St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-03-23
Public Opinion.
THE FRUITS OF FREE TRADE.

THE ERUlI OF FREE TRADE.
Turkey, which is about the last of
the nations which were the early vic
Tins of the free trade treaties of Great
Britain, is about to renOunce them. In
other words, the Porte has given notice
that the commercial treaties, which
now impose IL duty of five per cent. on
imports, will expire in 1884, the design
of that official being to increase the
duties. Turkey was once famous for
its manufactures, but under the five
per cent. duty regulation the capital
and improved machinery of Great Brit
ain have been able to undersell
the home manufacturer. The result
need scarcely be told; Turkey is no
longer a manufacturing people. Tur-
key has been slow to learn the cause of
its industrial ruin, but at length it APP
pears to dawn upon its rulers. From
India comes a report of a quite differ
ent result of the free trade policy. In
1855 the Indian authorities were per-
mitted to impose duty on cotton
yarns for revenue. For twenty years
the advocates of free trade in England
have labOred to have this duty remOv-
ed. A year or more since it was done,
in defiance of every official in India,
because the British manufacturer de
manded it, The fear of the British
manufacturer was that the natives of
India, by the protection which this du-
ty on yarns imported to that country
afforded, would be enabled to introduce
modern machinery to such an extent
that India would be a competitor with
England for China trade in cotton. 1t
seems, however, that what the Man
chester manufacturers have feared has
come about, for when the duty was
taken off a year ago the India manu-
facturers had acquired such skill and
facility in production that they were
able to go on with manufacturing, so
that the HindOO is successfully com
peting with his British master. India
has an immense advantage over Eng
land, because the income of a HindOO
operative is only about thirty shillings,
or $3.50 year. He can live on a hand
full of rice and bit of salt fish and
work seven days in the week. Thus
by low tax India has been able to
build up cotton manufacturing until it
can defy England simply because its
labor is so much cheaper than that of
the latter Boston Journal.
THE TROUBLE AT BROWN.
As usual, when the students of col
lege set up their collective wisdom in
antagOnism to that of the faculty, the
young men of Brown university who
are opposing the marking system in
that institution are going the wrong
way to work. We entertain strong
sympathy with this feeling against the
marking system as usually conduct
ed. 1t is inevitably a standing inius-
tice wherever practiced. No matter
how careful or conscientious instructors
may be, the hOnOrs will 90 in many
cases where they are not due, and if
there is Il tendency to favOritism on the
part of some instructors, as is almost
sure to he the case where the faculty is
large, the injustice is intensified. The
system, even at its best, allows but lit
tie discretion. The young
men at Brown have no bus
mess to resist the system. They en-
tered college fully understanding, we
suppose, the conditions to which they
were to conform while they remained,
If they found the regulations more
burdensOme or humiliating than they
could bear, the door by which they en-
tered has never been barred against
their exit. If they remained the right
of petition was also open to them, but
there they should have stopped. Any
thing that partakes of pressure is in
excusable. 1t is their business to sub
NIT to the regulations that they find
and accept when they enter, unless the
faculty is willing to grant their request,
and modify the system. Laws should
be obeyed until they are repealed, even
in college Boston Post.
THE BRUTAL MANLY ART"
Notwithstanding the vigorous pro-
tests made by portion of the city press
against the sparring match, that dis
graceful exhibition was permitted to
take place in the Mechanics hall, Mon
day evening, in presence of an audi
ence estimated to number at least
twelve thousand people, and, if the
adage that "a man is known by the
company he keeps" goes for anything
the spectators were not one whit better
than the low ruffians who took part in
the brutal and demOralizing show.
The audience was indeed a motley one,
made up of aldermen and cOuncilmen,
club men from Beacon and Park streets,
thieves, pickpockets, burglars, and
those who have sunk deeper in the