New-York tribune., 1873-09-02
TIE ExpER1MENT or PROTECTION.


In discussing the Free Trade question we
have studiously kept out of controversies with
journals which are in the habit of sometimes
inventing, sometimes falsifying, their statis
tics; of putting words into the mouths of
their opponents which they never uttered
and finally, Of shifting their own positions
with the agility of August grasshoppers. We
prefer to deal with responsible persons who
know what they are talking about and don't
finch. Such a person is the Hon. David A.
Wells. On the 28th of last June Mr.. Wells
part0Ok of the annual Golden Club din
ner at Greenwich, Eng, and then and there
was delivered of a carefully prepared attack
on the Protective policy of this country. From
copy of Mr.. Wells's speech. printed from his
own manuscript, prepared before he took his
seat at the table, we quote his most serious
charge against Protection "The first pTinci-
"ple and avowed object of Protection is to
effect national industrial independence, or
emancipation from national dependence on
Foreign skilled labor But in place of be-
coming industrially Independent there has
"never been a time when the people
"of the United States were consuming
$50 much of the products of the labor Of
other countries, exporting so little OF their
own, and paying so largely for what they
do import with promises rather than with
products Indeed, the facts are so striking
" and so entirely without a parallel in COM
"mercial history, that it seems to me | am
warranted in asking your attention some
"what to details. Thus, the total value of
" the exports of the United States increased
" in the twelve years from 1860 to 1872,
";17G,000,000; but of this increase all but
about S6.000,000 is refcrable to the SIX items
" breadstuffs, coin and bullion, provisions,
90 leaf tobacco, petroleum, and lumber-pro-
ducts three -fourths Of the value of which
represent the gifts of God, and the other
one-fourth labor of the most unskilled and
poorest paid description"
Now, the above statement is Of recent date
only two months Old-and Of the highest
Free Trade authority; literally er catkedra.
Let us examine it by the light of facts Mr..
Wells asserts here, as he has repeatedly as
serted elsewhere, and as his followers have
asserted times Without number. that under
such a tariff as we have now manufactures
cannot prosper; that the United States cannot
manufacture what is needed for consumption
at home, still less find any market abroad. In
the very speech from which the above extract
is taken he says that he " can conceive of no
"higher proof of the purity and di3interested-
"ness Of motives on the part OF the ecOno-
"mists of Great Britain in advocating the
unrestricted extinction of the principles of
" Free Trade, than the fact that the success
" of their policy would at once so far diminish the
"cost of production and transportation in the
United States as TO deprive Great Britain of her
present largest and most profitable market"
That is to say that if our tariff admitted
British manufactures free, there would be far
less demand for them than there is now,
because we could then manufacture so much
more cheaply for ourselves. Col. GrosvenOr, too,
has actually written a book to show that Pro-
lection does not Protect. The statistics of the
last Census, also, have been shamefuly
abused to demonstrate to the manufacturers
that if they would really like to get into a
condition of tolerable prosperity they must go
in for Free Trade.
1t is plain that we have here an issue which
touches the root of the matter; an issue, too,
which is susceptible of being tested by facts
Now it so happens that the facts have lately
taken such turn as to give Mr.. Wells and
his disciples serious trouble. Indeed the Free
Traders, in their present perplexity, remind
us of little story of the Rev. Sydney Smiths
we mean the one about Mrs. Partington.
That old lady lived on the western coast of
Britain. One day there blew heavy gale
from America, followed by remarkably high
tide, and the salt water flowed in and began
to cover this good housewives floor. Nothing
daunted, she went to work vigorously at sweep
ing out the brine with her broom. But the contest
was unequal, and Mrs. Partington was forced
to yield to the Obstinacy Of the Atlantic
Ocean. So it is with the Free Traders and
Mr.. Wells. Our manufacturers do prosper;
do command the home market; do success
fully compete in some of the foreign markets
with the British and. unkindest cut of all,
shipbuilding has revived The state of things
is, in short, exactly the reverse of that so elo-
quently described by Mr.. Wells two months
ago. Never, since the war, were the people
of the United States exporting so much of
their own products, consuming so little, com
paratiyey of foreign goods. and running up
so small bill at job Bulls shop.
They have achieved this position by the aid
of Protective tariff in spite of an inflated
paper currency, in spite of unexamped ex-
travagance in their National State and local
Govornmeuts IN spite Of tho Generalization