Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-06-27
Another Trouble for England.

The English government has another
tariff question on its hands, similar to
that which disturbs its relations with
Canada. It has been giving protection
to the cotton manufacturers, which it
now proposes to withdraw in part, if
not wholly. At present the Calcutta
and Bombay mill owners are able to
import free coal, free machinery. and
free skilled labor from England, and
with these aids to manufacture goods
which the protective duty secures them
q ready sale for at higher than the nat
ural prices in the Indian market. But
these mill owners also export large
quantities of goods to China and other
foreign markets F.; and the excessive
profits obtained in India put it in their
power to undersell English competi-
tors abroad by charging less for their
yarn and cloth than they would other
wise be compelled to. The Bombay
Gazette, commenting on this state of
affairs, says "a double injury is inflict-
ed, on the Indian consumer, who is
forced to buy clothing at a dearer than
the legitimate rate, and on the English
manufacturer, who finds himself shut
out of the Indian market and menaced
with what may be described as subsi-
died competition in other Eastern mar
kets. 1t is absurd to expect England
to maintain her dominion over India
for the purpose of thus running an i'm,
portant branch Of her own trade, for
the benefit, not of the people of India,
but of small class of Indian mill
owners" The Gazette further says:
The wealthy Babus Of Calcutta and
their friends, the mill owners of Bonn
bay, have probably less to complain Of
than any other set of people in this
world. Utterly helpless as they are to
protect themselves. they enjoy the ad-
vantage of being protected by the strong
English government and allowed to
accumulate riches IN peace and they
are so lightly taxed for the maintenance
of English rule in India that the
amount they contribute to the national
exchequer may fairly be said to be in
appreciable. Yet they are so grasping
and discontinued withal that any one
would suppose by their outcries they
were being stripped of every rupee they
possess whenever the government asks
them to bear their fair share of taxation ;
and their antipathy to English influ-
ence, which has at least made their for
tunes, is 81 intense that under the pre-.
text of becoming champions of the
cause of struggling Indian industry
they have the presumption to demand
the continuance of commercial policy
which is doing serious injury to the
cotton export trade of England. We
have never been able to sympathize, for
our own part. with the rich natives who
virtually claim exemption from direct
taxation and, if we opposed the license
tax last year, the only motive of our
opposition was desire to see an income
tax imposed in its stead. As for the
impudent pretensions of the mill own
ers, we need not repeat the arguments
we have often used to show that it is
not desirable to destroy the Indian
market for the cotton manufacturers of
England for the sake of enriching the
Nursey Kessowjees of Bombay.
The English government is likely to
have plenty Of business in pacifying its
jealous and ambitious coloD:sts, and in
fighting their quarrelsono neighbors.
American Iraveler.