Show TAIHFF STATLSTICS WE willingly give place today to a communication from the gectle men whoappeareJ as thechampions of free trade In the debate upon that suljectlielil in this city a few evenings even-ings ago It is not our Intention to outer into a tariff controversy but we ix ill venture a few brief observations observa-tions relative to foms ot the statements state-ments and figures presented by the gentlemen They show that the increase iu the value of rarms in the Unit States from 1850 to ISo a decade of Jow tarifl was 10 per cent brll > cnt per annum whie from 1SSO to ISSO a period of hightarifT it a only 2J per ceutper annum Hut this rer ceulage applies t a sum more than double that which tho 101 per cent tO The olject of these figures and comparisons I to sustain the theory that a law tariff hod the effect ef-fect to enhance the aggregate value of American farmsBut unfortunately unfortunate-ly for this theorythegenUemen give figures which destroy i They show tat the increase In tho value of farm IsO and 1SOO a S3S7JOOdJ000 or 10 per cent per annum and use these figures in an immediate connection whIch produces duce a comparison favorable to their position but further ou they disclose the fact sthat iu the net decaJeviz from 1SOO to 1STO unJcr w tariff nud during a period vhlcluembracul tho rc Ion and recoustrucJon of tbe Southern States th Increase I was 2017755 534 or more Uian threefourths what I was during the previous decade of peace and prosperity During the net decade Tiowever 1S70 to ISSO though tlio tariff conditions i lemalnedmuch the same the rate of Increase in the valneof farms w enormously reduced being lees than onethird what it was from I860 to 1870Nowif Now j the Jnto of increase InUie value of farms Is governed bj tbe tariir while the tariff remains substantially sub-stantially the same that rate of Increase In-crease will not materially fluctuate In other words the same cause will continue to produce the sime effect JJut He tcein one dec of Jblgh tanfl an increase in farm value three times as great us tat whicli ors durIng the net decade of a similar tariff This provSi to a UemonsGation thai Ifie tariu docs i nUoD tat 1 Grt not govern the rte of Increase InCan In-Can alua Tae the three decades from 1850 to ISSO and we shall find many elements ele-ments which affected the aggregate valuuof American farms The pros pcrity of the first decade invited a tieavy foreign immlKralIonand ta xlied native inhabitants to spread over new territory and thus tlie area of American farms was uormously augment and the greater the nna the greater the alue A persxiu unskilled in he intricacies of tlie tariff can account ac-count fortbe Increase in tho value of American farms far more easily ly considering the Increase in their otal area than by figuring on exTorts Torts and imports It was between lS1 and IBM that a great portion of several States was transformed from a wilderness to cultivated fields Kansas Io aOregonXebra8 a and portions of tIle South are suggested In this connection From ISo to 1870 the rate of increase crease iu the valueof farms was curtailed cur-tailed by the suspension of foreign immigration during the war by the ruin and devastation consequent ujou the war and by the fact that many farms fell into disuse because tlifformur tillers of them wercdcad or crippled JIany reasoncrs can far more easily connect such causes as these with the result named than they can the problems of the tariff But we flud Uiese causes of depression largely overcome over-come from 1SOO t 1570 by certain other causes which tended to Inflation In-flation Fur produce a high and war prices prevailed Iu respect spect to almost all commodities Obvious causes other than or at least in addition to the tarifi combined com-bined t produce war prices Between ISO and ISSO our the Jot revere and protracted perioa of ban times and busi msi depression including contraction contrac-tion of values tlie country haa ever known This was the decade In which the increase In faim values TaUfS was so small Freetraders attribute the panic of 1873 to tlie tarifl but silver men with quite a cogent reasouitit urge tat the demoneti zation of silver did the mischief atill other financial philosophers assert as-sert that the mad spirit of speculation specula-tion which prevailed < iu the United State while the war between France and Germany was in progress and which had to culminate In disaster caused the great panic Did the gentlemen to whoso letter let-ter we are referring ever check a trial balance from a set of mercantile I mercan-tile books 1 I 6 they found the footings unequal to start with They found nu error which they fondly hop would make tho footings foot-ings even but alas it was to small orpcthapsit threw the balance the other way The same experience oft repeated finally resulted In replN fnly lulL an exact balance There are many elements entering into this tariff question One should lie I placed on the debit and another on the credit side of the account That the tariff I an clement affecting fecting values In this country we freely admit to are tlie following The financial legislation of Congress Con-gress the prevalence or nonprtva leucc of speculation foreign Immigration Immi-gration the condition of Europe iu respect I to croja and the prospects of peace the combinations of capital labor troubles and many other things For example there has occurred oc-curred Iu tbe Wet and especially on tbe Pacific Coast within the lat three j ears an enormous increase crease in real estate values Ilad the tariff anything to do with 11 Nothing a all unless a a remote clement of much nearer and more powerful causes Iteferriuj again to the gentle mens figures The proposition that the labor which produces212wortli of sugar Is nild but 4 we pronounced pronounc-ed preposterous yet the gentlemen urge it again though this time in a somewhat different light I now appears that the employes In the ro ftn ygct4ln wajeafiir each 212 worth of sugar turned out but the coct of the crude sugar I not given hence we are left in the dark a to the amount paid in wage to plantation employee for transportation trans-portation etc elements vital to the question without which tho figures given are worthless Unless the cost of the crude sugar is known tho refiners finers profits remain unknown hence also does the amount of in I ustice done by him to bis employes I has not been our aim to either favor or oppose free trade but to show that where a question embraces em-braces several Il elem bu all most be considered together or an erroneousresuU will be reached |