The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-04-13
WHAT is "NATURALo IN
TRADE.

of some of the Tariff regulations at
previous periods of the worlds histo-
ry, it is not for an instant true in re-
gard to those Of this country to-day.
These, framed with the higher
economic knowledge that now pre-
walls, avoid the mistakes of the past,
and by coming into closest harmony
with the laws of trade achieve their
results by aiding in the operation of
those laws.
They are analogous TO those de.
vices of the farmer by which a trans
planted shrub is supported bv stake
until it gains strength to resist tine
wind alone--by which destruction
through an untimely frost is pre-
vented by slight covering of straw,
and so on, through a whole list of
familiar farming operations that, so
far from being in contravention of
Nature are really in aid of her.
The Free Traders falsely assume
that by Tariff we are trying to do
in this country what is equivalent to
raising oranges in Minnesota, and
bananas in Maine. Nothing can be
farther from the truth.
The industries which it is sought
to naturalize in this country by
means of Protective Tariff are as
we'll suited to it as the wheat and the
rye, the apple and the peach, which
were transplanted thither from Eu-
rope. The operation is no more un-
natural-no more opposed to the
common conditions of Nature than
the act of farmer in tra1splanting
apple trees from Ohio to Illinois,
and protecting them with wind
shades and supports until they have
become rooted and so well-grown
that they can withstand the storms
unaided.
In truth the commerce which these
Free Traders would make the rule of
the world is in the greatest perver-
sion of Nature.
1t is unnatural that wheat and beef
raised in Iowa should be transported
1900 miles away to be eaten by PEG.
pie living on the same kind of soil,
and on nearly the same parallel of
latitude. 1t is very unnatural that
people living on productive soil in
the same zone should exchange food
products over such immense dis
tances. The only natural exchange
of food products is by people living
in different zones.
1t is Unnatural that people living
in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri-above
and alongside of the finest mineral
deposits in the world, should send
1900 miles away to have their wants
in iron and steel goods supplied.
The natural thing is to have the iron
and steel made where the mineral de-
posts and food are all found in close
neighborhood.
1t is unnatural for the man who
raises cotton in Mississippi to have to
send his raw materials thousands Of
miles away to sell it, and buy at the
same distance from his home the
goods manufactured from his pro-
duct. The natural thing for him is
to send his cotton to the nearest
point where the skilled laborer who
does the manufacturing can secure
an abundance Of food.
1t is so throughout the whole long
list.
Nearly the whole. of the vast mass
Of our commerce with England to-
day is unnatural and wrong. 1t is
perhaps well enough to 60 there to
find the products Of tropical and
semi-tropical countries in other parts
of the globe, but every dollars worth
of purely English goods that we buy
is an act of unjustifable waste and
extravaganza.
All the natural conditions of trade
demand that the distance between
the producers of food and raw mate
rails in the Mississippi Valley and
the consumers of the same be re-
duced to less hundreds Of miles than