Show TARIFF statistics WE willingly give place today to a communication from the gentlemen me who appeared as the champions of free trade in the debate upon that subject held in this city a few evenings ago it is not our intention to uter enter into a tariff controversy dut but we will venture a few brief observations relative to some of the statements and figures presented by the gentlemen they rhey show that the increase in the value of farms in the united states from 1850 to 1860 a decade of low tariff was 10 per cent per annum while from 1860 to 1880 a period of high tariff it was only aj per percent cent per annum but this percentage applies to a sum more then than double that which the 10 per cent does the object of thew these figures and comparisons is to sustain the theory that a low tariff had the effect to enhance the aggregate value of american forms farms but unfortunate ly for this theory the gentlemen give figures which destroy it thoy they show that the increase in the value of farms between 1860 1850 and 1860 was or 10 per cent per annum and use these figures in an immediate connection which produces a comparison favorable to their p position but further on they disclose the fact that in the next decade viz from 1860 to 1870 under a war tariff and during a period which ern embraced braced the rebellion and ie reconstruction construction of the Sout southern herfi states th the increase was or more than thalia three fourths what it was during the previous decade of peace and prosperity during the next decade however 1870 to 1880 though the tariff conditions remained much the same the lateef rate of increase in the value of farms was enormously reduced being less than one third what it was from 1860 to 1870 now if the late of increase in the value of farms is ie governed by b the tariff while the tariff remains substantially ly the same that rate of increase will not materially fluctuate in other words the name cause will continue to produce the areme effect but we see in one decade of high tariff an increase in farm values three times as great as that which P churs during the next decade of a similar tariff this proves to a ge demonstration remonstration that the tariff does not govern the rate of increase in farm values take I 1 the be tb three ree decades from 1860 1850 to 1880 and we shall flad find many elements which affected the aggregate value of american farms the prosperity of the first decade invited it a heavy foreign Immig immigration rUtion and impelled native inhabitants inh abitanta to spread over new territory and thus the area of american farms was enormously augmented and the greater the area art the greater the value A person unskilled in the intricacies of the tariff can account for the In increase creasa in the value of american farms far more easily by considering the increase in their total area than by figuring on exports and imports lt it was between 1860 1850 and 1860 that a great portion of several states was transformed from a wilderness to cultivated fields kansas iowa oregon nebraska and portions of the south are suggested in this connection from 1860 to 1870 the rate of increase in the value of farms was curtailed by the suspension of foreign immigration during the war by the ruin and devastation consequent upon the war and by the thet fact that many farms fell into disuse because the former tillers of them were dead or crippled many rea can far more easily connect such causes as these with the result named than they can the problems of oi the tariff but we find these causes of depression largely overcome from 1860 to 1870 by certain other causes causee which tended to inflation fla fint tion loD farm produce was high and war prices 1 prevailed in re sped to almost all commodities obvious causes other than or at least in addition to the tariff combined to produce war prices between 1870 and 1880 occurred the most severe and protracted of hard times and business depression including contraction of values the country has ever known this was the decade in which the increase in farm values was so small free traders attribute the panic of 1873 to the tariff but silver men with quite as cogent reasoning reason ric urge that the of silver did the mischief still other financial philosophers as aart that the mad spi spirit of speculation which prevailed in the united states w while the e war between france rance and germany was in progress Fess and which had to culminate in disaster caused the great panic did the gentlemen to whose letter we are ref referring ezring ever check a trial balance from a set of mercantile books if so they found the footings unequal to start with they found an error which they fondly hopfl bow 1 would make the footings even but alas it was too small or perhaps ic threw the balance the other way the same experience oft repeated finally resulted in an exact balance there are many elements entering into this tariff qu question tIon one should he be placed on the debit and another on the credit side alde of the account that the tariff to A ff is an element affecting values W n this country we freely admit J so are the following the financial legislation of congress the prevalence or non preva lence of speculation foreign himml immigration the condition conditional of af europe in respect to crops and the prospects of peace the combinations of capital lalor labor troubles and many other things for example there hs his occurred in the west and especially on the pacific coast within the last three bears j ears an enormous increase lureal in real estate values hal hail the tariff an anything any thang thin to do with it nathl nothing ng at alli all unless as r remote element of much nearer ao a more powerful ca causes referring again to the beutle mena figures the proposition that the labor which brodu es worth of sugar is paid but 4 we pronounced preposterous yet the geif gentlemen flemen urge it again though this time in a somewhat different light isnow it now appears that the employed emp loyes in the refinery get 4 in wages for each orth adorth of sugar turned out fiut aut the vi co fit at of the crude sugar is not given hence we are left in the dark as to the amount paid in wages to plantation employee emp loyes for transportation port por tation atlon etc elements vital to the question without which the figures given are worthless the rost of the crude sugar is known the re finers profits remain unknown hence also does the amount of I 1 injustice ii done by him to his employed emp loyes it has not nol been our aim to either favor or oppose free trade but to show that where a question embraces several vital all must be considered together or an erroneous result will be reached |