Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1866-02-16
BRITISH ssCoRRUPTIoN FUNDS"

nearly SO aCate As IL IulgLC Dc
BRITISH CORRUPTION FUNDs.''
The city of New York may be fairly re-
garded a. a great encampment OF foreign
traders, whose interests are all in Europe,
and to whom the welfare of the United
States is a thing Indifferent, and even the
prosperity of New York itself of secondary
importance To please his employers in
/ London and Manchester in Paris and Ly-
ons, is the object nearest the heart of the
European agent. What cares he if our
western farmers lack a market for their
grain, or burn their maize for fuel? +? He
persuades them that this plethora Of
agricultural production is BY no means con-
sequent on an ill-regulated adjustment of In
dustrial employments, but is the fault of
American railway companies, which should
cheaper their transportation rates so as to
place the breadstuffs and meats on eastern
wharves for shipment to Europe Yet this
crafty pleader knows full we'll that many of
our western railways have passed their divi-
dends, and that the most prosperous among
them can scarcely keep their stock at par.
He knows as well as any one that if there
were at the present time two million barrels
of -four in New York, instead of the one
million that gluts our market, Europe does
not want our produce. She prefers to force
upon us her costly fabrics, and take from us
our gold in payment. We dig it at great
cost, pulverize the quartz with ponderous
machinery, extract the aaky particles, and
without counting very exactly whether the
golden dollar costs us ninety or ninety-6ve
cents, we ship the yearly product of fifty
millions to pay the balances against us.
Perhaps we add as much in Federal or cor
porate bonds, to enrich the foreign manu-
facturers and numerous agents. They draw
on these bonds rate of interest twice as
great as Europe pays; and as they pay for
them in their wares at sixty-six cents on the
dollar, it needs no great cipherer to compute
their gains when finally they are fully paid
in gold Thus is it that our debt in Europe
is aecumulating, and that though, in the last
four years we have sent abroad 1924, ,000, 600
in gold, the large remittance fails by $780,
000,000 to pay the balance against us-and
of course our bonds have been sent to adjust
the accounts and swell our European debt
perhaps to $500,090, 900 or more.
The foreigners would persuade US that
such course of trade, if not altogether ad-
vaRtageous 10 US, is the best within our
reach; that the heavy capital of the old
world manufacturers enables them 10 supply
their fabrics st the cheapest rates, and so
we should receive their goods and give our
gold or promises to pay We must scrape
together all the precious metals extracted so
laboriously from the earth, and eke out the
balance by a load Of future obligations
Once they talked to US Of taking our home
productions in exchange Though even
that bargain is hard one for us, they have
forgotten their part of it, and purchased
their provisions in Russia, Poland or any,
where where the labor of miserable peas
antry reduces the price to its minimum.
These foreign factors of New York have
lately formed Free Trade Association, and
placed some American names upon the list
of members. 1t would be hard, indeed, if
in town so deeply interested in European
trade there could not be found number to
pander to our enemies. But whence come
the pecuniary means to print those little
pamphlets SO literally circulated for our in
strnction? Can any intelligent man believe
for moment that the siBews of war are
not derived from British Golfers? Are Brit
oDs of the present day more honorable and
scrupulous than when their iron n-masters
raised two hundred thousand sterling avow-
edly to destroy our American furnaces and
rolling mills? Are the traders af Birming
ham, and other marts, backward now in
sending funds to influence our legislation,
when in 1916 they helped forward the free
trade tariff by the following subscriptions
how distributed upon this side of the water
let ingenious persons guess
hruh I.