Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-04-05
Free Trade as unders TODD by Great Britain

England has been teaching the Asiatic:
some lessons in free trade. She finds thu
process rather more severe, to be sure. than
was found necessary with the United States
Brazil and Turkey. In the case Of the las
three respectable communities, she was not
obliged to proceed n ct arms, but found il
not difficult to effect her purpose by diplo
macy and large subscriptions of money tc
circulate free trade documents and Operat,
with. as was the case, especially in the Uni
ted States, just before the passage of thu
Tariff of 1916. IIindoos and Cinnamon re
quire different sort of argument, or wha
may be called "argumentum al homtnem.
Gradually she stretches out her wiry arm:
to assist the thunders of her fleet and army
1 and the persuasive voice of her moral sua
sion, in anncxing the whole world to the grea
manufacturing centre.
/ In foresight and practical wisdom, Eng
land is vet IL generation in advance Of al
/ other nations, and hence her immense wealth
and power, before which France and all Eu
rope stand in awe With all our invention
genius. mental and bodily activity, We neeC
to take some lessons of that wonderful peo
pie from whose ancestors We also descended
I What we need is to theorise less and to con
suit experience more and, in our universe
beneyolence, to remember that charity which
! begins ut home and looks first after our OWL
! interests, and then after those Of our neigh
/ bors. If reduction of our tariff was ne
ccssary in order to induce England to take
our cotton. that would furnish some excuse
| for us, though Il very poor one, because II
she was not obliged to take it, as Is the fact
still our true policy would be to work 1t up
ourselves, and export it not III It's crude state
but in the compact form of manufactured
goods All nations that export produce to II
foreign and distant market, must remain
Door. 1t would be far better for us If we
were importers of grain like France and
England, and exporters of it in the results
of mechanical labor, than to send our pro,
duce five thousand miles to be returned in the
shape of torei IN mechanical labor.
Our present condition may be summed up
as follows: The West has been sending her
grain and produce 5000 miles to distant
and uncertain market. where they must COM
pete with the paupcr labor of the grain grow
ing regions of Europe OH the Danube and
Baltic, after paying nearly their whole value
in cost of transportation. The necessary
results of such system are now manifest.
The West is poor, and is likely to be poorer,
unless she goes to work to build up home
market for her produce, and to bring the
l,hn \, fn no tn rn
than 5000 miles Our factory and railroad
stocks are not worth an average OF fifty cents
on the dollar. A foreign commission IL COM
ing over from London to examine into the
affairs Of our Illinois Central Railroad, and
the Presidency Of our Reading Road has
passed into the hands of an agent Of foreign
interests. Our foreign debt is from $780,
OOO. 600 to 500. 100, calling for large
annual amount Of specie to pay up our
interest.
Our ocean steamships are nearly driven
off, and. in the opinion of some, the charac-
ter of our shipping is declining. Our ships
have long been idle or doing losing bust
ness, and our Government is borrowing mo-
ncy To meet it's daily wants. Such are the
facts to he explained in some way or other,
and this picture is in no way colored or ex.
aggerated 1t is not necessary to repeat that
| consider all this to flow mainly from one
source, and that is the Tariff of 1916. Had
the Tariff of 1912 remained, most of our
railroads would now be worth par, and be
owned here as they should be, and not
abroad Instead of gradually declining into
a colonial condition. we should have been in
dependent of the world. and if not IA wealthy
and powerful ~ the older branch of our
family, we should have been advancing very
rapidly towards that point, and been worth
many hundred millions more than at present.
When we adopt protective policy, We shall
find Immediate relief, and enter into new
course of prosperity. Uatil we do so, we
shall continue on our present course, tending
towards national poverty, dependence, and
decentralization, for these three 60 always to-
gether.-JameS /. B0ker.