The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-03-01
Great Britain and the United States.


In the course of the introduction to
the volume of his speeches, letters and
addresses recently published, Hon.
VIM. ID. Kelly presents the following
striking contrasts between the condi-
ton Of Great Britain and the United
States:
I" 1t was not easy to abandon opinions
| had cherished through SO many years,
and in which my faith had been so i'm
plict, but it was still more difficult to
accept the opposite system, that of pro-
lection, which had so often denounced
as false, selfish and exclusive. Nor did
| do this hastily; more than two years
have been devoted TO the writings of
the ablest advocates OF both systems,
and still halted between them. Mean
while it became apparent to me not
only that political economy was not
science, but that it is impossible to
frame system of abstract economic
proportions that could be universally
applicable and benefcent; and, fur
ther, that the same principles could be
applied beneteially to England and the
United States. The conditions of the
two nations are not the same, but are
in striking contrast. England is q small
island, but the United States embrace
almost the entire NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. Of
a continent. She is burdene(AW an
excess of population, and vexed -
question as to how she shall dispoI 6f
the excess but our great need is n(dus-
trious people, and with US the quQ) stion
is how can we increase immif( htion
She has to import food for hAl { her
people, and her foreign trade is her
what seed time and harvest are To the
countries with which she procureSl the
breadstuffs she requires but cannot v(ro-
duce; but were they on our soil, ne
could feed ten times the number of hAr
people; and even while | write, THE
merchants Of Minnesota, Iowa, and
other Northwestern States are suffering
financial embarrassment because the
farmers they supply cannot find mar
ket for their crops. She is dependent
on foreign countries for most of the
raw material she works but we have
within our limits exhaustless stores of
every variety not dependent upon
tropical heat for their production. Her
resources are ascertained and developed,
but ours await development, and in re-
gions, any of which is larger than all
Western Europe, including the British
Islands, await definite ascertainment.
Her population is compacted into mar
row limits her railroads completed and
paid for; but our people are settled
sparsely over half continent, and our
system of roads, for which the capital is
yet TO be procured, is to be constructed.
The charges for transportation within
her circumscribed and populous limits
are very light; but over cur extended
and thinly settled country they are
necessarily heavy. Her factories were
erected and supplied with machines
while she maintained the most rigid
system of protection the world has ever
seen but ours are to be built as expert
ments in the face of threatened free
trade, which would involve more
unequal competition than any against
which she defended hers by protective
duties and absolute prohibitions. Her
average rate of interest is per cent.
per annum but ours is never less than
6 per cent. per arnum, and in large
sections Of the country is often 3 per
cent. month. The great body Of her
laborers, even since the recent extern
sion of the suffrage, are subjects without
civic duties but ours are citizens, and
liable to such duties. She pays the
daily wages of her workmen with shil
lings; but we pay ours with dollars
worth four shillings each, and give
many classes of them more dollars than
she does shillings. And it is impossible
that the same economic polity can be
applied with equal advantage to coun-
tries whose condition presents so many
and such important contrasts"