The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-02-21

Of the British system, and is, for that reason,
especially qualified to occupy its present high
place among the Democratic authorities of the
country:
SIN the Washington Republic ia a dissertation of
more than two columns long, attempting TO show
that Turkey has been the victim Of free trade, and
that If we admit other nations to free competition
with our citizens in our own markets, we shall be
| in as bad condition Turkey To show what
has happened in Turkey, the following passage is
quoted by the Republic from Urquhart's book
| Turkey aud its Rtsotrcts-published in 1888:
"'The industry of the and children is
most remarkable; in every interval of labor tend
ing the CATTLE carrying water, the spindle and the
distaff as in the days Of xerxes, is never out of
| their hands The children are as assid uously at
work. from the moment that their little fingers can
| turn the spindle. About Ambeakaia, the former
focus OF the cotton-yarn trade, the peasantry has
suffered dreadfuilyf from this. English competition,
| though formerly the women could earn much
indoors ms their husbands in the field their daily
profit 1881 does not exceed twenty paras. flour
centsl il realized for often they cannot dispose of
the yarn when spun.
"The same effect upon household industry has
been produced in this country, not by free trade,
but by the introduction of cotton and woollen mills
The dstaf has been driven out of the houses of our
agricultural population by the establishment Of
factories. The card, formerly, was busy with its
| iron teeth, wheels were humming, and looms were
clashing in every farm house, but they are heard
no longer. Thirty or forty years ago wool and
cotton was spun, woven, and dyed in every house
hold in the country. But this is 80 no longer; all
this work is now performed by machinery.
Turkey is undergoing at later period the
same change, that ia ALL The women cannot earn
any thing by spinning yarn at their wheels in
Turkey; neither can they here. Throughout all
countries, in the old world and the new, handiwork
Of various kinda, in which great cxpertness and
even elegance was attained, is becoming wholly
superseded by the far more expeditions, exact. and
cheap processes of machinery; and Turkey is now
taking her turn in the change.
"But there ia another mischief according to the
Republic which has resulted from freedom of trade
in Turkey. 1t is stated in the following passage
from Urquhart:
"Native manufactures for the former articles
handkerchief and imitation shawlsl have nearly
ceased to work; of six hundred looms for muslins
at Scuari that were busily employed in 1912 forty
only remained in 1921. In 1912 there were two
thousand weaving establishments at Tournovo; in
1880 there were only two hundred
"Ths is very likely to be true, and ia a natural
consequence Of the introduction of British manu-
features. Whatever the Turkish women may be,
the Turkish men are indoIent, unenterprising, not
on the lookout for improved processes of manu-
facture, and inapt in adopting them. The indus
trous everywhere drive the indoent out Of the
market, and the ingenious prevail over the mex
pert.
"But does the Republic seriously apply this sort
of reasoning to the people of the United States?
Are we Turks-are destitute of enterprise, of
activity, of ingenuity Are 80 lazy, SO slug
gish of intellect, 80 slow to learn, poor in the
faculty of invention, that We need the aid of
brics, in addition to freight and the risks of the
sea, to place our industry upon footing of equal-
ty with tina, of other nations? Whatever the Re.
public may think, the people of the United States
arc not quite ready to place themselves in this
favorable comparison with any other nations be
il the most active and ingenious in the woI Id.
American enterprise and skill ask no odds in the
competition with the enterprise and skill of other
nations
We commend this paper to the careful peru
sal of our readers as fair sample Of the tactics
of the Manchester school of political econo-
my, which invariably ignores the existence of
great facts, and displays the same alacrity in
bouncing upon small ones that is displayed by
the cat when it sezes upon an unfortunate
mouse; and yet it is after all only mouse that
is caught.
1t is quite true that the spinning jenny and
the power loom tend everywhere to supersede
the distaf and the hand loom; and 50 far our
contemporary has CHANGED to alight upon
truth; but it is not true that the invention of
machinery, to be used in aid of labor, and there
by to render that labor more productive, has
Gny,rhere Uhateper been attended with the eff
fects observed in Turkey, except Uhere the peo-
pie hare been compelled to submit to that Britisl,
system Uhich II is the object Of our contemporary
to sustain even at the cost of sacrificing the in
terests ofhis brother Democrats, the working men
of the country, at the shrine of the Birmingham
and Manchester monopoly. In France, coun-
try of very high protection, the introduction of
machinery for the making of cloth and of iron
has been attended with great improvement in
the condition of the people and in the strength
OF the nation. In Belgium, the very paradise
Of protection, such have also been its results.
In Germany, since the extension of protection
by aid of the Zoll Verein, the consumption of
cotton, and sleeps wool, and of iron, has enor
mously increased while the export of cloth,
and of manufactures of iron, ,pi,ich before had
no erisience, has now become so large as greatly
to interfere with the monopolists of Britain. In
Russia, manufactures are growing everywhere,
and the consumption of cotton has advanced in
the las, four years no less than fifty per cent,
while the people are everywhere becoming more
prosperous and more free. In this country, I'M
der the tariff of lS42, the machinery Of manufac-
ture grew with rapdity, and with every step ofits
growth the people were enabled TO consume
more cloth and iron. Such being the case, it
would be vain TO look among the protected coun-
tries of the world for any illustration of the
views of our contemporary as to the injurious
effects ascribed by him, in imitation Of has
felio,c- loborer IN the British cd,ne-Mr. II. j.
WALVER-to the substitution Of steam. engines
and power looms for hand labor, and yet such
illustration might be elsewhere found. To those
Who desire to seek it we would recommend an
examination of Ireland, where they will find
British machinery annihlating the value Of
Irish labor-of India, where the British loom has
Il Ill. al. L.