New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-08-18

we were thrown upon the British menOp-
oily for our supplies Of cloth and Of iron.
Il Is year that has bern used by various
British free traders 70 prove both sides Of
their aue, tion-ihe beauties Of free trade
and the Disadvantages Of protection.
Aeain, we have booked in vain for an
70 the period Of the tariff of 1923, a. refer
ence TO a note explaining that during
the SnP7osperous times Of American free
trade, We paid OF fory-two millions Of
public debt, most Of which was owned
abroad. and yet such an explanation would
seem TO be very necessary in an article spe-
cialIy devoted 20 the question whether the
foreign debt did or did not increase more
rapidly under free trade than under pro-
lection. The very years in which this
enormous sum was paid are made TO figure
in The Journals tables As those in which
we must have contracted debt Of fifty-four
millions-such having been the excess Of
imports over exports.
Further, we have looked to the year
1e46-'47, and have looked in vain for an
referring to an explanation Of the fact that
the tariff Of 1876 did not take effect until
almost the close Of the year, which, if not
belonging TO the tariff Of 1912, certainly
did not belong 70 it. successor. Protection
at home and famine abroad made it a good
year, and our neighbors could scarcely
be expected to omit appropriating it for the
use Of their Manchester and Birmingham
friends.
Neither have we been able to discover
an referring to any note explaining that
although the imports and exports of 1916
5 appear to balance, we had sent abroad a
hundred-as stated by The Ttmes-a hun
dred and twenty millions of stocks and
bonds, the chief part of which had been
required for the payment of interest on the
debt which accumulated against US in the
period when every year was bringing US
nearer to perfect British free trade, and
when every prudent man knew that TO
invest his means in the building Of mill
or a furnace was certain to be followed by
the total loss Of the amount invested.
We are now, however, informed that the
existence Of that vast foreign debt was due
to protection, and that protection led to the
export of specie and the explosion ofbanks,
as only two fhhs of the excess over copper
cent. had been reduced in 1887. Our
neighbors have undertaken to prove that
excess of importation takes place when
duties are high, and that the corrective is
applied when duties are low, and yet were
we TO search their fiji. we should, we think,
find it there stated that the prices of our
produce arc lowered by protection because
under high duties we cannot take from
foreigners as much as will pay for what
they desire to take from us. 1t would be
well If they would make their arguments
of one day correspond in some small de-
gree with those Of another.
Anxious to prove that protection leads to
the creation of foreign debt, THE Journal
thus suppresses the fact that under the
highly protective tariff of 1923, we paid
off forty millions Of our public debt, chief
ly held abroad-and that under that of
/ 842 we resumed the payment of interest
on the foreign debt due by States and Cor
porations, that had become bankrupt in
1912. Further, suppresses the fact that
that foreign debt began to be contracted after
protection had been repudiated at the COM
mand Of South Carolina, and continued to
be contracted until Corporations and States,
and almost the Nation itself, became bank
rupt. And last, though not least, it not only
suppresses the fact that we have sent to
Europe since the passage of the ctof 1876,
more than hundred millions of stocks and
bonds, but it publishes tables for the pur-
pose of proving that our exports have ex-
ceeded our imports in value, to the extent
vi slAtttH HlllliOHs, u WHICH must, OF
course, be added for the profits of our ship
ping at least fifty millions, thus bringing
Europe in debt to US at least sixty millions
OH the business of these British free trade
years. When we pay off our debts, it
proves that we must have gone in debt,
and when we sell bonds by tens and twen-
ties OF millions, it proves that we must do
so In mere wantonness, because other ma
tons must be running in debt to us.
We have charged upon The Journal the
publication OF - false tables" and now leave
it to our readers to decide if we have or
have not made good our charge. We GER
f.tt L. e.