The Substitute Proposed by its Adversaries. has thus been often nearer to rather than farther from the larger number of our consumers, and so more valuable where made than if on the seaboard; but this is never regarded by our public economists, who only inquire at what prices respectively American and Imported Iron are sold in New-York, and, finding the latter cheaper here, duty out of the question, have pronounced it so much the cheaper for our People. But this is a most unfair test. At this moment, Iron can, be brought to this city from the mountains of Wales much cheaper than from the furnaces of Western Pennsylvania; but it is of more value where produced to nearly half our People than if in New- York. The production of Rolled Iron on any considerable scale among us may be regarded as yet in its infancy, obstructed by great embarrassments, and yet it has made rapid, gratifying progress since 1828. It is now clearly on the eve of still greater advances, which will reduce the cost of Iron among us far below that of any former period. (It is now, taking the average of all descriptions, within a fraction of its lowest price at any former period, including even the depressed season, from January to September, 1842, when t he duty was but 20 percent.) There seems, then, no good reason for now reducing the duties, but many and earnest dissuasives therefrom, growing out of the critical yet most promising condition of the business. Let it rest a few years, until our mines, forges, foundries, &e. shall be every where approached and interlaced by a net-work of Railroads and Canals, bringing cheaply together all the elements of production, and a much greater reduction than is now proposed may be made with impunity. XX. Manufactures of Iron. Still, the production of Iron, accelerated and strengthened as it has been by the present Tariff, could stand the relatively inconsiderable reduction of duty proposed by McKay’s bill—which still leaves the duty specific, and equivalent in the average to seventy-five per cent, ad valorem—were it not for the vastly greater and more ruinous reductions proposed in the duties noiv imposed on Manufactures of Iron. These, it will be seen, are now to the utmost practicable extent specific, and they are so high as to be efficiently Protective. So much per pound on Wire, Screws, Butts, Hammers, Nails, Saws, Spikes, &c. &c. is a rate to be calculated and depended on, and this way of levying duties is of itsslf a Protection, by the tight rein it draws, upon the fervid and fantastic imaginations of custom-house swearers. But all this is swept by the proposed substitute Tariff of Gen. McKay, which ^£7 the duties on Bar and Rolled Iron l^ specific rates equivalent to seventy-five per cent. valorem> proc8eds to reduce the duties on all the >^-;oug manufactures from these materials to thirty -sent._ What madness, what suicide is here! Seventy- five per cent, on the raw material—thirty on the manufactures! How is it possible that our workers in Iron—our makers of Screws, Wire, Spikes, Chains, Saws, &c.—could live under such a Tariff? A few of them, doubtless, possessing peculiar advantages, would do so, not by the help of the Tariff, but in spite of it. To the greater number, however, the passage of this bill must be a death-blow. When even nail-rods are to be admit13 ted at a lower duty than Bar, Iron, and when every principle of sound policy and wise discrimination is reversed by the whole tenor of this section, it would seem idle to point out special objections. It must be obvious to all that our workers in Iron will stand a great deal worse under this bill, so far as their own trades are specially affected, than with no Tariff at all. In the latter case, they would stand something like an even chance with their Foreign competitors for our own market, but not under this bill. His British rival will send here his fabrics, paying far less duty bn them than the American maker pays on the raw material, and the competition is nothing like a fair one. More than this:—a man wishing to import Rolled Iron, andf disliking to pay the duty of twenty dollars per ton, has only to put it into the shape of some cheap manufacture, like Anvills or Spike-rods, (the clumsiest article will answer,) and now it will be admitted at thirty per cent, which-at his valuations will hardly exceed ten dollars a ton! And this shows at once the cheat which is meditated by this McKay bill, and the incapacity or recklessness with which it has been carried forward. Pennsylvania is a great Iron State, and the majority of the House are told by their colleagues from that State, “You must touch lightly on our great Interest—-if you do otherwise, our People will rebel against the party.” So Iron is accommodated with a high specific duty. But the Manufactures of Iron, though more extensive than the production of the raw ma. material, are not backed by the Electoral Vote of a powerful State—they are scattered every where, have no common focus or organ, and may be cut up with comparative impunity. So they are. But what an utter mockery is the Protection so ostentatiously afforded to Iron while every thing made of Iron is allowed to come in at a much lower rate ? What use in protecting Iron if the demand for Iron be cut off by the cheap importation of all iron utensils, implements, &c. Obviously, this is a ruinous deception. XXI. Prices of Iron Wares, as affected by the Tariff. I had intended to give here a table of the comparative prices at various times of Iron Manufactures before and since the enactment of the present Tariff, but so much depends on the quality of articles of this nature that no table would be deemed conclusive. Every man can satisfy himself of these general truths, viz : 1. Those articles the production of which has been longest, most steadily, most efficiently protected are now the cheapest in our market, as compared with prices the world over; 2. There has been a reduction since 1842 in the cost of Wood Screws, and other important articles effectively protected by the present Ta- while CutLry and other articles which are nst proauced here to any considerable extent, have risen ; 3. That where any article has materially advanced in price since the present Tariff was enacted, it has been in strict accordance with the law I have already illustrated—that those articles of which a larger number or quantity can be produced at a comparatively lower price will be sensibly reduced in price by Protection, while
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