The daily gazette., 1881-11-23
From the N. Y. World.

"a h"hAee NOtIOn" OF ka1r Trade.
Mr.. George Basil Dixwell has taken
the trouble to write from Shawmut ave
nue., IN Boston, to the editor of the Lon
don Times, to point out that the United
States "consums enormously of tea,
coffee, spices, sugar and other tropical
products and pay for them virtually In
British goods"-"tbat is to cay, by drafts
on London, and not by our own pro-
ducts"-and that tour purchases enable
the producing countries to consume a
vastly greater amount of British goods"
Mr.. Dixwell adds:
"If we did not obtain these tropical
and semi-tropical products indirectly
through England, we should procure
them directly by exporting our own
products, even II II should be necessary
to do it by system OF bounties to ex-
pOrters and bounties to ship-owners.
The Treasury of the United States
would be all the better off II some mil
lions sterling annually were used for
such purposes" -..-
Mr.. Dixwell's method for withdraw
ing certain proportion of our popula-
ton from the growing of wheat which
they can produce cheaper than the
British farmer, to the production of
manufactures which the British artisan
can produce cheaper than we, seems
rather roundabout. His idea is that
we should brlbe the tropical people by
offering them our goods cheaper than
they can get the same goods from Great
Britain. Merely as cheap will not do,
since the British now bave the trade and
we must offer superior Inducements to
get 1t away from them. He proposes
that the American people as taxpayers
should present American ship-owners
with little more than the difference
In price between American and British
ships, and American manufacturers with
little more than the difference In price
between American and British goods.
Even with these inducements II Is
doubtful If American manufacturers
would take the trc uble to extend their
business, when the home market Is al
ready secured to them, by sending out
agents to the tropical countries.
1t will be necessary for the Govern
ment to set up and maintain at the
public expense American mercantile
firms at all places in the tropical
countries where there are now British
merchants, or native houses having
relations with British merchants
When we have done all this, we shall
probably perceive that the method has
been expensive as well as circuitous,
and that il would have been cheaper
as we'll as more direct to declare war
against the tropical countries which
| buy British goods, most Of which we
could probably beat, and whip them
until they agreed to take American
goo Is instead of British. And If the
method of the able Mr.. Dixwell is
sauce for the tropical goose, why is it
not sauce for the British gander
Why do we not run steamships from
here to Liverpool at the public cost
and at prices that defy British COM
petition, and sell knives to the Shelf
field people, and woolens to the people
of Bradford and Leeds, and cotton
prints in Manchester, and finally carry
Goals to Newcastlep The British
market Is much larger than the tropi'
cal market, and it would be very de
sirable to have it. The expectation o.
tea to China, and of "coffee, sugar
spices and other tropical products" tt
the countries from which we now i'm
port them, would probably take some
time to develop. But we have onl,
to tax ourselves with sufficient vigol
and energy and If Mr.. Dixwell is
right, abundant prosperity will ensue
When we have arrived at the com.
mercial millennium which he fondl!
anticipates, and export verythinl
everywhere and import nothing from
anywhere, only one regretful doub
will arise in the mind of Mr.. Dixwell
What are all these people gong L
pay us with? And, by the way, witt
what is Great Britain paying us nov
for the breadstuffs which she imports
from usP Possibly when Mr.. Dixwel
considers these questions he may b.
led to wish that he had not written tt
the London Times, or that the Londol
Times had not printed his letter.
/