The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-03-27
ENGLAND and America.


Of our readers, that they may form some
idea Of the progress Of the United States I'M
der the wise administration Of our national
affairs. and the great craftsmanship which
he has directed our financial interests. The
writer says : England is now passing
through an experience that is quite excep-
sional, in her history, and her statesmen,
public men,and citizens generally, have to
deal with questions that underly her very
existence as a great and powerful nation. I
give you the following figures from official
sources f.a,s., a...s.
Imports into England from the U. s., =.
Exports from England to the O. s., for
Imports into England from the q. S., for -
Exports from on England to the s. for ''''''9''
the SAINT period. 146O00 600
It will be seen from these figures that we
sold England in 1877 four times as much as
she sold us, and that in 1878 we sold her
five. times as much as she sold u.s.. This
enormous balance of trade against England
amounts for the two years to $500, 900.
This balance has been adjusted by the
United States taking back Government and
other bonds, and thus liquidating abroad
this amount of foreign Indebtedness, other
wise England would have to pay every
pound sterling in gold. But this adjustment
of trade balances through the medium OF
bonds has now been about exhausted, Very
few bonds remain here, and the bulk Of
| fhop, hold for opt inu
Under these circumstances the United
States must not only retain all her coin, and
the annual. output of all her mines, but she
must draw coin largely from this side. The
articles imported from the United States in
to England are such that she cannot dis
pense WITHHOLD supplies, Gotten, and other
essentials upon which her very life is based.
How in future she is to pay for them is
among the problems to be solved. Last year
the balance against her was $3.50, 1000, 000.-
amounts to s650,o00,000. -e.'-.' ,'~ ....
Two years would exhaust this amount,
unless she can either dimin ish her pur-
chases from us Or increase her sales to u.s.
She can do neither; we buy of her less eve
ry year by $25 100000 to 30,000,000. and
sell her every year from $40,000,O00 to
$50, 1000, 900 more. These figures are official,
and of course trade balances always regu-
late in til. end the respective amounts of
coin each country is able to hold. Gold in
former years centered in England because
all nations were indebted to her. This con-
dition of things has been reversed. The to-
tai trade balance against England in 1877,
was e142, 100000, or 710,000,000. Her
statesmen and her people went wild over
the abstract principle of free trade. All the
leading commercial nations have flooded her
markets with every conceivable article her
people require, cheaper than she can either
manufacture or produce them. The conse-
quence is, hundreds of thousands of her
population are out of employ, and she has
fallen from the greatest commercial power
| in the world to position where her very
existence is threatened. II she does not
change her whole internal policy, and go
back to protection, and reorganize her Gov
eminent, and make all her colonial possess
sions part and parcel of her empire, and
all her laws as fully operative in Australia
and Canada as here, she will never re-
gain her lost trade. They will be so long in
doing this that in the meantime part of her
coin must go to the United States. None of
England's statesmen have the courage to
utter single word against free trade, SO
strongly is this craze still fixed in the
minds of the people. t..--..,
The United States is no longer debtor
nation: we have entered upon new phase
of national life, phase which will central
ize capital and coin in our country, and
during the next few years we will become
the financial center that England has been
heretofore. Capital and wealth always fol-
low commerce, and we have the commerce.
Inexhaustible supplies of cheap ood,cotton,
iron, coal, gold, silver, and all raw materials
and 100000 of industrious, intelligent
people unhampered by kings, emperors
and an aristocracy, and unexhausted by
standing armies. The bread-earning power
is the power In modern civilization, and the
United States .eminently commands this
advantage.
The labor Of the United.States at the pres
ent time is more judiciously and wisely dis
tributed than at any former period in our
history. There is much larger portion of
it employed in producing and less in specu-
lation and premature undertakings hence,
our exports have risen rapidly and our i'm
ports as rapidly diminished. We have learns
ed how to supply our own wants. The Uni
ted States on the day of suspension of spe-
Gle payments and the United States on the
day of resumption was no longer the same
country, as far as its financial and CONNER
cial condtio was concerned. The construc-
ton of the Union Pacific Railroad, the open
ing up of rich gold and silver mines, an
extended and vast agricultural system and
| the cultivation of immense areas OF land by
machinery, and the rapid extension of man.
ufactures OF all kind, changed the whole con-
dition of our country.
The resumption OF specie payments, the
rapid funding of our 4 per cent consols, the
steady reduction of our national debt, the
large annual decrease in the expenses of cur
Government and the enormous increase in
our exports have raised the credit Of the
United States very high in Europe.
The expenses OF the English Government
have increased since 1854 from esq, 1873, 900
to es1, 1000, 900 ir 1873, and about EGO, 0O0,-
900 have been added to her enormous ma
tiona! debt in the same period.
In the early and rapid development of
the United States, England drewour gold
into her own treasury. Now conditions
are reversed,and we will drawis back again,
and SO long as we push our productive pow
ers with the same vigor that we have applied
heretofore, and keep up our increased ex-
ports, we will continue to draw gold from
abroad, and retain our annual output. Eu'
rope is now full of agents from the United
States, establishing agencies and depots fol
the sale of the leading products of our work
shops. Thirty-fve of such agencies have re
Gently been established on the Mediterrane-
an. Last year our exports were $4,000,
900. should not be surprised to see then