New-York tribune., 1875-05-20
4 RESPECTFUL REMONSTRdNCE

We have never been able to see what ad-
vantagcs the advocates of Free Trade could
hope to gain, by claiming as they do in behalf
OF their idol powers that it cannot possibly pos
scss, and ascribing to Protection evils which
it cannot by any means have caused. Business
n this country Is now depressed, and the ex-
ports and imports have fallen oil. The
Protective tariff, VIC are tod, has
caused these troubles. High officers of the
Customs are charged with collusion with
silk smugglcrs, and the acts of these rascals
are readily excused, because the "prohibtory
dulles arc enough to corrupt a saint. 1t
seems to lis that il Great britain can success
fully collect duty of more than four hundred
per cent on articles il such universal use as
gin and rum, it ought to be easy for the United
States TO secure from fifty TO one hundred per
cent on silks. Neither do we see why sill,
goods are not as proper subjects for taxation
IA the tea and coffee which the laborers
of this nation at all events regard as necessary
to their comfort Our purpose is to show that
Great Britain at this very time is suffering
severely from those same fluctuations in trade
and unremuncrative prices which the blind
worsiipers of Free Trade on this side of the
Let us take for examination the article Of
wheat, which is prime necessary of life, and
the manufacture of iron, which is second only
TO cotton goods in the British exports. The
high price of wheat for the five years begin
ming with 1870 and ending with 1874, is COM
monty given by English authorities as the
most potent cause of the existing depression
in the British export trade. The continued
high price of wheat made it necessary to raise
wages, and the consequence OF raising
wages was that tie British manufacturer
was undersold, not only in foreign markets,
but in Great Britain itself In the number of
The London Economist last received is highly
interesting document coming from the Cham
ber of Commerce and Manufactures at Ley
den, Holland. 1t is a memorial addressed to
the Dutch Government, and shows why the
"wise Dutch" have not of Late bought
as much iron in England as
they had been previously in the
habit of doing. The reason is an
excellent one. The Dutch are close fisted,
salt water Free Trade people, like the English,
accustomed to buy at the lowest prices They
found they could buy iron cheaper of Belgium
and Prussia, and did so. In 1873 the Neither
lands received So per cent Of their total
importations of bars, rods, hoops and plates
from England, and in 1874 only 24l2 per
cent. In 1873 they received from England
90 per cent of their total imports of rails,
and in 1874 only &c per cent. The falling
off in the British exports of iron is not con-
fined to the trade with Holland. The yearly
aggregate of British exports of iron and steel
has declined from $685. 900 tons in 1872 to
2,957O tons in 1878, and TO 2,4S7,OOO
tons in 1874 loss of 81 per cent. There
has been, measuring from the high level of
the Spring of 1873, fall of from 80 to 40
per cent in the English prices of iron. A large
proportion of blast furnaces and other
iron manufacturing establishments have been
lying idle, and for more than two
years there has been continued succession of
strikes and lOck-outs of coal miners and other
workmen against inevitable reductions in
wages. We do not infer from these facts
that Free Trade is not good thing for En-
gland. We simply insist that it is unfair to
blame Protection for causing in America
what Free Trade has been pOwerless to pre-
vent in Great Britain.
The abolition by Great Britain Of her Op-
pressive duties On wheat, the maintenance of
which in full force down to 1916 is not the
least of the causes of high-tariff legislation in
the United States, was wise measure. En-
gland now receives supplies of grain from the
whole world, yet the fluctuations in the prices
of wheat cover almost as wide a range as they
did in the years from 1920 to 1916, before
the "corn laws" were abolished. The fall
within twelve months in the official
| average price of wheat has been fully 80
per cent from the average of the twelve
months ended with August ksA The CORE