The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-24
JUDGE BALDWIN ABROAD.

What He Sees of the Effects of Free Trade
in England-The Laborers of Edinburg.
To the Editor OF the Indianapolis Journal
am astonished at the marvellous wealth
and greatness of England. One of the best
tests of countrys condition is the compar-
atively humble matter of roads and bridges
These English roads are as smooth as floors.
There is not a wooden bridge in the whole
kingdom and the railroad beds will last as
long as do the Roman roads. And so with
the dwellings. l doubt if there is a wooden
tenement outside of London from ocean to
ocean. Every nook and corner of this island
is filled with either beautiful homes or splen-
did workshops Now what caused all this
prosperity? The answer is plain. Local and
national great men. These big-brained fell
lows have studied the wants of England
local and national, and supplied them as no
other people in the world. No where have
the principles of public economy and finance
been so thoroughly explained and perfectly
applied. The question with them has not
been what policy would be best for France
or the United States or humanity but what
is the best for England? There seems to be
only one material demand left 10 make En-
glish h9 ppiness complete, and that is univer-
sal free trade. As Mr.. Chamberlain re-
marked the other day: LET the United
States duODb Tree ITdue anu WIFI
cooperation there would in less than twenty
five years be no protective tariff in the whole
world" Yesterday l rode one hundred
miles and was never out of sight of cluster
of tall chimneys. Thus far | have not vet
seen wheat field or corn field. The great
need of this nation is cheap bread.
In this respect she is exactly in the
condition of New England without New
England's advantages of supply. As have
quoted from Mr.. Chamberlain, | am in fair
ness bound to give another striking remark
of his THE United States lose more by
their protective system than we DO" That,
after all, is the real question for us to dis
cuss for there is no doubt but that free trade
is a marvellous success in this country. The
people here would no more go back TO pro-
lection than we would to slavery. But then
England cannot raise her own bread, while
we can and also do our own manufacturing.
One of the chief causes of my long journey
over here was to study the condition of the
English operative under the free-trade sys-
tenn. 1 have not yet seen enough of the
great manufacturing cities to make APP my
mind Thus far | have not found that suf-
fering among the poorer classes that | ex-
pected to find. While wages are not much
over half as high as with u.s. still they are,
according to Mr.. Bright's recent Birming-
ham anniversary speech, double what they
were forty years ago. and on the increase.
The purchasing power of money is. every
thing considered, about the same here as in
the United States. The absence of school
houses hereof course | mean district or
common school-houses--is very remarkable.
have seen but one since / have been here,
now nearly three weeks l find an almost
universal absence of those small yet indie
pendent educated farmers that make our
State and nation SO great Less than 26S, 900
men out of a population of So 100000 own
the entire kingdom containing III, 900 square