196 



CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



reeded the exports (covering a period of fourteen 

 years) $465,553,625. 



" During the war and down to 1875 the im- 

 ports with two exceptions exceeded the exports. 

 From 1876 down to 1889 inclusive (covering a 

 period of fourteen years) there were only two 

 years when our imports exceeded our exports, and 

 the total excess of exports over imports was $1,- 

 581,906,871 of the products of our own people 

 more than we brought into the United States. 

 The balance of trade has been almost uninter- 

 ruptedly in our favor during the protective- tariff 

 periods of our history, and against us with few 

 exceptions during revenue-tariff periods. This 

 would seem to indicate a healthful business con- 

 dition with the outside world, resulting from the 

 Republican economic system, and an unhealthf ul 

 condition, where we had to send money out of 

 the country to pay our balances under the Demo- 

 cratic system. The chief complaint against this 

 bill comes from importers and consignees here, on 

 the one hand, and the foreign merchants and con- 

 signors abroad. Why do they complain ? Mani- 

 festly because in some way this bill will check 

 their business here and increase the business of our 

 own manufacturers and producers ; it will dimin- 

 ish the importation of competing foreign goods, 

 and increase the consumption of our home-made 

 goods. This may be a good reason to influence 

 the foreigner to oppose its passage, but is hardly a 

 sound reason why Americans should oppose it. 



" If the bill checks foreign importations of 

 goods competing with ours, it will increase our 

 production and necessarily increase the demand 

 for labor at home. This may be a good reason 

 why the cheap labor of other countries should be 

 unfriendly to this bill, but furnishes the best of 

 reasons why the workmen of the United States 

 should favor it as they dc. We do not conceal 

 the purpose of this bill we want our own coun- 

 trymen and all mankind to know it. It is to in- 

 crease production here, diversify our productive 

 enterprises, enlarge the field, and increase the 

 demand for American workmen. 



" What American can oppose these worthy and 

 patriotic objects'? Others not Americans may 

 find justification for doing so. This bill is an 

 American bill. It is made for the American 

 people and American interests. 



"The press of other countries have denounced 

 the bill with unmeasured severity, the legislative 

 assemblies of more than one distant country 

 have given it attention in no friendly spirit. It 

 has received the censure of diplomates and for- 

 eign powers for all of which there is manifest 

 reason it may pinch them, but no American 

 citizen surely can object to to it on that account. 

 We are not legislating for any nation but our 

 own ; for our people and for no other people are 

 we charged with the duties of legislation. We 

 say to our foreign brethren : ' We will not inter- 

 fere in your domestic legislation ; we admonish 

 you to keep your hands off of ours.' 



" Contrast the imports and exports of the 

 United Kingdom under free trade and unre- 

 strained commerce with the imports and exports 

 of the United States. In 1870 the total value of 

 imports and exports of the United Kingdom 

 was $2,663,620,718; in 1888 it was $3,336,087,- 

 844, an increase in eighteen years of $672,467,- 

 126, equivalent to 25'25 per cent. 



" The total value of the imports and exports 

 of the United States in 1870 was $917,794,421; 

 in 1889, $1,487,533,027, an increase of $569,738,- 

 606, or an equivalent of 62 per cent., so that it 

 will be observed that under the revenue-tariff 

 system of Great Britain her imports and exports 

 between 1870 and 1888 increased but 25 per 

 cent., while under the protective system of the 

 United States, which is characterized by our op- 

 ponents as exclusive and restrictive and like a 

 Chinese wall, the imports and exports of the 

 United States increased between 1870 and 1889 

 62*8 per cent., a gain over Great Britain of nearly 

 37 per cent., and we sent out in those years more 

 than we brought in. 



" Notwithstanding the complaint that is made 

 about the decadence of our foreign commerce 

 Mulhall informs us that Great Britain's propor- 

 tion in the foreign commerce in 1830 was 27'2 

 per cent, of the commerce of the world ; but in 

 1870 it had fallen to 24'5 per cent., and in 1880 

 Great Britain's proportion was but 21 - 2 per cent. 

 In 1830 the United States had but 3'7 per cent, 

 of the commerce of the world ; in 1870 it had 

 risen to 9'2 per cent. ; and in 1880 she had 11-5 

 per cent, of the foreign commerce of the world. 



" While Great Britain lost between 1870 and 

 1880 13 per cent, of her trade, the United States 

 gained 22 per cent. ; and if the United States 

 would give the same encouragement to her mer- 

 chant marine and her steamship lines as is given 

 by other nations, this commerce on the seas un- 

 der the American flag would increase and multi- 

 ply. When the United States will expend from 

 her treasury from five to six millions a year, as 

 do France and Great Britain, to maintain their 

 steamship lines, our ships will plow every sea 

 in successful competition with the ships of the 

 world. Will you, gentlemen, join us in en- 

 couraging our merchant marine ? 



"But, Mr. Chairman, in the presence of our 

 magnificent domestic commerce, the commerce 

 along our inland seas, our lakes and rivers and 

 great railroad lines, why need we vex ourselves 

 about foreign commerce? The domestic trade 

 of the United States is 95 per cent, of the 

 whole of our trade. Nowhere is the progress of 

 the country so manifest as in this wonderful 

 growth and development. Our coasting trade 

 more than doubled our foreign trade in 1880. 

 Thirty-four million tons as against 16,000,000 of 

 foreign, including all our exports and imports, 

 carried in all the ships of the world in 1880. 

 Our inland water tonnage was 25,000,000, our 

 foreign 16,000,000. 



"The water carriage of the United States 

 along its coasts and its rivers is five times 

 greater than the foreign commerce of the United 

 States. 



" Why, the movement of tonnage through the 

 Detroit river in 1889 was 10,000,000 tons more 

 than the total registered entries and clearances 

 at all the seaports of the United States, and it 

 was 3,000.000 tons in excess of the combined 

 foreign and coastwise registered tonnage of the 

 ports of Liverpool and London. What higher 

 testimony do we want of the growth of our in- 

 ternal commerce ? 



" We try nations as they appear on the bal- 

 ance sheet' of the world. We try systems 1 

 suits ; we are too practical a people for theory. 



