New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-20
From the Chicago Journal Of Commercial
Disastrous Effects OF Free Trade

What has been, may be again. Indeed we
uraw most of our conclusions by reasoning
upon the past. The history of the past Is
! iuraught with many valuable lessons. 1t will
DC wen Tor US to heed them. If we do not,
we shail regret our folly when too late.
No'e d lew lacts. During the war with
treat Britain, lSl2-l5, we were Compelled
to foster home and domestic manufactuas
and during those years much prooress ,vos
made but so soon as peace again spread her
white wings, Britain gained greater victories
both on the continent of Europe and in this
country than during the war. The waste of
armies had made a special demand for goods
winch she could then more readily suppIv
than any other nation.
instead OF continuing our efforts to supply
our own deiclencies-instead of working up
our own raw material-instead of throwing
up The sea-wall and barrier of protection to
insure success to all who should invest their
means in the manufacture of staple comnlodi-
Ties, OF which we had the raw material in
aDundance-our Legislators opened our ports
TO the influx of British goods, which poured
III so cheaply that every market was glutted.
What was the result? The cessation of
nome manufactures, and the utter inability
OF the masses to pay the debts they had
been tempted to contract because goods were
so cheap.
commerce from 1916 to 1924, under the in
tluence of a partial Free Trade or Revenue
reform, hear the great advocate of the Amer
ican System, and the defender of Protection
TO Home Industries Clay-who said,
in 1882 =
Eight years ago, it was my painful duty
TO present to the other House of Congress an
mexaggerated picture of the general distress
pervadlng the whole land. We must all vet
some of its frightful features. I'VE
all know that the people were then oppressed
ana borne down by an enormous load of
debt; that the value of property was at the
lowest point of depression that ruinous sales
and sacrifices were everywhere made of real
estate; that stop laws, and relief laws, and
paper money, were adopted to save the peo-
pie from impending destruction that n de-
ilclt in the public revenue existed, which
compelled the Government to seize upon and
divert from its legitimate object the appro-
pnatlon to the sinking fund to reduce the
national debt: and that our commerce and
navigation were threatened with complete
paralysis. In short, sir, if 1 were to select
any term of seven years since the adoption
OF the present Constitution, which exhibited
a scene OF the most widespread dismay and
desoiation, 1t would be exactly the term of
seven years which Immediately preceded the
Of the Tariff of 2824."
And what brought about this sad state of
things? 1t was the rush of British goods
into our markets at less than their cost. with
the settled determination on the part of
Great Britain's first statesman so to flood the
country with the products of English manu-
factories as to crush out completely every
vestlge OF American effort to produce similar
goods.
This was premeditated and planned by no
less statesman than Lord Broughan. inn
mediately after the peace of 1915! Hear
him -
The peace of America has produced some
what OF the same effect, "a demand for British
goods,) though L am very far from placing
the vast exports which it occasoned upon the
same footing with those to the European
market the year before, both because ulti-
mately the Americans will pay, which the
excited state of the continent renders very
unlikely, and because it was well worth while
TO incur loss upon the first expectation in
order by the glut to stihe in the cradle those
rising manufactures in the United States
which the war has forced into existence con-
trary to the natural course of things"
Large impOrtations and nominal duties had
precisely the effect anticipated by Lord
Brougham. For time the "glut" of foreign
goods " stified in the cradle" our rising man
ufactureS, and had not men like CLAY and
protective system, we would to this day have
been tributary to the cotton lords of England,
whom we should have supplied with the raw
at six cents pound.
The legislation of Britain to-day is infiu-
enced much more by her iron, cotton, and
WOODEN interests than by all the other estates
OF the realm. The free traders-yelept
revenue reformers-of this country are their
tools to "stifie" our rising manufactures of
cfnnV nTI IrTvN l..lr
lad of but twelve years, but already he sup
plies two-tt0ds of our steel. Let him attain
his majority, and then we may defy the
policy and the power of any nation to '.stifle"
him!
But free trade for the next seven years
would produce the same state of things i'm
the United States that it did during the seven
years which preceded 1924. Let the wise
and thoughtful take warning!