New-York tribune., 1869-04-15
ECONOMIC POLICY OF prussia.

France and the boundless ambition OF Napo-
leon, about the year 1903, frightened the states
men of Prussia into policy upon which they
had the sagacity to perceive their natonal
liberty depended. "They saw how insecure was
L" q State which had SO great q claim on the
"bodies and 30 little on the hearts OF It's
people.p Before, the peasants had only mas
ters: ever since, they have had country;
property in land was literally extended 10
them, and this has worked its proper results
the State has grown invincible In the personal
interests and in the patriotic devotion OF us
people. But the enfranchisement OF the masses
was not from the impulse of sentiment,
either moral or religious; it was to a purpose
that embraced the States welfare and looked
to its destiny. 1t did not stop at chain break
ing and turning bondmen loose upon their
own hands; it devoted itself to the building OF
the populace into manhood, in all its forms OF
power In 1906 TIE battle of jena crushed the
whole military power of the Kingdom. From
that time till the fall of Napoleon her whole
territory was but French battle-nelu,
and her fortresses were permanently oc-
cupied by French troops. After the battle
of Waterloo she suffered an invasion more
destructive still than foreign armies had ever
inHicted-an invasion Of foreign goods which
paralyzed her home industry, turning her free
men, whose sole capital was labor, into paupers
The grand purpose of the Government, en-
barrassed and postponed by the prevalence of
the military and commercial wars she lad SIS
tained, persisted, and took the advanced form
of general education and thorough defense OF
domestic industry, and we have seen the fruits
| in the vast expansion Of the territory brought
| into alliance with tie principal kingdom, IN tho
state Of its finances and in the success of its
arms in war, and in its secure independence
| in peace. Fifty-fve years ago the King OF
Prussia rallied his people for the field OF
Waterloo by calling on them to throw OIL
"the French yoken Nine years ago North
Germany, which Is only another name for
Prussia, checked Napoleon Ill. when his
victories in Italy threatened the safety and
honor of the Confederate States; and three
years ago, in contempt of the treaties made by
| the world rulers when she was weak, made sue
cessful wars that put her in the front rank of
European nations, without the consent OF any
of them. In 1865 Mr.. Gladstone said in Parlia-
ment that the finances of Prussia are model
" of administration And we'll he might say
so; for few months after, Prussia went through
her war with Austria in a fortnight, without
| borrowing dollar or contracting debt for
the purpose. That war threatened to embroil
all Europe, but it ended in the conquest of the
armies of Austria, and peace, with all the best
| fruits of war, was restored before the balance
of-power principle had time to take its old-time
interest in the business. Prussia had been fifty
years engaged in educating and strengthening
her people in the school-room, the workshop,
and in the cultivation Of the soil. She had
| grown rich and strong, and had by her policy
associated in her own interests all North Ger
| many, among whom she had long been the
| empire and keystone State of Commercial
Union that aggregated population of more
than thirty millions. In 1S1S to remedy the
evils of a universally parayzed industry, Prus
sia commenced drawing into common protec
tive policy for home labor the surrounding
Governments. The League is commonly known
by the name of the Zollverein, or Prussian Com
mercal Union. Twenty years ago it embraced
five Kingdoms, five Grand Duchies six Duchies
seven Principalities. and several minor States
nearly all of what is usually called Germany
except Austria. and covering all the region
from the confines Of the Netherlands eastward
to 1ilsit, on the border of Russia, and from
Stettin and Dantzic, near the Baltic, southwark
to Switzerland and Bohemia.
Prussia, through her half-century's training
into greatness, has sacrificed no other interest
to that of foreign commerce. Her political
economy is q system of productive power. with
such commerce as flows from and ministers TO
1t. Discarding trade as an aim, she has, never
theless, reaped all its benefits, and by steadily
fostering her own productive forces, she has
made herself consumer of foreign commodi-
ties OF the first rank, and in thus enhancing
her ability as consumer has at the same time
thoroughly changed the character of that COM
merce. Before the protective system came into
effective activity the exports were twice the
weight Of the imports. They were then sending
out raw material, and receiving in exchange
finished commOdites-the trade of poverty. |
and tho trade that invariably impoverishes. |
Now the imports are twice the weight of the /
exports-a trade that embodies the skilled labor |
of the exporters and avas itself of the drudg-
cry of unskilled labor, which 1t subordinates to |
its own higher uses. Prussia's educational sys
TEN, and Its management of home labor inter-
ests, together fully account for the greatness
the kingdom has attained and the rapidity of
Its growth. The nation has grown greater
IN wealth than we have, and at nm
even more rapid rate. The old, with
them, has expanded into the new faster and
grander than in any other people, and what
ever was new and unknown to them fftv
years ago has grown with facility not ex.
ceiled by anything in the United States. The
onerous military system, the wars and rumors
OF wars have a'great repressing force, and they
lose py this means population of ful-grown
men which we gain but notwithstanding this
OF their rate of progress. their