must be no caviling about tliese figures.. I wt.. those used by Mr. Blaine; and the figures of population are taken fiv,;n the census reports of 1860 and 1880. Anyone can see whether my calculations are correct. There is, however, good reason to believe that these figures, as I have used them, do not show the whole truth. If an accurate estimate could be obtained of the value of Western real estate, personal property. State and municipal boiuls and railroad stocks and bonds held and owned by persons residing in the manufacturing States of the East, nnd if all the vast sum were deducted from the value of the properly situated in and cretlited to the people of the West, as of right it ought to be, and added to the wealth owned in the East, the disparity between the |>er capita wealth of the manufacturing States and the agricultural States would be far greater than the above figures show. That would have been the case in 1880. But the same causes that enabled the manufacturing States to accumulate wealth in proportion to population between 1860 and 1880 more rapidly than the agricultural States have con- tinued in as aggravated a form during the whole period between 1880 and 1890. When Mr. Blaine is considering the low tariff period between 1846 and 1861, he is compelled reluclanlly to admit it was one of great prosperity. But he immediately sets all his wits to work to find in extraneous causes the reasons for that prosperity. But when considering the slow and gradual improvement that toolc place between 1820 and 1830, he can find no reason in all the wide earth for it except in repeated and large enhancement of the protective tariff rates of 1816. He takes no notice of the fact that the worthless irredeemable paper money, so bitterly denoimced by Col. Benton and Mr, Webster, gradually gave place to a better and sounder currency. He takes no notice of the fact that abo\it 1819 steam craft began to make their appearance on the great lakes, and on all the Western and Southern rivers, bringing the inhabitants of the interior of the country into cheap and rapid communication with distant peoples and foreign markets. The fact that in 1835 the Erie Canal was completed, giving to western New York, western Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio ready and cheap transportation for the produce of those large sections to market seems to have escaped Mr. Blaine's vision. Tlie fact tiiat millions of acres of the fertile lands of the West were brought into c\iifi- vation by the most intelligent and energetic people of the world during those years is given no consideration by Mr. Blaine as one of the agencies of recuperation. The fact that the production of cotton sprang, as if by magic, from 200,000 to more than 1,000,000 bales is given no place as a factor in the improvement that took place. Would it not have been marvelous that such a people, starting from such an abyss of depres- sion and misery in 1819-1820, should not have made m.srked progress under almost any conceivable system of unjust and oppressive taxation? Those were glorious years, in spite of the onerous tariff taxes, to all except one class. The manufacturers had secured the passage of a protective tariff law in 1816, " avowedly" in their interests, to use the language of Mr, Webster. But were they satisfied? No. For twelve long years they besieged the doors of Congress for ever crying, "more." Again and again duties were raise(i, until in 1828, in " ilie bill of abominaTions," Congress glutted their avarice by imposing duties on dutiable goods approaching 50 per cent. What credit can be given to a historian who, in reviewing the financial and busi ness history of this long period, can see no reason for progress (but in his opinion the all-sufficient one) except higher and higher and still hig^ er rates of tariff taxes? If there is such a thing as writing history so as to make false and deluding impressions, [ do not kjiow where to find a more signal example than in the North American Review article of our brilliant Secretary of State. MORAL QUESTIONS. Mr. Blaine charges the American Free Trader with insincerity. lie says: "He is ever presenting half truths and holding back the other half, thus creating false impres- sions and leading to false conclusions." In view of the comparison he has made between the growth of the wealth of the manufacturing States of the East and the agricultural Slatesof the VYest in twenty years, without noticing or paying the slightest attention to this difference in the increase of population, to whom does his criticism most justly apply? '''be literature of the world may be searched in vain for a more disingenuous and deceptive statement to make the wrong appear the better cause. If this is the way talented and eminent men are to write history for the public in- formation, let us at least understand it. This paper is alreatiy too long to follow Mr. Blaine further in the untrustworthy history that he is irjring to concoct to support the decayed and falling edifice of Pro- tection. Mr. Blaine is welcome, as far as I am concerned, to worship the hhleous super- stition with all the frantic devotion and wild contortion of a howling dervish of the desert; but when ho comes to writing as history that which is not hiBtory, but the grossest fiction, It Is a duty to correct him. MORAL QUESTIONS, 47 C IS urn I n to i3ily 10U3 rihy Pro- iper- ' lliu ■ It hHS not been my purpose to enter into the argument between Mr. Blaine and Mr. Qladstone. Indeed, it appears not to have been Mr. Blaine's purpose to enter into the argument to any great extent. I was anxious, as I utu sure tens of thousands of other men were, to see what answer he coi;!d give lo the clear exposition of Free-trade prin- ciples, everywhere applicable, given by one of the greatest statesmen of our age. If any man in the world is able to answer adequately, it ought to be our brilliant countryman. Has he done that? Certainly not. He has not even attempted it. He has evaded every issue and taken refuge in a cloud of smoke and — pretended history. I cannot take ujy leave, however, of my old friend without alluding to one or two things not directly involved in the substance of the controversy between him and Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Blaine sneers at Mr. Gladstone for declaring that protection is immoral. Indeed! Can Mr. Blaine see no immorality in a law that taxes a poor widow a higher firice for her clothing and tliat of her children, for her bedding, her coal, her dishes, and urniture— for nearly everything she and they need — not for the use of the Government, but to add to the prosperity of those who produce such articles? If Mr. Blaine can see no immorality in that, I assure him that there are millions of his countrymen whose con- sciences are keener than his own. John Bright could see it clearly when he held up the corn laws of England (no less justifiable than our clothing laws) as a " crime of tne deepest dye." In this same connection Mr. Blaine goes out of his way to inform Mr. Gladstone, and, as he supposes, to surprise him, with the statement that out of.the fifty largest fortunes in the United States not more than one has been derived from protected manu- facturing; and that the other forty-nine were acquired from "railway and telegraph in- vestments, from real estate investments, from the import and sale of foreign goods, from banking, from speculations in the stock markets, from fortunate mining investments, from patented inventions, and more than one from proprietary medicines." Will Mr. Blaine please tell us how many fortunes among the fifty greatest fortunes in the United States have been derived from "real estate investments that were made vastly profitable by protection, as, for instance, investments in pine lands in Michigan? Will he please tell us how many of these immense fortunes have been made from "mining investments" which were protected by our tarifif law, as the copper and iron mines in Michigan and all the other mines of metal and coal everywhere in the United States? Perhaps, if Mr. Blaine were to go into the subject carefully, he might be surprised to find that not only one but many of the largest fortunes in America were the result, in some way, of pro- tection in behalf of private interests. But he says it is safe to go further and state that among the one hundred largest fortunes in the country there are not over five that have been derived from protected manufactures. Well, that is making progress. There is one among the first fifty, but there are four among the second fifty. At this rate among the third fifty there would probably be sixteen, and among the fourth fifty forty-eight, and so on. But, seriouslv, will Mr. Blaine undertake to say that among, say, five thousand of the richest men In America there are not one-half, if not three-fourths of them, who have made the bulk of their fortunes in business, or investments, in which they have been personally assisted by the protective tariff ? It would be exceedingly unjust to apply any hard terms to men who have made even great fortunes by their industry, skill, economy, inventive genius, perseverance or sound judgment. But when the law has interfered to add to the value of investments, or to the profits of particular k'Pds of business, and we find the beneficiaries of the law acquiring fortunes far in excess of any they are justly entitled to by any merit of their own, we are justified in arraigning the law as a horrible instrumentality of wrong. Mr. Biaine betrays an uneasy consciousness ihat this is true, when he goes out of his way to explain that " the evil effect of large fortunes is exaggerated," because under our laws they are apt to be scattered in two or three generations. That is, he sees no everlasting, irreparable evil result in the accumulation, even when aided by a tariff law, of multitudes of colossal fortunes, because, forsooth, in fifty or a hundred years they will probably be scattered. But the question is not whether these fortunes so acquirecl, will be held together through all coming time, and thus becoming a permanent menace to the future liberties and welfare of the country. That is not the point. It is this: is it just and morally right to tax more than sixty millions of people to build up a few thousand vast, over-grown fortunes? The consolation that Mr. Blaine offers to the people who have their hard earnings filched from them for this purpose, is, that after all, there is nothing deplorable about it, because In one, two or three generations (long after the people now living are in their graves) these great fortunes will be si;atteremmeTce. J. Schoenhof 75 Our Merchant Marine. David A. Wells 1 00 Recent Economy Changes. David A. Wells 8 00 PAMPHIiKTS. , * Primer of Tariff Reform. David A. Wells 10 Relation of the Tariff to Wages. David A. Wells 10 Protection and Wages. Henry George 10 * Tariffs vs. Industry. A. B. Farquhar 10 * " Protection the Farmer's Friend. " Thomas G. Shearman 10 Decay of our Ocean Mercantile Marine, — Its Cause and Cure. David A. Wells. .. 25 DTOS. OF "TARIFF BEFORM.'* Per No. Per 100 Per 1000 •Comparison, Item by Item, of the Tariff as it now stands, the Tariff as left by the Mills Bill, and the Tariff proposed by the Senate Bill 10 6 00 60 00 * Free Raw Materials. Why American Wages are High, and How They Can Be Made Higher. J.B.Sargent 10 100 7 60 * Labor. Wages, and Tariffs. By John De Witt Warner 10 3 00 25 00 * Wool and the Tariff. By John De Witt Warner 10 3 GO 25 00 * How Monopoly Bought the Presidency 10 2 00 15 00 * Salt and the Tariff 10 2 00 15 00 * Tinned Plate and the Tariff 10 2 00 15 00 * Exports of Manufactures and the Tariff 10 2 00 15 00 * Farming and the Tariff 10 2 00 15 00 * Ireland and Tariffs. By Gilbert D. Lamb 10 2 00 15 00 * Hamilton and " Protection" 10 3 00 25 00 * Clay and Tariffs 10 2 00 15 00 * The Socialism of Protection. By Julius S. Grinnell 10 1 00 6 00 * Democratic Tariff Doctrine 10 8 00 25 00 * Republican Tariff Sense 10 2 00 15 00 * Dairy Farming and the Tariff. By J. Alex. Lindquist 10 8 00 25 00 * Small Fruits and the Tariff. By J. Alex. Lindquist 10 1 00 7 50 * Restriction vs. Opportunity. By Hugh McCulloch - 10 1 00 7 60 * The Wool Question. By William Lloyd Garrison 10 1 00 7 60 * Shipping, Tariffs and Subsidies. By Gustav H. Schwab 10 6 00 •Grapes and the Tariff 10 2 00 16 00 * Copper, Br!.8S and the Tariff. By J. Alexander Lindquist 10 8 00 20 00 * Mr. Blaine on Tariffs. By J. Q. Smith 10 2 00 10 00 Please remit all sums less than $5.00 in postage stamps, postal notes, or registered letter. All checks and drafts should be payable to the order of "Ridform Clttb, Tariff Reform Committee. grr88e;i'ttclion.itl9amuyiocu.i.. 1 pamphlets on Jt—upon order )f distribution, prices of boolcs h will pay the ^- Pamphlets I intended that and it will be II 00 , 1 00 '; paper, 85 1 25 8 60 irce. J. 76 1 00 8 00 10 10 10 10 • 10 ^ells... 26 100 Per 1000 00 60 00 00 00 00 00 00 OO K) )0 K) 10 10 9 } ) ) \ I 7 60 26 00 26 00 15 00 16 00 16 00 16 00 15 00 15 00 25 00 16 00 5 00 25 00 15 00 26 00 7 60 7 60 7 60 • • • • 16 00 20 00 10 00 r registered iM Cltob,