Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-14
WORCESTER
SATURDAY. OCTOBER Ii, 1871
Persistent Free T-adc Nonsense.


The Nation rontriveS to Introduce the Old,
WORKOUT stock argument OF the iree-traders in
A brief notice of the recent diplomatic discussion
between the German and French governments,
concerning tariff on the manufactures of Asace
and Lorraine. Both governments seek to pro-
tect their own industry, and this aim has regu-
lated the discussion ON both sides. Whereupou
the Nation breaches a "mora improvement"
as follows: "Frenchmen are poor and suffering,
and have suffered enormous loss of capital;
therefore, they must not have the cheap cotton
and linen Of their lost provinces" And this
Improvement" of the subject is applied to the
Germans also. 1t would be in point, if the
French government were considering chiefly
what will best promote the interest of foreign
manufacturers; but it is really true that its
aim is TO promote the interest and welfare OF
the French people; and it seeks TO establish
such arrangements as will most abundantly
furnish them with employment. France has no
lack of manufacturing machinery and skill, and
her rulers naturally desire TO give them full oc-
cupation.
Ofwbat use is it to talk of the price of cottons
and linens TO people who have not means to
buy at any price? One must have means to
make purchases before he can reasonably enter
tain the thought of making them. Therefore,
the thing of chief Importance to a great majority
of the French people is opportunity TO earn
money; employment that shall be permanent
and reasonably profitable. This being true, it is
not surprising that the French government,
properly disregarding the tricky free trade talk
about prices, aims to set the French manufac
turing trial establishments at work and protect
French industry against disastrous compe-
tIhon? Probably this policy will not affect
prices, for the French people can manufacture
goods cheaply their neighbors; but it aims TO
provide that French labor shall supply the French
markets, and that French farmers and gardeners
shall furnish food for the workmen who manu-
facture the goods Whatever the prices may be,
they VIII be determined by the cost of home
supplies and home labor. Practically the ques-
ton to BE solved is this: Shallthe French people
manufacture what they want, using their own
skill and machinery, or shall they remain idle
and talk buying what they have no means to
buy?
In the same paragraph, the Nation praises
the "soundness" of Turgol'S dictum that "no-
body is competent to discuss economical prob
lens, who while doing so, can not Danish politi-
cal boundaries from his mind.' That is to say,
if one country has much higher social and in
dustrial organization than the Others, it must
disregard this fact, spun all thought of taking
measures TO maintain the superior condition of
its people, and adopt policy that will bring
down its workingmen to the lowest level of the
low industrial systems of its neghbors. The
very opposite of Turgot's dictum is tue.
Nobody is qualified to discuss these ques-
tions, with a view TO the present cOndi-
ton of the world, who does not very carefully
take account Of political boundaries. Dreaming
theorists who forget the difference between the
ideal and the real, and seek TO realize the mil
lenium before its time, may assume that the OPP
posite doctrine is very wise. "Nonresistants,"
'No government men," and sundry other
amiable idealists, who would bring on the mil
lenium prematurely, and force absolute per-
lection into existence, by resolution, may think
it grand but it is false and mischievous,
nevertheless, when applied to the condition of
the world as it actually is in our time.