Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-29
A PRolECFIoaIsr REVIVAL IN ENGLAND.

stagnation the masses are very apt to
favor any change of policy, without much
regard to the principles involved. 1t is a
familiar truth that the Government is sure
TO be held accountable for all the evils
which afflict the body polite, and many
an administration and party has owed its
defeat to trade depressions, bad harvests,
and other phenomena altogether beyond |
their jurisdiction. The condition of the
English farmer and manufacturer at pres
ent is no doubt discouraging, and though |
it would be very easy to show that their |
sufferipgs are in no way attributable to
free trade, they are in state of irritation
peculiarly unfavorable to cool thinking, |
and therefore it is possible that they may |
be persuaded to demand a change OF |
economic policy on the principle that things
cannot be much worse than they are. The
abolition of the Corn Laws was not
brought about by demonstration of their
miscellaneous tendencies through argument.
As matter of fact the Anti-Corn Law
League had failed after many years of
agitation, to create any considerable i'm
preston on the public mind. It was at
last just such stagnation as the present
which forced the Government to venture
upon the new policy, and had not a revival
of business supervened upon it there can
be very little doubt that it would have
been abandoned after brief and timorous
experiment.
The fact is that so long as the masses
find themselves fairly pros porous their
conservative instincts lead them to reject
any new proposition no matter how
strongly founded in reason, and it is only
when the existing conditions appear to
have become unfayorable that they are
ripe for change, and then they pay very
little attention to the philosophy OF the
new measures. The English farmer and
manufacturer thought free trade cap
ital policy so long as they were making
they begin to weaken in their allegiance to
the national policy, and to inquire if it
would be possible for them to be worse off
under Protection. If political economy is
based upon immutable truths it is very
certain that England has nothing to gain
and much to lose by taking new depart
ure in this respect. But the subject is one
which possesses a very great significance
for the people of the United States also,
since, if England should revert to pro.
tective policy, they must be injured to an
incalculable extent Thus far America
has enjoyed free market in England, |
while refusing reciprocity. If now Eng
land should resolve to adopt tariff such
as we have long groaned under, the conse-
quences of a retaliatory policy would very
soon be made manifest to us.
OF course we could not object to such
change of policy. It would be an indirect
compliment to our economic sagacity, and
an admission that we knew better how to
arrange our affairs than the mother coun-
try had done. But what would be the
effect of the adoption of a protective sys-
tenn by England upon our production and
manufactures The farmers of the West
would not be long in finding that out for
themselves. American corn and cattle |
would be shut out of what is now their
most profitable market, or if admitted,
only upon such terms as would practically
absorb the profits of production. The con.
tinental powers have never abandoned the |
protective system. England has remained
for forty years the only free trade country
in the world. Should she now change her
policy revolution in commerce would fol- !
low, and its effects would be most disas-
trous to the United States. The closing of
English markets against our wheat and |
pork and cattle would in very short time
produce distress to which that of Lanca-
shire in the Rebellion was as nothing The |
rapid settlement of Western lands, the |
enormous increase of our wheat crop, the !
multiplication of transportation routes,
would ali be knocked on the head together. |
1t would become necessary for hundreds of |
thousands of our farmers to abandon their
holdings, and seek other means of living. |
In fact the progress of the country would |
sustain check of the most cruel kind.
But this is always to be apprehended so
long as we give to the world SO conspicu-
GUS an example of belief in the protective
system. II We are right in clinging to
that system all other countries clearly
ought to follow our example, and if they
do we ought to exult. Protection no
doubt is not fully tested while it is only
adhered to on one side, just as free trade
is not fully tested under similar condi-
tions. If England turns Protectionist we
shall know for the first time all the bless
ings and benefits of our economic policy,
and we shall have the special comfort of
rejecting that we showed the way for our
neighbors to follow. 1t is to be hoped for
the sake of the best interests of both coun-
tries that English statesmen will avoid the
disastrous error towards which they seem
to be impelled just now by popular discon-
tent, but it must be realized that if after
all they should yield to the unreasoning
demand of the hour, and restore the tariff,
the blow will fall most heavily, and ear.
lest, upon American protectionists.
BLAINE's FoERIGN POLICY.
The Sp, pokes fun at Blaines foreign poi