TARIFF AND MANUFACTURES.

VIEWS OF THE MINORITY.

Mr. MONELL submitted the following

REPORT:

A minority of the Committee on Manufactures, to which was referred so much of the President's message as relates to the tariff of duties on imports, and so much thereof as respects manufactures, not concurring in the whole matter or manner of the report preferred by the majority, beg leave to submit their views in a separate report.

With the President we fully concur in the opinion that there is great cause for congratulation in the practical operation of the tariff, proving, as it conclusively does, that the injuries to our commercial interests, so confidently predicted by its opponents, have not been realised.

With the President we also concur in the constitutionality of an adjustment of impost duties with a view to the protection of our own agriculture and manufactures. It would be difficult to frame a more direct, convincing, and conclusive argument on that point, than is presented in the message. That the present tariff is defective in some of its details, we have the concurrent testimony of almost all who have written or spoken upon the subject during its discussion, and since its last modification In his message to Congress at the opening of December session, in 1828, President Adams remarked:

"The tariff of the last session was, in its details, not acceptable to the great interests of the Union; not even to the interest which it was specially intended to subserve. Its object was to balance the burdens on native industry imposed by the operation of foreign laws, but not to aggravate the burdens of one section of the Union by the relief afforded to another. To the great principle sanctioned in that act, one of those upon which the Constitution itself was framed, I hope and trust the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the act only relieve the manufacturer by aggravating the burdens of the planter, let a careful revisal of its provisions, enlightened by the practical experience of its effects, be directed to retain these which impart protection to native industry, and remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one national interest by the depression of another."

During the progress of the bill in Congress, a distinguished friend of domestic industry from Vermont vainly attempted to amend it, and declared that the manufacture of the coarse fabric (woollens) is ruined at a blow. Just as we are about to realise what the friends of the American policy have foretold that American skill, industry, and enterprise, could accomplish, to make them subservient to some fancied benefit, we offer them up as a sacrifice to our enemies,"

A friend of the protecting system from Massachusetts observed: "He 'was himself a wool grower, and was firmly of the belief that the bill was utterly destructive to that class of men; that it put the knife to the jugular vein of every sheep in the country, and that its effects would be equally destructive to the interests of the manufacturers."

A friend to the protecting policy from Maine, speaking the language of many others, said: "This explains to us why it is that those very manufacturers and their agents who poured into the House petitions, beseeching that we would sustain their sinking establishments, now come here with remonstrances, conjuring us to save them from the tender mercies of this measure. It shows us, too, why the bill is condemned by the fast friends of domestic manufactures, and, among many others, by those champions of the American system, the veteran Niles and Carey."

"It is said that the proposed duty on coarse wool, which we now import from the Mediterranean and South America, is to benefit the agriculturist; it is certainly a great injury to the manufacturers and the consumers.

"While this stinted measure of protection is thus dealt out to the woollens, unexampled duties are proposed on other articles."

"This bill tends to oppress our navigation, and to destroy the markets for some of our productions."

"This bill greatly increases the expenses of ship-building."

"This bill must powerfully aid and advance the colonial policy of Great Britain."

"Every manufacture in Maine, which this measure reaches, it injures and destroys."

"This bill, in its effects, co-operates with British policy. That favors the introduction of iron and hemp for their vessels; this taxes them for ours.” "If the question could be proposed to the British Parliament, they would pass this bill for us by acclamation: and should we, of this committee, adopt it in its present form, a British statesman might well say that we deserved a pension from his royal master.

To the authority of Mr. Adams and his cabinet, anticipated by the discussion of the present tariff before Congress, might be added that of almost every friend of the protecting policy in the United States.

On this point, therefore, the President concurs with President Adams and his cabinet, with the manufacturers themselves, and with all intelligent

men.

We concur with the President in the opinion, that those who dare not attempt to improve the tariff and correct its imperfections, do injustice to the American people and to their Representatives. The people wish their Representatives to do right; nor will they consider it a sufficient excuse that they feared to do good lest evil might come. Such a plea will not be deemed very consistent with any valuable creel of political faith or code of good morals. Evil will never come out of good. The Representative who does right need not fear to meet his constituents. He only need fear and tremble, who, thinking right, seeing the evils of an existing system, and knowing it to be injurious and unjust in some of its details, shall, when called to account before his constituents, say, in his defence, I feared to trust myself and my colleagues in an attempt to do right, lest we should do wrong.

We felicitate the country that such is not the character of the President or his message. He advances boldly to his point. He does not fear to do

right, lest he may do wrong. Fortified by honesty of purpose and patriotic devotion, he has full confidence that the people will sustain him in all his efforts to reform abuses and correct errors in our various systems of law and administration. He does but justice to the American people when he says, My confidence is entire, that, to secure such modifications of the tariff as the general interest requires, it is only necessary that that interest should be understood."

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With the President, we think it probable that the reduced price of produce, raw materials, manufactured articles, and lands, is attributable, in some degree, to a reduction in the supply of the precious metals. That the products of the mines in Spanish America have been less within the last twenty years than they were in the twenty preceding, will not, we presume, be doubted. So far from diminishing, the demand for the precious metals has increased with the increase of civilized population, and the extension of commerce. It was, therefore, natural that their value should increase. Undoubtedly the establishment of extensive manufactories in America, and the improvements in machinery, have tended to reduce the general price of manufactured articles; but the same cause, had it operated separately, would, in this country, have increased the price of lands and agricultural products. Has such been the result? No; lands and agricultural products have declined in price almost as much as manufactured articles. The cause of this decline is not our tariff; it is something "deeper and more pervading." It is difficult to account for it in any other way than as the effect of an appreciation of gold and silver.

But

We are aware that money seems to be abundant in our commercial cities, and that it can be borrowed at a low rate of interest. This is not the effect of an increased supply of the precious metals, but of a stagnation of trade and business. So low are the products of commerce, of manufactures, and of agriculture, that rich men find no inducements to vest their capital in those pursuits. Money, therefore, accumulates upon their hands, and they are willing to lend it out, well secured, upon a moderate interest. were a general war in Europe, or any change in the affairs of nations, to furnish a market for our agricultural productions and revive our trade, the lending of money at a low interest would instantly cease, and, with the increased demand, apparent scarcity would succeed to apparent abundance. Having asserted the constitutionality of a tariff adjusted with a view to protection, the President gives, with characteristic point and clearness, his views of its policy. We quote his language:

"While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted as to encourage manufactures. In this adjustment, however, it is the duty of the Government to be guided by the general good. Objects of national importance alone ought to be protected: of these, the products of our soil, our mines, and our workshops, essential to national defence, occupy the first rank. Whatever other species of domestic industry, having the importance to which I have referred, may be expected, after temporary protection, to compete with foreign labor on equal terms, merit the same attention in a subordinate degree.'

A tariff adjusted on these principles, we are sure, would meet the wishes of all real friends of domestic industry and of the interests of the country. "Objects of national importance alone ought to be protected." It would be absurd to say that the national importance" of an article depended on the generality of its production. Lead found in but two or three States in the Union; yet who will deny its national importance? Perhaps powder is not made in half a dozen States: yet who will deny its national importance?

There are not, probably, a dozen cannon founderies in the Union; yet who will deny their "national importance?" If iron were made in only one State, would any man think of denying its "national importance?" To say that the President recommends the protection of only such articles as are produced or manufactured in all or most of the States, is to do violence to his language and evident meaning. Every thing of general necessity or general use, whether it be of general production or not, is an object of "national importance," and evidently embraced in the views of the President.

"Of these," he says, "the productions of our soil, our mines, our workshops, essential to national defence, occupy the first rank." We presume all the friends of domestic industry, and of our country's safety, will concur with the President in this sentiment He speaks from the admonitions of experience. He has seen our brave militia called into the service of their country, and exposed to a ruthless invader, without arms, without ammunition, and almost without clothing. From want of means of defence, he has seen our cities exposed to plunder, and sections of our country to conquest. It would be unwise in our Government not to provide against like dangers in future. "In peace prepare for war," is a maxim as true as it is trite. In the opinion of the President, it should be the first object in a protecting tariff.

But, it may be asked, what productions of our soil, our mines, and our workshops, are essential to our national defence? The President has not thought it necessary or proper to enter into a minute detail in his communication to Congress. Doubtless he did not think it respectful to inform Congress that iron, lead, cannon, muskets, bullets, powder, soldiers' and sailors' clothing, ships, with their canvass and tackle, are articles essential to national defence. It was fair to presume that the experience, knowledge, and sagacity of Congress were competent to fill up the list of these articles, without encumbering his message with details We know that with their accompaniments and component parts, embracing coarse woollens, blankets, has, and shoes, they constitute that class of articles which he says are entitled to the first rank in a tariff of protection

"Other species of industry" of a national importance, which, "after temporary protection," can compete with foreign labor on equal terms, merit the same attention in a subordinate degree.

We are at no loss to understand the President, nor do we hesitate to concur with him in the sentiment. expressed. To produce the manufacture in our own country of all articles of general use among our citizens, and enable us to purchase them as cheap or cheaper than we can obtain them from abroad, is one of the chief objects of the tariff, and its most deservedly boasted effect. To attain an object so desirable, the President thinks a temporary tax on the imported article not unjust or improper. That a temporary protection will, in some branches of manufacture, produce this result, we have the evidence of facts. India cottons, it is stated, were formerly sold in the United States at twenty-five cents per yard. A better fabric is now made in the United States, and sold at eight cents. Although the price of such cottons has much declined in India, yet the decline has fallen so far short of that in the United States, that our cottons now enter into successful competition with them in the markets of the very countries where they are manufactured. Our cottons successfully compete with the British cottons, also, in all countries where they are permitted to enter on equal terms, and, it is affirmed, might be sold in England itself at a profit, if they oculd be admitted free of duty. By a temporary protection, therefore, our cotton

manufactories have been established, and brought to such perfection that they successfully compete with foreign establishments, wherever they can meet them on equal terms.

If they can compete with foreign manufactures in the markets of other countries loaded with freights and commissions, could they not maintain themselves without protection in our own markets? How does our tariff enable our manufacturers to undersell the India fabric in the India market? How does it enable them to undersell the British in the Levant and South America? It is obvious that the tariff can affect present prices only in our own market. It does not affect the price of coarse cottons, even at home; for competition has so reduced it, that they can be bought at a less price in the United States than India cottons can in India. If the tariff were now abolished, these goods would continue to monopolise our own market, and compete with foreign fabrics in the markets of the world.

That India cottons would not again be seen in our markets is proved by the fact that our cottons are sold at a profit in the markets of that country. India cottons formerly sold at twenty-five cents. If the duty were taken off, they might probably be afforded in our market at twelve cents. Our own cottons of a better quality sell for eight. Who would buy the India cottons at twelve, when he could get our own and better at eight?

Nails are another article which domestic competition has reduced in price, so that in some cases we believe the whole cost does not now equal the duty.

The manufactures of hats, shoes, and cabinet ware, have, from the protection they have received, and the skill and industry of our manufacturers, attained such a force as to defy foreign competition. Those branches of our agriculture which produce cotton, wheat, beef, pork, and butter, though they may have required protection in their infancy, have outstripped all protection, furnish the cheapest and most abundant supply, and have acquired a vigor which defies foreign competition, and "counteracts the most selfish and destructive policy of foreign nations."

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Many other articles might be enumerated, but these are sufficient to illustrate the views of the President. Temporary encouragement has been afforded. These "species of domestic industry" have been enabled" compete with foreign labor on equal terms." The tariff upon these articles has ceased to be a tax; for they can be purchased lower in our own than in foreign markets, and their importation has either ceased or is fast diminishing.

In whatever cases the same effect can be produced, the President thinks, and we think, that the same means of protection should he employed. But if there be no hope of so establishing in this country a species of culture or manufacture that it will eventually be able to compete with foreign labor on equal terms," to that a tariff of protection ought not to be applied. He would be esteemed a madman who should by a tariff endeavor to establish in this country the culture of tea, pepper, pimento, cinnamon, Peruvian bark, and many other products not adapted to our soil and climate, or to the habits of our people. There are species of manufactures which partake of the same character. A heavy duty upon them is an useless tax upon the consumer. It produces no present, and promises no prospective, good. Unless the proceeds be required for revenue, it ought not to be imposed. As specimens of interests embraced in the present tariff, too minute and local to merit protection, we may name marble, capers, olives, figs, &c.;