Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-07-19
million. Of dollar. 1924 OOO 600 oOOl.

| 1t is difficult even TO appreciate the magni
| tude of our export trade since 1860 and W
can gain a cnrrect conception OF II only D.
comparison with preceding results in the sam
| field. The total exports from the UnlteC
| States from the Declaration of independence
| in l776 down to the dav of Lincoln's election
| in 1860, added to all that had previously beef
exported from the American Colonies from
/ their original settlement, amounted TO les
than nine thousand millions Of dollar
! IS, 0O0, 900 ,000) On the other hand gu
| exports from 1860 to the close of the las
| fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand million
| Of dollars (Sl2 900 000, 000)-tke whole OF l
! being the product of American labor. Evi
IDENTIFY Protective tariff has not injured GU
export trade when, under its influence, W.
exported in twenty four years forty per cen
more than the total amount that had been ex
ported in the entire previous history o.
| American commerce. All the details, wher
analysed correspond with this gigantic result
The commercial cities of the Union nevel
had such growth as they have enjoyed sinc'
| 1860 Our chief emporium, the City of New
| York, with its dependencies, has within tina
period doubled her population and increased
her wealth five fold During the same periot
the imports and exports which have entered
and left her harbor are more than double il
bulk and value the whole amount imported
and exported by her between the settlement o
the first Dutch colony on the island of Man
haitian and the outbreak of the Civil War il
1860
AGRICULTURE AND THE TARIFF.
The Agricultural interest is by far the larg
est in the Nation, and is entitled in every ad
justment of Revenue Laws to the first con
sideration. ANY policy hostile to the fullest
development of Agriculture in the United
States must be abandoned. Realizing thi.
fact the opponents of the present system OF
Revenue have iaborvd very earnestly to per-
suade the farmers of the United States that
they are robbed by a Protective Tariff, and
the effort s thus made to consolidate their
vast Influence iii favor of free trade. But
happily the farmers OF America are intelli-
gent aud cannot be misled by sophistry when
conclusive facts are before them. They see
plainly that during the past twentyfour years,
wealth has not been acquired in one section
or by one interest at the expense of another
section or another interest. They see that
the agricultural States have made even more
rapid progress than the manufacturing States.
The farmers that in 1860 Massachu-
sets and Illinois had about the same wealth
between eight and nine hundred million
dollars each-and that in 1880 Massachusetts
had advanced to twenty-six hundred millions,
while Illinois had advanced to thrty-two
hundred millions. They see that New Jersey
and Iowa were just equal in population in
1860 and that in twenty years the wealth OF
New Jersey was increased by the sum of eight
hundred and fifty millions of dollars. while
the wealth of Iowa was increased by the sum
of fifteen hundred millions. They see that the
nine leading agricultural States of the West
have grown so rapidly in prosperity that the az
gregate addition to their wealth since 1860 Is
almost as great as the wealth of the entire
country in that year They see that the
South, which is almost exclusively agri
cultural, has shared in the general prosperity
ard that having recovered from the loss and
devastation of war, has gained so rapidly
that is total wealth is at least the double OF
that which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of
slaves.
In these extraordinary developments the
farmers see the helpful impulse of a home
market, and they See that the financial and
revenue system, enacted since the Republican
party came into power, has established and
constantly expanded the home market They
see that even in the case of wheat, which is
our chief cereal export, they have sold, in the
average OF the years since the close of the
war; three bushels at home to one thew have
sold abroad, and that IN the case of corn, the
only other cereal which we export to any
extent, one hundred bushels have been used
mt home to three and half bushels exported.
In some years the disparity has been so
great that for every peck of corn exported
one hundred bushels have been consumed in
the home market. The farmers see that in
the increasing competition from the grain
no of fr.p tha "a,
of India the growth of the home market be-
comes dall, of greater concern t. them and
that its impairment would depreciate the
the value of every acre of tillaole land in
the Union.
Our INTERNAL COMMERCE.
Such facts as these touching the growth
and consumption of cereals at home give us
some slight conception of the vastness of the
internal commerce of the United States
They suggest also that, in addition to the
advantages which the American people enjoy
from protection against foreign competition,
they enjoy the advantages of absolute free
trade over larger area and with a greater
population than any other Nation. The in
ternal commerce of our thirty eight States
and nine Territories is carried on without let
or hindrance, without tax. detention or Gov
ernmental interference of any kind whatever
1t spreads freely over an area of three and a
half million square miles-amost equal in
extent to the whole continent of Europe Its
profits are enjoyed to-day by tifty-six millions
OF American treemen, and from this enjoy
ment no monopoly is created. According to
Alexander Hamilton. when he discussed the
same subject in 1870, 1.-THE internal compet-
ton which takes place does away with every
thing like monopoly, and by degrees reduces
the prices of articles to the minimum of a
reasonable profit on the capital employed"
Ii is impossible to point to a single monopoly
IN the United States that has been created or
tostered by the Industrial System which is
upheld by the Republican Party.
Compared with our foreign commerce
these domestic exchanges are inconceivablv
great in amount - requiring merely as one
instrumentality as large a mileage of railway
as exists to-day in all the other nations of the
world combined These internal exchanges
are estimated bv the Statistical Bureau OF
the Treasury Department to be annually
twenty times as great in amount as our
foreign commerce 1t is into his vast field
If home trade--at once the creation and the
heritage of the American people-that for
eign nations are striving by every device tC
enter 1t is into this field that the opponent.
of our present revenue system would freely
admit the countries of Europe-countrie
ciprocally enter: countries to which W,
should be surrendering every advantage o
trade; from which we should be gaining
nothing in return.
EEFECr iron TIE MECHANIC AND THE