and distress. The crisis of 1857 not only impoverished the people, but the public revenues became so small that the Government was compelled to borrow money at from 8 to 12 per cent. discount in order to provide running expenses. Said President Buchanan in his annual message: "With unsurpassed plenty in all the elements of national wealth, our manufactures have suspended; our public works are retarded; our private enterprises of different kinds are abandoned and thousands of useful laborers are thrown out of employment and reduced to want."

Since the passage of the Morrill Tariff Act of 1861, the doctrine of protection has found constant application. The Act of 1883 effected the largest change in that of 1861, by reducing duties and enlarging the free list, but it was crude in many of its provisions. The Act of 1890, known as the McKinley Act, still further enlarged the free list, addressed the principle of protection more directly to American labor, and introduced the policy of reciprocity. Protectionists

claim for this period, 1861 to the present, the establishment and enjoyment of an industrial system which has assumed a larger national growth, a more rapid accumulation and broader distribution of wealth than ever before known in the history of our country. During that period there has been but one panic, that of 1873, and that differed from those of 1819, 1837, and 1857, in not being confined to this country, but in having an origin in general disturbance of credit abroad, the effect of which was to throw back upon us suddenly an inordinate number of our bonds. This caused sudden drain and great hardship for a time. The condition was almost repeated in 1890, when the failure of the Baring Brothers, and general disturbance in European credit, shook our commercial centres and tested our ability to withstand panic. In 1873 our mills did not stop running as in other

panics. Banks did not break by wholesale. Internal commerce was not interrupted. Every recuperative agency had play. We sold more than we bought, and reduced our national debt. Protectionists aver that the panic of 1873 was a blessing in disguise.

The eminent protectionist, Henry C. Carey, thus concludes his historic argument :—

"We have had Protection in 1789, 1812, 1824, 1828, 1842, and from 1861 to 1894.

We have had Free-Trade, or very low tariff, in 1783, 1816, 1832, 1846, 1857, 1894.

Now note the unvarying results:

Under protection we have had : 1. Great demand for labor.

2. Wages high and money cheap.
3. Public and private revenues large.

4. Immigration great and steadily in-
creasing.

5. Public and private prosperity great
beyond all previous precedent.
6. Growing national independence.

Under Free-Trade we have had :
1. Labor everywhere seeking em-
ployment.

2. Wages low and money high.
3. Public and private revenues small
and steadily decreasing.

4. Immigration declining.

5. Public and private bankruptcy nearly universal.

6. Growing national dependence.

The argument that protection injures the farmer has always been a favorite one with free-traders. It has steadily grown in favor, and has been given a decided turn in the Fifty-second Congress by the attempt to remove the duty from wool, binding twine and tin plate. The argument of the protectionist is that manufactured articles, and especially those which concern the farmer, are on an average 25 per cent. cheaper to-day than in 1860, when 80 per cent. of them were made abroad. That now 80 per cent. of them are made at home. That the farmer has been saved the cost of ocean transportation on this 80 per cent., and has had the benefit of the home market their manufacture has created for his

produce. That such market is certain, at his door, and already takes 80 per cent. of his wheat and 92 per cent. of That it keeps even pace with the growth of manufactures and will ere long take all his surplus, at a better ་ rate than he can get for it abroad and in competition with the cheap wheat of India and Australia.

In addition to the above argument, protectionists show that our free list now embraces nearly half of our importations; that said list comprises all the articles which affect the comfort of the farmer or poor man, such as sugar, fruit, rice, breeding animals, tea, coffee, etc.; and that the dutiable list embraces high priced articles and articles of luxury, such as wines, liquors, cigars, silks, satins, glassware, diamonds, linens, cottons, etc., the duties on which are paid mostly by the wealthy.

The free-trader argues that "free raw material used in the manufactures" is especially worthy of a place on the free list. Among these he classes wool, flax, hemp, seeds, iron ore, pig iron, coal, marble, etc. The protectionist claims that the free-list, as enlarged under the Act of 1890, embraces a sufficient number of these articles; that those, like wool, which pay duty, come into competition with the products of our farmers and laborers in shops, mines and furnaces; that labor is a prime object of protection; that all the articles, technically classed as "raw material," are not such to the farmer, laborer, miner and furnace man, because they represent the labor, skill and even capital of the latter, as much as cloth represents the skill and capital of the manufacturer, or the coat those of the tailor.

Protection repudiates the doctrine that it is a device for the benefit of the privileged classes. It rests on the principle that it operates for the general development of the resources and the encouragement of the industries of the country. If

Born in Richmond co., N. C., October 31st, 1826; educated at Hamilton College, N. Y.; admitted to bar in Hartford, Conn., 1850; editor of Hartford Evening Press and Courant from 1857 to present; enlisted in army April 15, 1861; mustered out as Brevet Major-General January 15, 1866; elected Governor of State, as a Republican, April, 1866; Delegate to Republican National Conventions, 1872-76-80; President of Centennial Exhibition; elected to 42d Congress, November, 1872; re-elected to 43d and 46th Congresses; elected to U. S. Senate, as a Republican, March 4, 1881; re-elected in 1887, and again in 1893; Chairman of Committee on Military Affairs, and member of Committees on Coast Defences, Pensions, Nicaragua Canal, etc.

Born at Portland, Maine, October 18, 1839; graduated at Bowdoin, 1860; studied law and admitted to bar; Assistant Paymaster in Navy, 1864-65; member of State House of Representatives, 1868-69, and of Senate, 1870; Attorney General of Maine, 1870-72; Solicitor of Portland, 1874-77; elected, as a Republican, to 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st, 52d, 53d and 54th Congresses; elected and presided as Speaker of House in 51st Congress; an able and efficient parliamentarian; his decision as to actual presence and constructive absence in counting a quorum was sustained by the U. S. Supreme Court; a writer and speaker of originality and force; elected Speaker of House in 54th Congress; prominent candidate for Presidential nominee in 1896.