The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-10-30

A Icsson From over the Sea,

lEb 1NTELLlukNCkR LAO deletOtoAo AouHN
profitable instruction in the letters Of the
English correspondent Of the American
Manufacturer. The same source is again
drawn upon Tor interesting matter touch.
ingt the condition OF the iron and steel in.
dustries, and their relation to like indus
triesi in this country. In arecent letter the
correspondent told Of the troubles Of the
Welsh iron and steel masters, who were
about to reduce wages as some compensa-
ton for q low and still falling market. The
reduction has come, ranging from Ave to
ten per cent.
Here is a Welsh steel masters reason for
the unsatisfactory condition Of the BUSH
ness-"the imposition by the Government
OF the United States OF a tariff which Is
~prohibitory. We're 1t not that her duties
are so high the iron and steel trades Of this
country could compete with the [Americanl
home industries, and send an enormous
quantity of rails into America" This Is what
wa have been saying to those who believe
that a policy Of protection is necessary to
the general walfare. Those Of our country
men who do not believe in that policy,
aud the agents Of foreign interests kept
here to try to break down that policy, have
insisted that the barrier Of protection
might be removed without largely increas'
ing imports, for home manufacturers
would be obliged to meet the foreign com.
petition.
But the foreign manufacturer knows better
than this. Give him q low tariff, or no
tariff, and with the aid Of the sheriff he
will undertake to close up his American
competitor. For awhile we should have
lower prices, but after foreign capital and
labor should have mastered our American
market, and driven American capital and
labor 10 seek other employmenta, the
foreign manufacturer would begin to reap
his reward. Home competition removed,
we should have to pay the foreign manu-
iacturer his price or do without. Our
money would 60 abroad and stay there.
The writer recently heard the Democratic
Governor OF Maryland say, in a speech at
the Berkeley County Fair, that If we did
not buy from q country 1t would not buy
from us, that the more we bought from a
given country the more 1t would buy from
US. Governor Hamilton should have been
told on the spot, and the people who heard
him should have been told, that there is
little II any truth in his remark. England
sells to US all that We will take. In return
she takes what she wants, generally what
she can not get elsewhere, without any re-
gard to what We buy Of her. For example,
she takes SO many quarters, more or less,
Of our cereals, because she finds it to her
advantage, not stopping 10 look over the
exports to see whether We are buying lib
orally Of her manufacturers.
Let us suppose that the consumer OF. iron
and steel products would forever get them
cheaper II he took them from abroad. We
can imagine the observant farmer crying
aloud to Congress to stop that heroic re-
yersal Of economic conditions-:o spare
him his home market. Labor employed
in the United States will first eat Of the
fruits Of our American soil. Labor en-
ployed in Great Britain would assoon con-
sumo the wheat Of the Baltic provinces as
the wheat OF Dakota and West Virginia.
The countless small products Of the Amer
lean farm, millions upon millions Of readily
exchangeable value, profitable to the pro-
Queer where a home market ia at hand, rot
where they have grown because they can
not bs marketed beyond seas. Farmers
are coming to realizs that they have q
stake in every manufacturing establish
ment at home, and very little interest in
those OF other lands.
In the north Of England, also, there Is a
drop in wages Of from aeven-and-a.half to
fifteen per cent, and the lowest limit is not
believed to have been reached. Manufac-
turers are hoping to get wages down low
enough to enable them to slip their pro.
ducts in under our "prohibitory tariff"
Where Is the American who desires to see
the bulwark Of protection throw down, so
that American labor shall be brought to the
low level Of foreign wages2 American cap.
ital would suffer, too, in such a conflict.
But for a while capital can live of itself.
Labor must be employed or it starves.
We shall do well II we take to heart and
profit by the lessons which come from that
country which is striving to convert US to
free trade, in hope that in the end 1t may
swallow US up.