Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-09-22
What is Free Trade.

charged of the vague notions which
hundred years of false economic
policy have been irresistibly teach
ing. Free Trade is simply NATURAL
TRADE, UNRESTRICTED TRADE in which
the parties follow their own judg-
ment in buying and selling, and are
under no dictaction from congress or
parliament, or emperor, as to wheth-
er they shall buy this or that, or
shall sell here or there. Free Trade
is commercial liberty. We hear
much eloquence of the blessings Of
commerce. Each quarter of the globe
every section betwixt the parallels
of latitude and longitude-is endow-
ed with its own peculiar facilities for
lninistering to the comfort of every
man. Iowa gives its grain Florida its
oranges, Pennsylvania its Torn, Brazil
its coffee, China its tea. And it is
commerce that brings these gifts to
the hand OF every man. 1t is the
glory of civilization that the riches of
every cline are open to the use of
all. Now, is all this mistake? Is
commerce prodigious blunder? The
greatest apostle of protection" in
this country wished the Atlantic
were ian ocean of fire." that no
ships might go or come. So, he
said, would the American people
be made independent On this plan,
obviously, the ideal man is the
savage-he Stays his own meat,
with an arrow himself has fashioned
from the stone and wood; he makes
his own clothing; he builds his
own house; he is altogether self
centred, self employed, self paid.
Is civilization mistake? If it is not
if it is wise that the adaptability
of each man to do some particular
thing be made use of-that this
man be encouraged to make bread,
that man shoes, that man coats,
and that by exchange each man
enjoys the fruits of the labors of
all-if this is wise, then it is a
wise principle all the way through.
Obviously, the ideal conditions
would be: Every man doing that
for which he is best equipped,
every spot of earth producing that
which it is capable of producing
in greatest abundance with least
labor, and finally the interchange OF
commodities made as easy and
free as possible. The total product
would then reach its highest, and
each man would obtain the fullest
possible reward for his labor.
These propositions are, indeed,
so automatic, that we have never
known a protectionist to assail them
by square, direct argument, The
protectionist view is invariably adj
vanced in a series of special pleas,
vague in form, without logical CON
nection, and in the main put for
ward in bare statement and pure
assumption. Thus, a cardinal prin-
ciple of the philosophy is this
That country is most prosperous
when it produces for itself all it
consumes. This ''principle' is in
variably assumed as automatic.
In protectionist speeches it serves
as a sort of universal major premise.
Yet, there is not grain of truth
in it. A country is most prosper
Gus when it has most at command
to consume, when It's people are well
clothed, well housed, well fed, well
supplied with the good things OF
earth; and it does not make a
particle of difference to that country
whether it supplies its wants by
producing the commodities directly,
or by producing things which it
can produce with less labor and
then exchanging. Nevertheless the
protectionists take this principle for
their corner stone and proceed to
build. How, they ask, shall we
induce the people of this country
to make their own silk? AS things
stand, they can get silk easiest by
making leather and trading for the
silk of France. Clearly our first
is to prevent the people from buy
ing French silk. How? Why,
simply by tax. We put a duty
of sixty per cent. on French silk
and thus work the object in two
ways: First, it doubles the cost
Of silk so that some of our country
men cannot buy it at all, Second
the increased selling price induces
some to give up tanning leather
and engage III silk weaving. All
this done the protectionist calls upon
his countrymen to admire the re-
suit. And his countrymen look!
And what they see is that they
have less of both leather and silk
than they had before. Silk is
double its former price, and shoes
are dearer, since the leather men
must pay with the rest to support
the silk factory.
But the protectionist pleads, we
have created a new demand for
labor. And we perceive that we
have simply drawn labor from
leather to put it into silk.
And again, the protectionist urges
his cause: We have diversified in
dustryl But we know that nature
diversifes industry in every CLINE;
and we know also that in a country
of such an infinite variety of re-
sources as ours, to talk of artifcially
diversifying industry is pure
buncombe.
And when all else fails the pro-
tectionist attempts sarcasm, and
remarks that this country seems to
have staggered along pretty well
under protection. And then any
school ma'am can reply, with equal
sarcasm, that free trade between
forty states is not without its adj
vantages. Suppose the protective
system had been faithfully applied
in this country. There are no ar
guments for the protection OF the
United States against England II
France which cannot he applied
with double force for the protection
| of Pennsylvania against Illinois, or