The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-02-29
FREE TRADE.

The Westminster Rerteic, which has
long been recognized as one of the most
earnest as well as correct opponents Of
English thought and sentiment on all ques-
tons of a political and economic character,
has an article in its last number, repub-
lished in this country, on the subject of
Wages" from which we extract the fol-
lowing, touching the relative prosperity of
the working classes in England and this
country
" 1t has been frequently asserted that
the wages are not higher in America than
in England, and that the greater cheapness
of corn is counterbalanced by the dearness
of hardware and other articles, which can
not be produced there at low price, and
of which, distance and protective tariff
prevent the importation. In this case
there are two tests which may serve to de-
eide the question first, English laborers
cmigrate to America, and secondly, when
there, they accumulate considerable saw
irgs, which they seldom do here"
Here are two very ugly admissions,
made by one of the ablest and best con-
Quoted magazines in England, if not in the
world, which we ask the free-traders in
this country to explain. The main staple
of the free-trade arguments, as employed
by all the free-trade journals in this
country, is contained in the single
little nutshell which the Westminster
Rcriew cracks for them, simply to
find that there is not particle of
meat in it. The argument used is, that
the greater cheapness of living in England
more than counterbaances the difference OF
wages in the two countries, and that a
working man can buy more OF the ne
cessares of life with the little
pittance paid him in England, in conse-
quence of its being free-trade country,
than he can buy here, owing to the excess
in price occasioned by high protective
duties. Now, the fact is fully conceded
by the Westminster Reeieac, that labor
flies from free-trade England to protective
wages here, but accumulates more "sav
ings," the surest criterion of its prosperity
in any country. If all that the lree-traders
say about the relative advantages and dis
advantages of labor in the two countries
were true, labor ought to fly from America
to England as, when there, it can fine
relatively greater and more remunerativt
earnings. And so it ought to fly to al
other iree-trade countries.
But the truth is, as we showed SOM
days ago, that whenever we have resorteC
to low scale of protection in this country
the tide of English and other European la
borers to this country has dropped off JUS
in the ratio in which protection has beel
withheld and that, on the other hand
whenever the scale of protection went up
the tide of this class of immigrants swelle'
with it. These are ugly facts for free-trader
to encounter and if the Westminster Re
rico, with all its able corps of writers
including some of the acutest free-trad
minds in England, cannot meet them wit
rebutting argument, it is useless for tn
slnall-fry journalists and reviewers on thi
side of the water to let fly their logic
arrows at them. They are obstinate fact
from which all such small weaponry wi
glance aside without so much as disturbin
the composure of a single protective tru IT,