The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-30 00:00:00

AN OPINION FROM THE AMERICAN
POINT OF VIEW.

The h.mes,, in their City Article, remarks :—The
notion that the fiscal policy of the Government of the
United States for some years past is destined to close
,that market to foreign manufacturers, and that
Americans will in future be able to make all they
require for their own use themselves cheaper and of
more excellent quality than can be produced in other
countries, seems to be spreading in Europe. The pro-
lunol depression in trade very naturally leads our
manufacturers and merchants to believe that the pro-
tective policy of the United States will have the effect
of compelling Americans to erect machinery for the
supply of articles which up to the present time they
have imported from Europe. An opinion from the
American point of view regarding this policy, should,
therefore, receive attentive consideration in present
circumstances, and we subjoin an extract on the sub-
ject from the inaugural address of the Hon. David A.
Wells, delivered before the Conference of the American
Social S.lience Association at Saratoga oa the 4th
Inst. :
"It is the legitimate, permanent, and regular excess of
production over consumption that constitutes the surest, or
rather the only, basis for a large remuneration for both
labour and capital ; and it Is In this pre•existing excess that
is to be found the secret why wages have for so many years
been high In the United States and the rate of interest large.
lint, on the other hand, If the surplus of production over
consumption is not allowed to have a free market, if it
cannot thsv out of the country through the channels of
export, it Inevitably rolls back upon the domestic markets,
depressing prices toss point where trade and commerce can
resume their natural and normal channels, or paralyzing
Industry until consumption again becomes equal to or ex-
ceeds production, both of which results the manufacturer
instinctively resists by what seem to him the only prac-
tic ibis methods available—namely, reduction of wages or
suspension of production. Now, this is exactly what the
ficol policy of this country tor the last tiftCen years has
UP a to accomplish, and has succeeded in accomplishing. It
des not, in so many words, say to the American manufac-
turer, or other producer, son shall not export; but it does
virtually say toprodacera in other countries, you shall not
Import, and in shut:ing others out we at the same time
necessasily shut ourselves in. We have ignored the economic
maxim that all trade is essentially barter----the exchange of
the products or servicas of one for the products or services
of another; that money is used internatlonally for the
settling of comparatively small balances; that if we won't
buy we can't tell, and that if we won't or can't sell we can't
buy. There is no such thing, take the world generally, as
over production of things. necessary or desirable, and there
never will be as long as hack and sides are bare, hands and
feet, cold, or .stmnachs of human beings have not—within
them that which will satisfy. But there is such a Wog aa
restricted consumption, due to artificial enhancement of
prices and artificial restrictions on the free interchange of
products. Thera is no limit to the capacity of the world to
consume desirable products, if circumstances are inch SW
1$ can eoneume."