The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-07-22

walton stalked through the Kingdom, and
until the choice lay between famine and |
free trade. John Bull did not learn free
trade through his heart, but through his
belly. After generations Of stolid ignorance
and bigotry on the subject, when her In
dustries, protected" at every point, had
robbed and plundered each other OF the last
penny, and crime, stagnation Of business,
bankruptcy, and stark famine stared herin
the face.-then did England, with all her
''proverbial commercial foresight aud nat
ural shrewdness,' perceive the imposition
that she had practiced upon herself. The
Minister who dared TO avert a famine by
the repeal of the corn laws was deserted
BY his party, and was thrust from Office.
He lived, however, TO see that brave act
become the foundation of the wider and
more comprehensive policy which the
Daily Ne'oS now wonders that the Amerl-
can people do not adopt, in u period of toll
cradle prosperity, without the stimulus of
intense suffering, which alone enabled
| Great Britain 10 learn its advantages.
| In point of fact, the last thing that
nation learns, in its advance in civilization,
| is that two pounds Of iron are better than
one pound, two yards Of cloth better than
one yard, and at the same cost, or, as
Bastiat puts it, that two and two make
four in political economy the same as in
arithmetic. The only nation that has
learned this obvious and simply truth
through the head is Germany, and even
here the truth was acquired through nee
essary experimental process, rather than
through the exercise of pure reason. For
merly protection was the fundamental
principle of every State, large and small,
in Germany Each tupenny kingdom and
principality had its territory bordered with
custom houses and revenue police. TWAS
pretty much as it would have been in the
| United States, ii every county IN every
State had been a separate nation and had
collected customs duties on all goods
brought into or passing through its terri
tory. Each of these States had its pro-
tective code to preserve its home market
and shut out foreign competition. But
this eventually worked its own cure. With
the growth of commerce and the needs of
modern society, this Gun bersome system
could not be executed. So, finally, it was
agreed that, instead OF levying duties at
every crossroads, there should be but one
duty collected, aud that at the border of
Germany The prosperity which followed
from the removal Of artificial obstacles
taught the people that an import duty is
nothing but tdr, and that there is no more
sense in expecting to retain prosperity by
imposing heavy taxes upon themselves
than in first loading their boots with metal
weights and then trying TO lift themselves
by the straps. Now, all Germany receives
imports under one tax, which does not
average over a per cent. dd rdlorem. 1t
took the German States several genera
tons, and cost many long and expensive
wars, 10 learn that the Chinese system of
exclusiveness was wholly inconsistent with
commercial prosperity, and that it was bet
ter 10 get six loaves of bread for shilling
than three.
) The present pinch in the Western
States has enabled good many people to
see the folly of paying S45 per ton extra
for steel rails 10 haul corn TO market, who
would never have been able to see it other
wise and we have considerable hope that
before the pinch is over direction may be
given 10 public sentiment which will result
in tearing down the whole vicious system
: Of taxing one man for the benefit of an
other.