The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1865-09-14
''BRITlSH FREE TRADE" A DELUSI0N,
To the Farmers, Mocha uics and In
bo-ers of the West and NOrthwe.t

the land owners; but The manufacturers gained
the day, for il was an imperative necessity to
them. England caano: feed her o,cn people
the factory workers must have bread, or the
mills must close; stop those mills and down goes
the vast fabric of British power.
So the people had bresdstuffs cheaper-a
blessing to them, yet protection TO the manu-
facturers, called free trade.
No tariff changes of moment have since been
made, and these are slight foundation on which
to base the boasted free trade claim Taking
| twenty-five years, from 1888 to 1859, and the
| total annual custom receipts on sixteen leading
articles, some ninety-tour per cent Of all the
dnties, varied cess than seren million dollars.
This takes in five years before any change and
six years after Gladstone's tariff. Indeed, the
duties ON the these articles yearly, from 1888 to
| lS4l, before any change of tariffs was made,
were 81 1872 900 less than from 1854 to 1852
| When The British corn laws were repealed,
the nducement was held out by the English
and the hope entertained by our G, ain growers,
that large market would open there for our
products.
But. in twelve years after tie repeal of IT,,
|
breadstuffs to England had decreased, in pro-
portion 20 our population, almost thirty per
cent, even by English estimate 27s per cent
During the same years the British imports of
grain from this country were only one-fth their
imports from other countries
Take our exports of provisions and bread
sluffs to Great Britain, and TO all the Weste n
Hemisphere, from 1886 to 1860, ana we find our
yearly exports to Great Britain the least, and
the demand this side the Atlantic much larger
the last part # tie time
The average of three years exports of pro-
visions, closing with 1860. was, TO great Brit
ain 1922, 26S, aud on this side the ocean 81,
I9i7, 1888.
Our exports of breadstuffs TO Great Britain,
for each of these same three year,, averaged
Z, 5I2, 1871 bushels; but To =. rts OF our Western
Hemis phere, l6,O34, 5S6 bushels.
Chicago alone often sends off an ten days
more gram aud -four than Eagl I'd has taken
from as each gear, on The Average, for twentg
gears past, aud the grain export from that city
IN single day, often erceedS ~hat England has
bought Of as for achole gear.
In 1860, the total products Of our soil were
ST. $50, OO0,o 900 in value our total exports o.
those products $272 ,2S2, S73. or bit -seveath
Taking out the cotton exports, and our home
market and consumption tace"ty times as
great as oar exports TO all foreign lands.
Would il not be well to think more of this
great home market.
AT late meeting in Boston of guests OF The
: Board of Trade, j. w. Brooks, President OF the
Michigan Central Railroad IL speech said :
''And now may mention subject which has
often given me- as Western railroad manager
cause for anxiety. 1t is the want of NOR.
steady and reliable market for the produce
of the great food producing region. Its power
OF production has hardly begun to be developed
but even now it is often without a market tor
its products. The natural buyers of surplus
food are the manufacturers, and the great body
OF these live too far away from US. England
does uot import food from this country until
she has exhausted chose nearer home, which
usually supply nearly all she requires. Some
times short crop will bring her here for con-
siderable amount, and run up the prices SO high
as to stimulate over production and render
the surplus thereafter more UNIV ieidy than ev-
er. Estia ating the growers portion Of the price
rec sived, at an average of 25 cents per bushel
for corn, and 80 cents for wheat, the exports OF
breadstuffs for the last Is years, have yielded to
the growers an average of about thirteen millions
of dollars per annum, rising high as $34, 500 :
600 aud falling as low as $780, 900 per annum
some years more than forty times as great as
others, yielding;to the nation maximum of but
a little over dollar per head and sometimes
falling below three cent?. This outlet is too in
significant at best, and too unreliable at all
times, for SO important an interest in our ma
tonal economy 1t has not prevented the price
of corn to the farmer of Illinois from falling to
eight cents per bushel, when it is sometimes
| over eighty cents. 1t Is not wise arrange
ment of the worlds economy for those who
raise Il eurplus of food and those who have
deficiency TO be separated by thousand miles
| of land carriage and three thousand OF ocean.
Thus situated, it is no wonder that the agricul-
turist and the manufacturer. who should be nat
urai allies, meet seldom and to such small
purpose. Who pays for this anomalous condi-
ion q things, for the transportation OF raw ma
teria and food from This country to the Euro
pean manufacturer and portion of the product
back again The western producer makes
large contribution in the lower price and re-
duced amount of his produce, and the foreign
operative very large contribution in wages;
| and shame to the nations long hours of child
HOODS labor. bringing ignorance and degrade
ton, misery and want into hundreds Of ihous-
ands of what ought to be cheerful and happy
homes. 1t is claimed in England that her
cheaper labor will Away. make 1t for our in
terest to EN- ploy her people to do our manufac-
turing. Without Questi oning the unselhshness
of This advice, its soundness may well be
doubted. hundred thousand educated think
ing operatives will invent, in short time, more
simplifying processes TO cheaper the product,
than will equal the difference in wsges, and
though cheap labor will avail of these inveu-
tione, the great result, cheaper product, is due
to the educated, higher paid labor. Among all
the avors of which nat ions boast may we be
dev cred from that of cheap labor; ii would be
fatal to the institutions of selt-goverDiDg peo
! pc. 1t is the province of Boards of Trade
those most useful crganizations-to aid i'll Sc
curing to our land the means of most fully de-
velopiDg its res ources. 1t is the duty Of every
Neii-W ieISI Va his htbu ~ pave INC hungry
where they can get food, to educate the ignorant
and to restore men of all colors from nlaverY to
| freedom.
whenever the Statesmen of the West shall
feel 1t their duty, in the National Council, to
promote home manufactures, they will know
where TO find New England, and when we are
ali cans inced, and act upon The principle, that
AZ .liure and manufactures, and commerce
az etural allies this people, who have bad, Of
Iitc much of common sorrow and Of COM