Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-08-22
Free Trade.

have to be a radical change made IN
our tariff system. 1t is no new thing
that free trade is advocated by a
large number of our most prominent
politicians and commercial leaders.
For some years. Il movement IN that
direction has been more or less dis
cussed bv the boards of trade i'll all
the principal Atlantic cities. When
we speak of free trade, it is necessa-
~ to understand what qualification
there should be affixed 20 the term.
So long as we have a Government to
sustain and trade advantages to Of
fer to Foreigners, there should be
some wise provision resorted to IN
order reap a reasonable comrensa-
ton from foreign trade. AS ma
ton, we are rapidly becoming quite
independent Of all systems of tariff
whatever
When our public Indebtedness is
liamdated, our Golfers will, from that
time, begin to fill up from the sheer
profits of our unbounded resources
and there is no reason why the
United States should not eventually
become the wealthiest nation that
ever existed on earth.
A glorious independence OF the
whole of the outside world Is, even
now, asserting itself, to certain ex-
tent, other nations are paying tilb-
ute to us, while upon the great inter-
national ledger the credits are all on
one side and that in our favor. While
these good antecedents are ours, it
will not do to return to absolute free
trade with all the world too abruptly.
1t took about ten years to reinstate
specie payment, and it may require
twice or thrice that time to fully ill.,
augurate an emancipation from our
vexed and abused duty and tariff
system. 1t has been argued that,
by removing all restraints to foreign
trade we should ultimately be the
can ers, on account of the unprece-
denied commerce that would follow
such movement. Our shores
would be thronged by shipping from
every port in the world, the products
of every cline would pour in upon
us while we fixed such prices for
them as best suited us. This would
be beautiful picture to contemplate
were there q due and sufficient blend
of color upon the canvass. A state
of affairs very similar TO the one we
have just supposed existed when Ga
hundred and twenty provinces paid
tribute 10 Persia, in the age of Dari-
us and Cyrus, in the acme of Solo
mons glory and, also, while Rome
boosted of an Eastern and Western
Empire. But we cannot expect over
again such things in these days OF
practical democracy. History may
repeat itself in many respects, but
absolute monarchy, once dead and
buried, can never see a resurrection.
But we are wandering from the
question before us. Only a short
time ago, the Free Trade Club of
New York celebrated its anniversary
and the members congratulated
themselves on what had been done
in the way Of enlisting public atten-
ton to the subject of placing oul
commerce upon firm basis. This
club is sending into the lecture field
able men, and scattering, like the
leaves of Autumn, free trade litera-
ture throughout the Atlantic border.
The great problem of international
trade is at this moment receiving M
amount of public attention unheard
of before in the annals of our his
tory as one of the sovereign nations
of the earth.
In many of the older colleges the
science of political economy is dis
placing the abstruce theorems of
Euclid while the study of classical
lore succumbs to the more real and
practical pursuits of active live.
The faculty of Williams College is
especially enlisted in this movement.
Professor Perry, of that institution
says, Numbers of young men who
60 out from Yale, Amherst, Dart.
mouth aud other colleges, go into
the printing offices. They throw