New-York tribune., 1878-10-11
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W. X. KING :
RlNKRLlrTCY IN ENGL4ND.


A petition has been circulated for signatures
by the Free Trade Club of this city, calling
the attention of Congress to the state of
American industry. 1t makes suggcstion-in in
which perhaps those of different way of
thinking from the club may join-that
there be general inquiry by Congress
into the situation, outlook and necessities
of our industry. There can be no
harm in an inquiry, by experts, into so i'm
portant IA matter, provided that the men who
make the investigation aim at the collection
of facts, and not at the veriicatiOn OF theory.
The grounds upon which the Free Trade Club
asks for an uvostigation are, however, open
to comment. 1t is stated that the policy
of promotion Of home industry, begun
a hundred years ago, has failed to bring pros
perity, but that it has eliminated in 1873 IN
bankruptcy, stagnatiOn, and strikes. The
country, it is said, is IN just the same cOndi-
ton as at the end of the Revolutionary War.
and the cause is said to be the high tariff
which, while helping particular industries,
only loads down all others.
1t is remarkable that at the very moment,
when q fresh attack upon the bulwarks OF
American industry is preparing in the coun-
ellis of the club above referred To, the attrn-
ton OF business men should he powerfully
directed to the state of affairs IN England
where for fifty years the policy OF free-trade,
pure and simple, has been receiving
thorough trial. dispatch printed by TIE
TRIBUNE to-day states that the feeling IN
mercantile circles in England Is unInistak-
ably gloomy. StagnatiOn and strikes have
been the rule for two or three years and
now the failure of the Glasgow Bank, itself
n fruit of an era of speculation, competition
and reckless management, which il thought To
have been the offspring Of protective tariff IN
America threatens an era Of bankruptcy. One or
two banks and several large mercantile firms
are involved, and feeling Of distrust prevails
on all sides. The revelations of the dispatch
above referred to, may be taken in connection
with facts which are known to business men
ON this side of the ocean. The Graphic
pointed out yesterday that the pr lstration of
the IRON industry of England is 80 great that
500 blast furnaces and over 5000 pudding
| furnaces arc now idle, aud that the probability
il the majority of them will never resume
work, owing to the loss of markets and a
change in modes of manufacture. II Is also
known in this city that IN other branches Of
| industry in England an Oyerbulding Of
mills and factories has occurred, and
n war of competition is raging of
severity unknown even in America. 1t is
also known that nearly a hundred millions
of dollars have been invested in ships in
| England in excess of the demands of COM
merce, and have thus been irrctrievably lost
| All the worst features Of the hard times
| in America are, in fact, repeated in
England, only on the larger scale
corresponding to the larger commerce
and manufacture of the mother country, while
none of the bright features which make the
present so endurable and the future so hope
| full here, exist in England.
| 1t thus appears that the distinctive policy of
free trade has not saved the greatest COM
mercial nation of the world from the disas-
ters which have afflicted the United
States Both have come alike under the
rod. Pursuing contrary lines Of pol
| icy, they have suffered equally from
| speculation, wild competition and wilful
| blindness to the immutable laws Of trade,
! showing that these things are the children
neither of free-trade nor protection, but Of
something entirely separate and apart from
both. Whatever, therefore. may be done in
regard to a general inquiry into the state
of industry In America (which, no doubt, can
be mended), VI is questionable whether 1t is
wise to set ahoat petition which ignores the
possibility of bad times under a change of
policy, and to send it TO Europe for publica-
ton in the countries there, to raise false hopes
and create new difficulties in the way of our
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