judgment the most pernicious. It is fully and consistently embodied in his bill. Let us briefly consider it :

The confession of Mr. Walker that, under an ad valorem," care" is necessary to guard against fraudulent invoices and undervaluation, and to assess the duty on the actual "market value," reveals but half the truth. All men familiar with goods and with importation must know that no "care" can possibly prevent such frauds as he here deprecates where the basis of the duty is the asserted or estimated value of the goods. Here come by the next steamer, forty cases of Silk goods, packed to order; a dozen boxes of Books, new and standard, popular and scientific or classical; fifty casks of assorted Hardware and Saddlery; twenty bales of Cotton and Woolen fabrics, &c., &c. How is the absolute value of all these articles to be computed and settled? How many officials would be needed to do the business of the New York CustomHouse, if their "care" is to be so omniscient and thorough as to baffle "fraudulent invoices and undervaluation?" Five hundred surely could not do it, nor, at some seasons, five thousand. Examining a few pieces of the goods in each bale or package would afford no security against fraud in those left unscrutinized. The naked, notorious truth is that, under ad valorem duties, reliance must and will be mainly placed on the invoice and oath of the importer, and the character of Custom-House oaths and invoices has passed into a proverb.

The inevitable tendency of the ad valorem system is to an aggravation of all the evils therewith connected. The man who has just made $5,000 by valuing through the Custom House at $80,000 goods worth $100,000 is at once stimulated by his success and so demoralized by his crime as to engage with far less reluctance in its repetition. He does not now consider whether he shall or shall not defraud again, but whether he cannot defraud more thoroughly and thus swell his gains. And the ad valorem system offers not merely incessant temptations and facilities to fraud, but it tends to throw importation more and more exclusively into the hands of these who practice it. The importer who pays full duties is inevitably undersold by him who pays but two-thirds or three-fourths; his customers gradually fall off to those who can afford them better bargains, and he shuts up or becomes bankrupt. Mean

time, his dishonest neighbor goes on swimmingly, until he has amassed a fortune, or is outdone by some rival more adept or desperate in roguery than himself. The wit of hundreds is thus kept constantly on the rack, to devise new and more ingenious or more thorough methods of defrauding the revenue, so that with each year of the existence of an ad valorem duty, the amount of revenue received under it upon a fixed quantity of goods grows smaller and smaller.

But this is not all. A ruinous advantage is given to the Foreigner over the American importer by ad valorem duties. The wealthy European merchant or manufacturer, who sends out his fabrics to an agent or commission-house in this city for sale, can honestly (as he considers it) enter his goods at our Custom-House, as costing him less than an American importer can buy them for. Let us take the case of a great Silk manufacturer of France or Italy, who sends here one hundred cases of his fabrics. He is aware that he must pay our Government twenty-five per cent. on their value. But how does he estimate that value? The cost of raw material and of labor are the first items. What else? He says, "My rent of buildings, use of machinery, clerk-hire, interest on capital, &c., I reckon nothing; for all these had been incurred in the course of my business, whether I made these goods for America or not. The actual cost to me has been that of the labor specially devoted to and the raw material contained in these goods." On this estimate, his goods are sworn through the Custom-House; but let an American go to him or any of his class to buy such an assortment of goods, and he will find their cost computed very differently. He must pay twenty per cent. more for them than this Custom-House basis of the manufacturer, and on this twenty per cent. must pay twenty-five per cent. more duty under Mr. Walker's bill. Let him attempt to undervalue, and the price he paid for the goods may rise up in judgment against him, as it cannot against his rival; and his character, his property, are in jeopardy, as those of that rival are not. The advantages are entirely and immensely on the side of the latter. Thus it is that the career of American importers has usually been short, closing in disaster; so that of a hundred of whom a friend took note n nety-seven had terminated in bankruptcy.

Now the levying of specific duties tends to counteract this tendency. The goods of the American importer weigh or measure no more than his foreign rival's, the honest man's no more than the rogue's; and the duty is levied fairly on each. A ton of iron or of sugar, of steel or of hemp, of raw silk or of spices, pays just so much duty, no matter by whom imported or what is the latest phase of the markets. The importer knows beforehand what he is to pay; the impartial scales inform the collector how much he is to receive, and there is no room for cavil or dispute. We happen to know that the present excellent mode of imposing duties on silks-so much per pound on the various kinds respectively-was adopted on the suggestion of American merchants engaged in the importation and sale of silk goods. All this Mr. Walker proposes to subvert, and impose none but ad valorem duties.

"6th. That the duty should be so imposed as to operate as equally as possible throughout the Union, discriminating neither for nor against any class or section."

This last of Mr. Walker's "principles" receives a striking commentary in the rumor (whether well or ill-founded) that the Administration Members of Congress from the Eastern States have waited on the Committee of Ways and Means in a body, with an earnest remonstrance against the unfair and sectional character of the bill submitted by Mr. Walker, and to insist on its amendment before it is reported to the House. We say it is not imaterial whether this remonstrance has or has not been formally rendered, since the fact that it ought to have been in either case remains. A bill which imposes thirty per cent. alike on Iron and on Manufactures of Iron, thus affording the Iron of Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Missouri a protection denied to the Iron Wares of New England and New York, is not an equal Tariff. A duty of twenty per cent on Raw Silk (almost wholly imported) with an addition of barely five per cent. on Silk Manufactures (which are still in their infancy among us) is any thing but just and equal. Thirty per cent. on Iron and Coal, with twenty on all Cotton fabrics, is not "discriminating neither for nor against any class or section." And so we might go through the

bill.

But the most striking exemplification of Mr. Walker's "equally as possible" is

afforded by his proposed duties on Wool and Woolens. The present Tariff imposes on wool costing over seven cents per lb. a duty of three cents per lb. specific, and thirty per cent. ad valorem ; on wool costing less than seven cents per lb. five per cent.; on the cheap, coarse fabric known as "Woolen Blankets" fifteen per cent.; on all other Woolen Blankets twenty-five per cent.; on Flannels, Baizes and the more costly Carpets, specific duties per square yard; on Woolen Yarn, Worsted, Hosiery, common Carpeting, &c., thirty per cent.; and on other woolens forty per cent.-The design here carefully kept in view throughout, is, first, to give adequate and thorough protection to the American growers of wool; secondly, to give a corresponding and equal protection to our own manufacturers of woolens; thirdly, to allow the importation of such qualities of wool as do not come in competition with our own and cannot be advantageously produced here, at the lowest rates, and to admit at corresponding rates the fabrics thence manufactured. Wool costing less than seven cents per lb. is mainly, if not wholly, the product of warmer climates than that of our wool-growing region, is taken from sheep that require little or no feeding or care in winter, is usually short and filthy as well as coarse, and, being substantially a spontaneous product of Nature, can hardly be rivaled in price by our own producers. Make the duty on this article fifty per cent., and still its cost at our manufactories will not exceed twelve cents per lb., at which price no wool is, or is likely to be, produced among us. It seemed, therefore, to the framers of our Tariff that imposing a high duty on this wool and the corresponding fabric would be simply increasing the cost of the coarsest woolen fabrics without advantage or hope of advantage to any home interest. Subsequent experience has shown, we think, that the fertility of resource with which wool, worth and really costing more than seven cents per lb., may be sworn through the Custom-House as costing less than that rate was not sufficiently appreciated and guarded against. Much wool, which the Congress of 1842 intended to subject to the higher rate, has been imported; especially during the last year, under the lower or nominal duty, defrauding at once the Government of revenue and our wool-growers of protection. This unforeseen evasion demands a correspond

ing amendment of the Tariff. The true course to be now pursued, in our judgment, is to abolish the ad valorems entirely, and to charge all wool of a prescribed fineness ten cents, all below the standard five cents per lb. This would at once insure adequate protection to the wool-grower and put an end to frauds in the importation of wool by removing all inducement for their commission.

66

But Mr. Walker proposes to substitute for the present duties on wool and woolens a uniform ad valorem duty of twenty per cent. on all wool, whether of the finer qualities which can be advantageously produced here, or the coarsest which cannot. On such wool as comes directly in competition with the product of our farmers, the duty is reduced more than half; on such as does not, and can be imported more advantageously than we can grow it, it is quadrupled. The wisdom of such changes, operating against both the grower and the consumer of wool, is certainly past finding out." But when he substitutes for the widely diverse rates of duty on wool a uniform impost, there would seem no reason to doubt that he should make a corresponding adjustment of the duties on woolens. Precisely contrary, however, is his course. Raising the duty on coarse wool from five per cent. to twenty, he actually cuts down the duties on cheap woolen blankets from fifteen per cent. to ten, and of the better qualities from twenty-five per cent. to twenty! Here is a discrimination of no less than ten per cent. against an important branch of National Industry and in favor of Foreign machinery, capital and labor. The American and the British manufacturers of woolen blankets, both resort to the same market for the cheap, coarse wool of which these blankets are manfactured. The British manufacturer pays no duty on his wool, when imported into Great Britain, and but ten per cent. on the cheaper, and twenty on the better qualities of his fabric. The cost of the raw material of so cheap and common an article, of course, constitutes a very large proportion of the cost of the goods. But the American manufac turer is met at our wharf by an impost of twenty per cent. on his wool, which is to be paid some time before his outlay is returned to him by the sale of his product. Thus condemned by his own government to pay so much higher duties on his raw material than his British rival pays on his fabric, he has not even the

poor chance to sustain himself that absolute Free Trade would allow him. The result is inevitable. With but five per cent. discrimination in its favor on the more costly fabrics, and with a discrimination of ten against it on the cheaper, our woolen manufacture is inevitably doomed, if Mr. Walker's bill passes the ordeal of Congress unchanged. A few establishments, already in successful operation, may continue to make certain descriptions of goods at a profit, but that thrifty and beneficent growth and extension of this branch of industry which is fast dotting the rivers and streams, not merely of New England, but of the Middle and Western States, with factories, will be utterly arrested, and a counter-current set in motion by the passage of this bill. Instead of this, the Press will be compelled to chronicle from time to time the failure of this or that manufacturing firm or company, the stoppage of manufactures, and the conversion of factories to other uses.

Such will be the effect of the passage of this bill on many other home interests. Cotton fabrics of ordinary kinds, which have obtained a firm foothold among us under the stringent protection afforded them, almost uniformly since 1816, by the operation of the minimum principle, will continue to be produced here probably to the extent of the country's consumption. But the costlier and rarer descriptions of cottons, novel and elegant prints, ginghams, muslins, &c., will be forced in upon us at a decided advantage by European manufacturers. Twenty per cent. ad valorem on such goods is substantially whatever the importer pleases to pay-perhaps averaging two cents per yard on goods selling by the case for twenty. But the difference in our market between the selling price of choice Foreign and American prints is more than two cents a yard in favor of the former.

Of a British pattern of prints, possibly one-tenth of the amount manufactured may reach this country; of a French, perhaps one-twentieth; while of an American, seven-eighths will remain here and enter into the home supply. If we suppose 100,000 pieces may be printed from a set of blocks, there will be 10,000 pieces thrown upon our markets of a British pattern, 5,000 of a French, and 87,500 of an American. These facts are known intimately to our dealers and vaguely to buyers, and prices are governed by them. The rarer and fresher

patterns are sought for, and command higher prices than those which are common. Fashion is not so utterly blind as many suppose; and though articles "far-fetched" are, proverbially, "dearbought," yet the same proverb proclaims their eminent acceptability with the fair. All who have even a general, outside acquaintance with trade, know that of two fabrics of equal cost and intrinsic value, one is often selling rapidly for twenty-five to fifty per cent. more than the other can be sold for, and that rarity and novelty are the main elements of this superiority. The advantage of position, therefore, under a twenty per cent. duty, will be all in favor of the British and against the American manufacturer of prints, ginghams, &c. He stands at the door of all the open markets in the world, can divide his product readily and advantageously among them all, and can sell the portion he may decide to send here so as to net him more, after paying the duty, than if he had produced the same goods among us. With this immense advantage of position, acquired through long years of stringent protection and of internal exemption from war, while all the rest of the world was suffering from or exposed to its ravages-with a commerce which swept the globe, backed by a navy which mastered and monopolized the ocean Great Britain may well afford, at this day, to propose universal Free Trade. It is a veteran and skillful swordsman challenging, severally, a rabble of raw schoolboys to single combat with rapiers. The answer is manifestly, "Sir, the conditions are unequal; the advantage entirely with you. Wait till we have acquired equal strength, maturity, practice and skill, with yourself-at least, till we have had reasonable opportunities for acquiring them and then we 'll think of it."

Having thus considered, severally, Mr. Walker's fundamental principles of Financial Policy, we proceed to examine the arguments and allegations by which he sustains them. We can only find room to deal with those which, by common consent, have been regarded as most important and vital. And first, then, with regard to the effect of Protection on Labor and Wages:

"An appeal has been made to the poor by the friends of protection, on the ground that it augments the wages of labor. In reply, it is contended that the wages of labor have not augmented since the Tariff

of 1842, and that in some cases they have diminished.

"When the number of manufactories is not great, the power of the system to regulate the wages of labor is inconsiderable; manufactures is augmented by the Protecbut as the profit of capital invested in tive Tariff, there is a corresponding increase of power, until the control of such capital over the wages of labor becomes irresistible. As this power is exercised from time to time, we find it resisted by combinations among the working-classes, by turning out for higher wages, or for shorter time; by trades-union; and in some countries, unfortunately, by violence and bloodshed. But the government, by prothe manufacturing system, and, by thus tective duties, arrays itself on the side of augmenting its wealth and power, soon terminates in its favor the struggle between man and money-between capital and labor. When the Tariff of 1842 was enacted, the maximum duty was 20 per cent. By that act, the average of duties on the protected articles was more than doubled. But the wages of labor did not increase in a corresponding ratio, or in any ratio whatever. On the contrary, whilst wages in some cases have diminished, the prices of many articles used by the working-classes have greatly appreciated."

We entreat every reader to consider carefully the assertion of this remarkable passage. That collisions do often take place between employers and laborers in regard to the compensation of the latter, hours of working, &c., is deplorably true; but that these are any more frequent or mischievous because of protection, is an assertion not only without proof but against all reason. A. B. is an employer, C. D. a workman in his shop for wages. Here are two men between whom a certain antagonism of interests is apparent; the one desiring more work for less wages: the other more wages for less work. Say, if you will, that the relation is a false one, or is not so; is it any more or less so because of the Tariff? off the duties, will the antagonism cease? double them, will it be aggravated? Can there be two answers to these questions? But Mr. Walker asserts that the Government, by Protection, takes a part against the laborer in conflict with capital by augmenting the wealth and power of the manufacturing system, that is to say, the manufacturing laborer, while there are few employers to compete for his labor, can command good wages; but when these are swelled to many, he must take just what they may please to give him! The doctrine.

Take

is alike repugnant to fact and common sense. The market value of labor, like everything else, is governed by the relation of supply to demand. The work men in factories are there because they are paid more than they can obtain elsewhere. All the chances of employment they had before the Tariff are open to them still, and those which the Tariff has created in addition. Thus Pennsylvania has seventy-nine iron furnaces in active operation now, instead of seven in languid existence in 1842; there are in the United States nineteen glass factories now at work, while there were but four when the present Tariff was enacted-and so on through the whole circle of manufacturing industry. Can any man need evidence that the labor employed in these works is better rewarded, not merely in the aggregate but in detail, than it was four years ago? Will any man pretend that our public lands are less accessible to honest industry (may they never become so!) than they were in 1842, or that labor in agriculture and navigation is less amply employed or fairly rewarded than it then was? Any enlarged observation will show that such is not the case -that, while the annual product of our national industry has been increased by an amount certainly not less than one hundred millions of dollars in the various departments of manufactures and of mechanical arts subservient to manufactures, such as erecting factories, burning brick, cutting timber, quarrying stone therefor, erecting dams, digging coal, &c., and in the production of machinery, there has been no consequent falling off in agriculture, commerce, nor even ship-building, but on the contrary the area under cultivation and the amount of labor employed in agriculture have largely and annually increased. Can any man believe it possible that this immense increase in the amount of labor employed, and in the diversity of employment, could take place without benefiting the laboringclass? Where ten thousand men are now employed instead of one thou sand formerly, is it not obvious that the Wages paid to January, Gaffer No. 8, per week. Serviter No. 3, Foot maker No. 3,

Total.

condition of labor generally will be improved and that of individuals strikingly so? The man who before found nothing to do now finds employment at some rate; while he who formerly worked for the minimum wages of mere labor will now, if energetic and skillful, find employment in some other capacity where his earnings will be largely increased. Such is the case with thousands to-day. Even though the minimum compensation for labor, or that of any particular grade, had not advanced, it would not the less be true, that the general reward of labor had been sensibly improved by the gradual advance of good workmen to higher and better rewarded employments with the growing necessity for more labor in these employments. But this is not all that the truth will warrant. The advance in wages has been absolute and positive. The manufacturers of glassware, for example, who have now nineteen furnaces in full operation, instead of three or four half at work in 1842, and who have shown beyond cavil a reduction of 20 to 40 per cent. in our markets of the price of glass, under a Tariff which has increased the duties on this ware from 20 per cent. ad valorem up to specific rates ranging from 50 to 250 per cent., give the following statement of the wages paid by them in several departments of their business. It has been for weeks before the public undisputed, and is doubtless the naked truth:

"Boston and Sandwich Glass Co., February 10, 1846. "The limits of a letter would not contain a complete pay-roll of one of our establishments, in which the wages of no two persons are exactly the same. Every man receives in proportion to his skill; one will earn three dollars per day, while another will earn half that sum. We have taken, therefore, one person in the three and have carried him through four differprincipal departments of Glass making, ent periods, giving the amount of his wages at each. The persons selected are fair workmen, forming a just average of the class to which each belongs. 1840.

1842.

1844. 1846. $16 50 $17 26 9 60 9 00

$10 00

850 7.00

8. 00

11 00

6 50

9 50