ufacture, the whole increase of price is equal to $750,000 annually.
This sum we pay on a raw material, and on an absolute necessary of life.
The bill proposes to raise the duty from $15 to $22.50 per ton, which
would be equal to $1,125,000 on the whole annual consumption. So that,
suppose the point of prohibition which is aimed at by some gentlemen to
be attained, the consumers of the article would pay this last-mentioned
sum every year to the producers of it, over and above the price at which
they could supply themselves with the same article from other sources.
There would be no mitigation of this burden, except from the prospect,
whatever that might be, that iron would fall in value, by domestic
competition, after the importation should be prohibited. It will be
easy, I think, to show that it cannot fall; and supposing for the
present that it shall not, the result will be, that we shall pay
annually the sum of $1,125,000, constantly augmented, too, by increased
consumption of the article, _to support a business that cannot support
itself_.

It is of no consequence to the argument, that this sum is expended at
home; so it would be if we taxed the people to support any other useless
and expensive establishment, to build another Capitol, for example, or
incur an unnecessary expense of any sort. The question still is, Are the
money, time, and labor well laid out in these cases? The present price
of iron at Stockholm, I am assured by importers, is $53 per ton on
board, $48 in the yard before loading, and probably not far from $40 at
the mines. Freight, insurance, &c. may be fairly estimated at $15, to
which add our present duty of $15 more, and these two last sums,
together with the cost on board at Stockholm, give $83 as the cost of
Swedes iron in our market. In fact, it is said to have been sold last
year at $81.50 to $82 per ton. We perceive, by this statement, that the
cost of the iron is doubled in reaching us from the mine in which it is
produced. In other words, our present duty, with the expense of
transportation, gives an advantage to the American over the foreign
manufacturer of one hundred per cent. Why, then, cannot the iron be
manufactured at home? Our ore is said to be as good, and some of it
better. It is under our feet, and the chairman of the committee tells us
that it might be wrought by persons who otherwise will not be employed.
Why, then, is it not wrought? Nothing could be more sure of constant
sale