THE AMERICAN LABORER, Devoted to the Cause of Protection to Home Industry. By Greeley & McElrath. Office No. 160 Nassau-street, MONTHLY. } NEW-YORK, JANUARY, 1843. for efficient and steadfast Protection do not lie on the surface of things-they demand research, study, understanding. Yet it hardly seems possible to us that any Free Laborer can disregard them when fairly presented to his mind. Ånd, since very little of the contents of The Laborer has emanated from cur pen, while most of its great papers are the productions of such minds as those of WALTER FORWARD, MAHLEN DICKENSON, CHARLES HUDSON, WM. H. SEWARD, JOHN P. KENNEDY, A. H. H. STUART, WILLIAM SLADE, with strong citations from our venerated ex-Presidents and ex-Governors, including WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, MADISON, J. Q. ADAMS, JACKSON, GEORGE CLINTON, D. D. TOMPKINS, DE WITT CLINTON, etc. it can hardly be deemed presumptuous on our part to express an opinion that no collection of facts and arguments illustrating and advocating the Principle and policy of Protection, of equal merit and completeness with this, has ever till now been offered to the public.-Will not the friends of the Cause who accord with us in this opinion (our Editorial brethren especially) unite in commending the Volume to general consideration? Two numbers more will complete the Volume of the AMERICAN LABORER, and therefore, in accordance with our notice at its commenceThe present No. of the Laborer is enriched ment, the publication of the work will be closed. with several papers of great worth to the Cause We cherish a profound conviction, however, that of Protection in especial reference to the effect of the exigencies of the Country and of the great the Policy on the prices paid by our own consumCause to which it is devoted, will demand a reers for Foreign and for Domestic Products. By sumption of the work at no distant day-possibly referring to the statistics presented in the excelearly in 1844. Of this, however, we shall leave lent article of the eminent philanthropist, E. C. the Public to judge, not attempting a resumption CURTIS, Collector of this Port, and of Hon. SAMDELAVAN, Esq. and in the letters of Hon. Ep. of its publication until we are assured that it is UEL LAWRENCE, of Lowell to the Editor of this wanted, and will be fairly sustained. Meantime, paper, it will be seen to be established by undeniawe have a number of perfect sets remaining of Theniable facts that the New Tariff has reduced the Laborer from the commencement, which we shall have bound at the close of the year, and keep for sale, as long as they shall hold out, at the low price of One Dollar for the bound volume. Our distant friends who believe this work to contain a compendious and convincing refutation on all points of the mischievous yet seductive fallacies put forth under the captivating title of Free Trade,' as well as a forcible advocacy of the true and vital interests of the Productive Classes of our own Country, will do the Cause of National wellbeing a service by endeavoring to compasss the placing of the bound volume in some if not every reading-room, village library, debating club, hotel sitting-room, &c. within the circle of their influence. No man can over-estimate the good effects which such an act on his part will surely though slowly and silently exert. The strong arguments" prices of both Foreign and Domestic Manufactures to the American consumer. Comment is needless. IF We have reason to believe that no essential change will be made in the Tariff at the present Session of Congress. The majority rightly judge, with the able and patriotic Secretary of the Treasury, that a law of such vast importance should have time to exert a positive and palpable influence, that its workings and its tendencies may be fully felt and understood, before it is vitally dismaturely considered, it will be high time to determine what changes of detail (we trust none of principle) may be needed; and those changes, we confidently anticipate, will be made by raising rather than reducing the duties on such fabrics as come in competition with the products of Ameri can industry and skill. Meantime, let the facts be carefully noted. turbed. After its real effects have been felt and From the mass of valuable documents appended to Mr. Secretary Forward's Treasury Report, relating to the National Finances and Expenditures and the proposed Warehousing System, we have selected such as we deemed of greatest interest, and they appear in this month's American Laborer. There are other answers from Revenue officers more favorable to the Warehousing System than those we have copied; and the more general sentiment probably tends that way. For our own part, however, we may state frankly that we believe the Warehousing System is calculated o increase perniciously the power and patronage of the Federal Government and the dependence of our Business interests on Politics. It strikes us as restoring indirectly but virtually the Government credits, which we had hoped were done away for ever. Let men import Goods when they want them, pay the Duties when they receive them, and get their money back when they export the goods from the country, if they ever do. We apprehend that no fairer or more uniform and equable system than this can be devised-certainly none more simple and unexpensive. The notion that || the great importers will eat up the little ones, the Foreign merchants the Domestic, under the Cash System, is moonshine. Under the Cash System, goods will be imported whenever they shall be needed, and generally by the very men who have a demand for them; under the Credit System, the fewer will import (having established a credit at the Custom-House) and the many will be their customers. We trust Congress will act warily and wisely in regard to this important matter. Effect of the New Tariff on the Prices of Manufactures, and on the Interests of Labor. We are every day called to confute the unqualified, confident, yet utterly false assertion that the passage of the Tariff of 1842 has increased the price of American fabrics, and thereby filled the pockets of the American Manufacturers at the expense of the People. Every Free Trade writer assumes as a matter of course that the imposition of 20 per cent, more duty on an article raises its price by so much, and not only that of the imported fabric but that of its Domestic counterpart or rival; so that our home consumers are not only called to pay some Eight or Ten Millions more for the support of the Government, but they must, on the same grounds, pay eight or ten times as much as a bounty to American Manufacturers! Not one of these profound economists stops to ask or see whether the facts at all accord with their theory; they find it laid down by Say, Condy Raguet and Calhoun that a Protection of 15 or 25 per cent. increases the cost of the protected artiele so much, and this suffices for them. And so the land rings with declamation against the Taxes which the People are required by the Tariff to pay the increased prices of Manufactured Goods. Now, while we have all due respect for the theories of the Free Trade Economists, we cannot refuse to give weight to existing, notorious facts which confute them. When they tell us that Protection enhances the prices of the Protected articles, we do not implicitly take their word as unqualifiedly true; we think it but right to look to the Price Current and the Statistics of Trade and Protection as well as to their naked assertions of what they imagine or predict that the effect of a Tariff should be. And we find, unless Price Currents lie and our Business men are actually deceiving and deceived with regard to their daily doings, that the effect of a Protective Tariff, steadily persisted in, has uniformly been to reduce the price of the articles on which it is imposed-not, indeed, of every article in a moment, but the average cost of such articles most decidedly. The effect of the New Tariff is directly in point. The Currrency was restricted, the Trade of the Country depressed, and the price of Manufactures had been pressed gradually down to a point as low as it was possible to drive them by Foreign competition, when this Tariff was enacted, which gives 10 to 30 per cent. additional protection to our Home Manufactures. What has been the effect of it? Has it raised the price of Manufactures in a similar ratio, or to any extent at all? The Free Traders every where assume that it has; but the Price Currents, the daily reports of sales and transactions emphatically contradict them. The Manufactures to which Protection is given by the New Tariff are at this moment generally lower than EVER they were before the New Tariff was imposed. What faith, then, should we place in theories which contradict such notorious, vital facts? And here is the answer to the base attempt every day made by the Suns, Public Ledgers, Plebeians and other sneaking as well as open organs of the Foreign interest, to fan the flames of anarchy and eternal war between employers and employed, with regard to the Wages of Labor. "See!" they exclaim, "the Manufacturer has got "a Protection which gives him twenty-five per "cent. more for his goods, yet he gives no "higher wages than before, and in many cases "less! Here's your Whig Protection to the La"borer!" Now the portion of this sentence we have placed in Italics is a lie direct, on which are based several lies inferential. All well-informed Economists, no matter of what school, perfectly understand that the prices of Manufacturing Labor can never depend on the stability and prosperity of Manufactures alone, but on the general rewards of Labor throughout the Country—that is, on the Currency, the average price of Products, and the opportunities offered for a profitable employment of Labor. It was not for the special benefit of Manufacturers, whether employing or employed, that Protection was required, but for the benefit of the whole People, in creating a nearer, steadier and more remunerating demand for Agricultural Products, for Mechanical skill and materials, and for Home Labor and its results generally. This the Tariff will effect-is effecting-but it must have time. The acorn does not become an oak in a day. At this moment, dark as prospects apparently are and depressed as is the Country, things are working the right way. We are not running in debt abroad, but paying off, not with new promises but Products, and are bringing home Specie largely. This will form the basis of the National Currency we must and will have, whether by Exchequer issues or a Bank, we do not say; but the essential thing-a Paper Medium of which five dollars shall be worth five dollars in any part of the Country-that the Country must and will have. With a Circulating Medium so restricted, defective and uncertain as we now have, every thing we produce must be low, and Labor with it. This will be rectified in time; meanwhile, STAND BY THE TARIFF! -But we are keeping our readers too long from the following pithy and conclusive letter from a leading manufacturer at Lowell, whom we recently addressed on the subject of the Reduction of Wages there, and the prices of Work and of Goods before and since the Tariff. His reply is as follows: To the Editor of the Tribune: LOWELL, Dec. 14, 1842. DEAR SIR-I intended to have replied to your favor of the 1st before, but had not the information in detail till now. I have lately noticed in some of the newspapers unfriendly to the success of American manufactures, that while the prices of goods had been advanced in consequence of the passage of the Tariff, the wages of the work-people had been reduced. The impudence of such statements is extraordinary, as the reverse is known to every man, woman and child who has occasion to make purchases of any articles of domestic cotton or woolen manufacture, the prices of which are notoriously lower than ever before in this country. I annex the prices of various articles, before and since the passage of the Tariff, derived from houses whose transactions have amounted to many millions of dollars during the periods indicated. The wages now are about as they were previous to 1832, when the country was blessed with a national currency. The late reduction was absolutely necessary, as most of the mills in New-England have made nothing for eighteen months, had have still large stocks of goods on hand, with no prospect of an immediate advance in prices. The average wages of all the females in Lowell since the reduction is about $2 75 per week, from which $1 25 is to be deducted for board. Had the New Tariff not passed, this country would have exhibited a scene of universal bankruptcy by being flooded with Foreign Goods and drained of Specie. As it is, Foreign Manufactures have mainly ceased, for the present, to come here, and in their stead large amounts of coin are coming into the country, and tho time is not distant when the masses will look upon the passage of this Tariff as the panacea to cure most of the evils which afflict us. This Tariff should not be touched for five years, when it will have been fairly tested. If Congress the present Session will lay a duty on Tea and Coffee, there will within two years be ample revenue The three great States of New-York, Pennsylvaby the present Tariff for the wants of Government. nia and Ohio are quite as deeply interested in the permanency of this Tariff as Massachusetts, provided they intend to do as she does, pay their public and private debts promptly. I remain your ob't. ser't. SAM. LAWRENCE. Same, In May, June and July, and in Sept. Oct. and Nov. 66 66 66 66 Woolen 66 heavy.6 Sheetings. 46 wide..81 Flannels.......10 5 52 66 20 p. ct. above the prices in these months. Pilot and Beaver Cloths, 15 per ct. Broad Cloths and Cass's.12 per ct. 66 Free Trade vs. Free Trade. Our readers are doubtless aware that one of the latest discoveries of the Free Trade economists affirms the utter impolicy and absurdity of countervailing Duties on Imports, and declares that to tax the Products or Commerce of other Nations merely because they burthen ours, is precisely like cutting off your hand because your neighbor has cut off his leg-an exhibition of naked stupidity and suicidal malice. (See Condy Raguet's essays, Calhoun's Speeches, and the arguments of the anti-Protective writers and speakers of our time universally.) Now we are not about to refute anew this dogma; but we will let its prominent disciples refute it themselves. On our way to Saratoga we picked up a New-York Herald of the 2d inst., (one reads almost any thing when traveling,) and in the Money Article of that paper, written by one of the best informed and most vehement as well as prominent Free Trade anti-Protectionists in the land, we were rather astonished at finding the following Editorial paragraph: From the New-York Herald of Dec. 2. "The late tariff of Great Britain was enacted with the view of encouraging the import of American agricultural produce into England, in exchange for her manufactures, as a means of relief. The late tariff of the United States was enacted with the view to exclude foreign goods for the protection of manufactures. Hence, it is seen that England will not be able to sell goods enough here to pay for the raw cotton which she must have, and which she cannot get elsewhere. All beyond which she imports from this country, she must pay for in coin, which cannot be done to any exwith her an urgent matter of self-defence to prohibit the imtent and preserve her paper system. Hence, it becomes port of every thing of United States growth except cotton. gent 'STATE NECESSITY. Unless, therefore, our new tariff It is not matter of convenience, nor of state policy, but of uris promptly modified, the farmers are likely to lose, at a English and colonial, and New-York its trade, for an abcritical juncture, a large market for their produce, both surd and barbarous restriction on trade for the benefit of the manufacturers." This seemed rather odd from that quarter; but, as we were sitting quietly in our room, cooking up our defence against Fenimore, a friend late from the City dropped in and gave us a New-York Aurora of later date, in which we read as follows: From the New-York Aurora, Dec. 5. "But we look for changes in the Tariff Law, of even more importance than this, during the present session of Congress. It has failed utterly as a measure of revenue: nor is it likely to be of the slightest use as a measure of protection; indeed, we believe it is not calculated to benefit any class, except the smugglers. It is a peculiar evidence of the madness and blindness of the Whig majority last session, that they chose the very time when Great Britain was cutting down the duties on American produce, and throwing open her ports to the great staples of the Northern and Western States, to burden many of her manufactures with almost prohibitory imposts. What sapient legislators! How profoundly they must have studied the laws of trade! They, no doubt, supposed that England could be used as a free market for the surplus products of the United States, and our government, at the same time, be supported out of the tax imposed on her silks, woolens, cottons, &c If they had taken the trouble to look into McCulloch, they would have found that reciprocity is the basis of trade, and that no nation has ever long persisted in a liberal system of commercial policy toward another, when the reciprocity, as the Irishman said, was all on one side." Year. 1821. 1822 1823 1824. 1825. 1826. 1827 1828 1829 1830. 1831. Here it is again, you see; we must take off our duties from other Nations' products, or they will be obliged to tax ours heavily. Well, gentlemen, does this rule work one way only? Suppose it is they who have imposed high duties, can we get on under low ones, or none? Your daily assertions say yes, while your logic clearly demonstrates the contrary! Shall we refuse to heed the dictates of plain common sense, and insist on Reciprocity, while you undesignedly prove that such insisting is a matter of " urgent State necessity." U. S. STATISTICS OF COMMERCE AND REVENUE. VALUE OF IMPORTS. VALUE OF EXPORTS. Total. Receipts into the Treasury. Free of Duty. Paying Duty. Total. $10,082,303 $52,503,411 $62,585,724 $21,302,488 $43,671,891 $64,974,382 $13,004,447 7,298,708 75,942,833 83,241,541 22,286,202 49,874,079 72,160,281 17,589,762 9,048,288 68,530,979 77,579,267 27,543,622 47,155,408 74,699,030 19,088,433 12,563,773 67,985,234 30,549,007 25,337,157 53,649,500 75,986,657 17,878,326 10,947,510 85,392,565 96,340,075 32,590,643 66,944,745 99,535,388 20,098,713 12,567,769 72,406,708 84,974,477 24,539,612 53,055,710 78,595,322 28,341,332 11,855,104 67,628,964 79,484,068 23,403,136 58,921,691 82,324,827 19,712,283 12,379,176 76,130,648 88,509,824 21,595,017 50,669,669 72,264,636 23,205,524 11,805,501 62,687,026 74,492,527 16,658,478 55,700,193 72,358,671 22,681,966 12,746,245 58,130,675 70,876,920 14,387,479 59,462,029 73,849,508 21,922,391 13,456,625 89,734,499 103,191,124 20,033,526 61,277,057 81,310,583 24,224,442 14,247,453 86,779,813 101,029,266 24,039,473 63,137,470 87,176,943 28,465,237 32,447,950 75,670,361 108,118,311 19,822,735 70,317,698 90,140,433 29,032,509 68,393,180 58,128,152 126,521,332 23,312,811 81,024,162 104,336,973 16,214,957 1835. 77,940,493 71,955,249 149,895,742 20,504,495 101,189,082 121,693,577 19,891,311 1836. 92,056,481 97,923.554 189,980,034 21,746,360 106,916,680 128,663,040 23,409,841 1837 69,250,031 71,739,186 140,989,217 21,854,962 95,564,414 117,419,376 11,169,290 60,860,005 52,857,399 113,717,404 12,452,795 96.033,821 108,486,616 16,158,800 76,401,792 85,690,340 162,092,132 17,494,525 103,533,891 121,028,416 23,137,925 57,196,204 49,945,315 107,141,519 18,190,312 118,895,634,131,571,950 13,499,502 66,019,731 61,925,757 127,945,488 15,469,081 105,382,722 121,851,803 14,487,216 29,956,696 69,400,633 99,357,329 11,552,831 92,559,088 104,117,969 18,260,830 * One quarter of this year partly estimated. 1832 1833 1834. 1838. 1839 1840. 1841. 1842* that of our Imports only by some Five or Six Millions; which, in 1843, when the increased Rates of Duty will have effect through the whole year, will probably be increased to Ten or Fifteen Mil lions. Now we do not expect or desire a uniform preponderance in value of our Exports over our Imports: but for the present, while we owe a heavy debt to Europe, and our Circulating Medium is so scanty and unstable, this is manifestly as it should be. When our Foreign indebtedness shall have been adjusted, and our Currency reinforced by a due infusion of the precious metals, then will our Circulating Medium gradually increase, and he prices of our commodities appreciate in value until a proper equilibrium between Exports and Imports will result. Our Trade and Finances. The Report of the Secretary of the Treasury with its accompanying Documents is a hard blow to our Free Traders. They had hoped to show from it that the New Tariff is destroying the Revenue and Foreign Commerce of the Country, but it proves exactly the reverse. The Revenue from Customs this year is considerably larger than last, as it should be, yet still below the pressing wants of the Government, and such as to render it mor. [[ ally certain that a Protective Tariff will neither leave the Treasury bankrupt on the one hand nor will it overflow it on the other. The Tariff, as adjusted at the last Session, is just about adequate to the annual wants of the Government, economically administered; but a Public Debt of some Twenty Millions having been incurred under the comparative Free Trade of the last five years, it will be found necessary to lay additional duties on Tea, Coffee, &c., for a few years in order to pay off this National indebtedness. But for this, the Tariff would be just about right as it is, the Ex-in the money value of products since 1841. Probpenditures of the Government admitting of some farther reduction. Then as to our Commerce-the gross amount of our Exports for the year now closing exceeds The above tables of Imports and Exports show an apparently large diminution in the amount of our Foreign Trade in 1842 as compared with that of the preceding year; but it must be remembered that these statistics regard money prices only, and that there has been a great and general reduction ably the actual amount and real value of the Imports of 1842 were not ten per cent. below those of 1841, while our Exports were still nearer an equality with those of the former year. From the Northern Light. THE TARIFF QUESTION. BY EDWARD C. DELAVAN. IN No. 2 of the first volume of the Northern Light you were so kind as to publish an article of mine on the subject of a Protective Tariff. I have read with attention most of the communications which have appeared in your paper on the same subject, and I have seen nothing in them to induce me to change my views with regard to the policy this country should adopt, in establishing permanently such a Tariff as will insure a reasonable protection to our manufacturing interest; a Tariff not to be changed materially until foreign nations will so far relax their Tariff regulations as to take from us our surplus produce in exchange for the manufactured goods, which they may wish to purchase, and which goods we need. The object of my first article was to exhibit the practical operation of a high and low Tariff upon the revenue of the country, and the interest of the consumer, derived from many years' experience as an importing merchant:-to show that a Tariff not prohibitory, did not necessarily increase the cost to the consumer; but that as a general rule the European manufacturer reduced his price equal to the advanced duties, or, in other words, this advance duty was paid, in whole or part, by the European manufacturer to secure the trade, and not by us. Since the publication of my first number, I have conversed with many importers of English goods, of opposite political opinions, and they have uniformly and fully confirmed my statements from their own practical experience. I have also had conversations on this subject with several distinguished gentlemen from the South, who have assured me that a reasonable protection to our manufactures was as important to the South as to the North. As I remarked in my previous article, I am in favor of Free Trade to the greatest possible extent, provided it is reciprocal. If foreign nations (to keep their artisans employed, and thus keep them from starvation,) desire to furnish us with the products of their work-shops, they must take from us in exchange the surplus product of our soil, which we can furnish to them lower than they can produce the same; this must be done, too, on equal terms; we must have on our produce the same average profit that they have on their manufactured articles. Should our produce be prohibited, and we continue to import, we must pay the balance against us in silver and gold, and in the degree that this balance increases, we shall grow poor. It is precisely the same in a national as it would be in an individual case. Let a man with an income of $1,000, expend to the value of $1,100, and he will soon become bankrupt; by the same rule, should we continue to receive from abroad a greater amount than we export, the balance must be paid in gold and silver so long as we have it to pay; and if the trade is continued, and the balance continues to be against us, and we honestly pay our debts, our houses and lands must go next, until we come at last to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to foreign countries. Let our statesmen look at this question practically; theory has led many of them astray. I have been severely censured by some noble and generous hearted men for the sentiments con tained in my first number. They look upon all restriction on trade as immoral in its tendency; and they think that we, in this free country, should, at one dash, sweep away from our statute book all laws calculated to check the free course of trade, and permit it to flow into its natural channels; that it is wrong to enact any restrictions, even to force other nations into a more liberal policy toward us. I do not look upon a protective Tariff as intended merely to coerce other nations, but as a justifiable means of self-defence. It is nothing more than a man's saying to his family: "You know I have nothing but the product of my farm for our support; and as England and France will not take these products, you must not purchase the manufactures of these countries until they will agree to trade fairly with us, and take what we can raise in exchange; you must purchase necessary articles from our own manufacturers, even at a higher price; because, although you pay more, yet you can pay with our own produce, at a fair price, while, if we purchase of a foreign market we must pay gold and silver, for that market will not take our surplus." By this kind of encouragement and reciprocal trade at home, we shall soon be independent of foreign nations, who wish to serve us with all they possibly can, and receive from us as little as possible in exchange. Selfpreservation will oblige us to adopt that course as a nation, which all would justify and advise in an individual. If England, to protect her rich landholders, will not take our surplus provisions to feed her starving population in part payment of the goods we may want of them, how can we continue the trade? How can our fertile graingrowing new States afford to consume the manufactured goods of Europe, while Europe will not take so much as a single grain of their products in exchange? Indeed, how can these new States pay their debts to Europe, unless Europe will take what alone they have to pay with the product of their soil? Unless foreign policy is changed, these new States must at once give up all hope of a foreign market for their immense surplus; they must either manufacture for themselves, or exchange with their brethren from the eastern part of the Union, who have more capital and skill devoted to manufacturing, but whose soil is less productive. It is to be hoped that the South will not much longer rest in error on this important question; she must, ere long, look to the Northern States as the chief customers for her cotton. England is straining every nerve to produce that staple in her own dependencies; in proportion as she can do this, she will carry out her policy with regard to cotton as she does by every other article-prohibit its introduction from the United States the moment she can supply herself from her own provinces. And the South need not be alarmed at this; let there be union of purpose between the North and South, with reasonable protection for self-defence, and all the cotton the South can produce, can be profitably manufactured in the country; and we need not fear the loss of the English market, as the low price of provision in this country, compared with England, and the increasing skill of our artisans will enable us to export the manufactured article, greatly increased in value over the cost of the raw material, to every market on the globe which is open to us, and at prices |