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The highest good to the greatest number should guide any legislation which may be had. I believe if this rule shall be adopted the proposed measure will find little favor in this House.

I do not doubt that free trade or its "next of kin," tariff reform, might be of temporary advantage to a very limited class of our population and would be hailed with delight by the home importer and foreign manufacturer; but no one, I predict, who has thoughtfully considered the subject and its effect upon our present state and condition can fail to discern that free trade or tariff reform introduced into this country now will produce still further business depression and increased commercial paralyzation.

Our once prosperous manufactories are barely able now with the present duties upon imports to keep their wheels in motion; and what, I ask, must become of them if the foreignmanufactured product which competes with the manufactured product of the United States shall be suffered to come into this country free of duty or at reduced rates of duty?

But, Mr. Chairman, the defeat of this measure is not only demanded by the popular judgment of all classes, but it is alike the dictate of every just principle of morals and of fair dealing. The present tariff has existed almost without alteration for the past sixteen years. Men have embarked in business under the existing law regulating the tariff; great enterprises have been projected; vast amounts of capital are invested all over the country upon the faith of the existing law and relying upon its permanence, and to-day millions of dollars are invested in buildings, machine shops, and factories all over this land, built up under the fostering care of protection. It is proposed by this bill, without any note of preparation to the manufacturing classes, without any word of warning, without any service being made upon them, by a swift and certain blow to destroy these vast investments of capital and labor.

Even Mr. Wood admits that there is a high moral right resting upon the Congress of this country to continue still further the protection which in the past has been given to the industries of the country. I can assure the gentleman that his bill does not recognize this right, but as to many industries wholly ignores it.

Free trade and tariff reform are captivating phrases, and to one unacquainted with their true meaning and import are deceptive, while the arguments urged in their behalf are alike deceptive and delusive.

The chief consideration that is urged by the advocates of

free trade or tariff reform, so called, is that the duties fall upon the consumer; in a word, that the great mass of consumers in this country will get their products, their goods, their merchandise at a very much less price than they now do if free trade or tariff reform shall prevail instead of the present policy.

Mr. Chairman, history and experience both teach us that the agricultural products of this country have in the main increased in price since the tariff of 1824, but that substantially all manufactured articles, articles that have been protected by that or successive tariffs, have been secured to the great body of the consumers at a very much less cost than they formerly And, Mr. Chairman, the price of articles has not only been diminished and the consumer benefited by the reduced price, but the quality of the article has in every instance been improved.

Our proud position to-day is due in great part-indeed I had almost said in most part-to the wise protection and the fostering care thrown around American manufactures and labor and enterprise by the early statesmen of this country and continued down to the present time. No other policy would ever have given us the advanced stage in manufactures that we enjoy to-day.

The policy of the manufacturers of Europe is to keep "the growth and the increase in the United States in check"; and it can be done, say they, in one way only, and that is by a reduction of the tariff. The American Congress is to-day engaged in that, to the European trade, commendable work; and for what purpose? To keep the growth of manufactures in the United States in check and increase the board of trade returns in Europe. If we did not know better, Mr. Chairman, we would be justified in believing that we were in the British house of commons, legislating for British subjects, rather than charged with the high and sacred duty of making laws for the citizens. of the United States, to protect them in their labor, their industries, and their investments.

But it is said, Mr. Chairman, that our present system is an obstruction to foreign trade, while the fact stands out before us, so bidding us read, that our foreign trade has uniformly increased under the tariff policy, and always when the tariff policy has been withdrawn our foreign trade has invariably diminished.

I invite your attention to the following extract, which I take from Mr. Bigelow's excellent work upon the tariff policy:

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