Yorkville Enquirer

A Movement in the Right Direction.

Mr. Clay, of Alabama, as will be perceived by our intelligence from Washington, has introduced a bill in the Senate to abolish the bounties which have long been conferred on the Cod and Mackerel Fisheries of New England. Whether cod and mackerel are necessaries of life, we shall not undertake to decide, but they are generally used throughout the United States, and are considered wholesome and desirable articles of food. They stand apparently, therefore, in just about the same position as sugar, against the duties on which there is a general Northern movement. But there are no bounties conferred on the production of sugar even in the worst of our tariffs. But for a long time, the fishermen of New England have been protected by a peculiar action of the Government, enabling them to use the most important article in the curing of fish, without payment of the heavy duty exacted from all others. They have not only had the advantage of a protective tariff in salted fish imported from foreign countries, but they have had an exemption from all taxation on the most costly material employed in their business. The fishermen of New England have the same claim upon the bounty of the Government as the pork and beef packers of the West, and no more. If the one has a right to its bounty, the other may claim an equal right. We are glad that Mr. Clay has moved in this matter, not so much because we have hope that immediate practical results will follow the introduction of his bill, as because it tends to throw open the question of tariff taxation.-Charleston Mercury.