6 The Tariff as it is, compared with VIII. The Difference—The Minimum Principle. The differences between the two bills, as will be seen, are these: The present Tariff imposes a duty of three cents per pound on raw Cotton.— This Gen. McKay’s bill proposes to. abolish. As Cotton is not only produced very cheaply here, but is an article of considerable balk (about four times that of fair Wool.) in proportion to its value, this change is of no practical importance. Its principal effect will be to invite the Cotton of Texas to New-Orleans to be sold or shipped instead of being sent to Europe direct from Galves. ton. If Cotton-growers assent to this, other, interests will not object. Ou Cotton fabrics, the new bill proposes sweeping changes. Nominally, the reduction of duty on fabrics is but five per cent, and on yarns and threads nothing; butreal- ly the reduction is a very great one, and amounts to an entire subversion of the Protective policy.— The present Tariff establishes a minimum or lowest value which each description of imported Cotton Goods can be estimated to have cost, as follows: Description. Aq. sq. yd. Plain Cottons, (Sheetings, &c.)............... 20 cts. Colored or printed do. 30 “ Velvets, Fustians, &c, 35 “ Description. Per lb. Cotton, Yarns. &c. unbleached ............... 60 cts. Do. bleached or colored 75 “ If costing more, on cost. 30 p c. —The policy of extending efficient Protection to the Home production of Cotton Goods was first distinctly acknowledged in 1816, when Mr. Calhoun, holding the position now occupied by Gen. McKay, took a leading part in reconstruct mg the Tariff. At that time the plan was first adopted, under his sanction, of affording Protection to our then infant and feeble Cotton Manufacture by establishing; this very minimum principle, which says in effect, ‘You must pay so much duty, or you cannot import Foreign Cottons.’— Under the vivifying, fostering influence of this principle, the Cotton Manufacture instantly.took strong root in this Country, grew and expanded rapidly, and has for years been the most vigorou- and hardy Manufacturing interest in the Country. IX. The Effect of Efficient Protection. What has been the effect on the interest of the consumers ? It was at first assumed that Cotton goods would be dearer and poorer in this Country than formerly, but the contrary has notoriously been the result. We now obtain our Cotton Goods at one-half to one-fourth the cost of similar 'fabrics so long as our supply was almost entirely from abroad. We have extended and perfected our manufacture until some descriptions of Cottons are sold here at less than two cents per yard over the cost of the raw material. If Great Britain or any other nation would.give us outright the spinning and weaving of our plain Cottons, we furnishing the raw material and paying transportation both ways and mercantile charges, it is doubtful that our consumers would be supplied with the goods cheaper than now. It is quite certain that, taking all things into consideration— the interest of our producers as well as consumers of Cottons—it would be unwise in us to accept the offer. Wc are now producing our own supply entirely, except some of the higher-priced and fancy fabrics, and producing it cheaper than any other nation could possibh- afford to do it f^r us. Then why change ? What good end is desired or attainable ? Cotton fabrics generally are now produced as cheaply here as any where in the world. Our own workers are employed in supplying our wants, and at barely adequate prices We are making these goods so cheap that we not only command the Home Market, but rival Great Britain in the1 markets of South America and China, and Hon. Nathan Appleton, of Boston, (Member of the last Congress,) states as a fact that the British troops in India are partially clothed in American Drillings. A consignment was last season sent from the ‘ Stark Mills,’ Manchester, N. H. to Manchester, England, and there sold at a living price. The Labor costs more here than in England, but our mills run by water-power and theirs by steam; the former costing but about one-third as much as the latter. Then the Cotton grows here; and though for the last year it has been fully as high here as in England, yet it in the aveiage is a trifle lower. Give us Cotton Mills on the navigable waters of Tennessee and the West generally, .where Cotton is ten to fifteen per cent, cheaper than it can be in New-England, and we will, with the present Tariff to secure the Home Market as a basis, be able to rival any nation in any open and equal market of the world in the production of these goods. X. Prices of Cotton Fairies—Two Errors Corrected. A table of comparative prices of the cheaper and commoner Cotton fabrics, made up in this city, has been widely copied and quoted in Congress, purporting to show a rise in Cotton Goods consequent on the Tariff, averaging some 30 per cent. But this statement is designedly false and deceptive. Although concocted and used expressly to show that the present Tariff had increased the cost of Cotton Goods, it did not venture to compare, as it was bound in honesty to do, the prices prevailing at some time before the present Tariff with those of the same kinds of goods since or now, but it compares the prices of January, 1843, with those of January, 1844, both since the. Present Tariff was enacted—the first five months after it went into operation. If the compiler had meant to show honestly the effect of the Tariff on prices, so far as it has haci any effect, he would have compared the prices in the first eight months of 1842, through which the Tariff was barely twenty-per cent., with those of 1843 and 1844, since the present Tariff was enacted. This would have completely upset his calculation, and showed that there had been no enhancement of price on Cottons in consequence of the Tariff—on many descriptions a reduction, and on others no farther advance than the increased price of Cotton absolutely compelled.— The following table of comparative prices of Cotton Goods in January, 1842, when the duty was but 20 per cent., and in the corresponding month of 1844, under the operation of the present Tariff, was prepared for the New-York Tribune by Messrs. J. P. Nesmith & Co. a wholesale commission house of the highest character in Pine- street, who sell Domestic Cloths very largely. It has now been some time before the public, and no one has ventured to question its perfect accuracy. See how the Tariff has raised prices:—
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