Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-07-19
o, SATURDAY MORNING, JULY 10, 1884.


is the generous pensioning OF soldiers. sailors
and their families-an extravaganza which en-
bodies the highest form of justice in the recog-
! milton and payment Of sacred debt When
reduction in taxation is TO be made.
the Republican party can be trusted to accom-
pliSh it in such a form as win most effectively
| aid the industries of the nation
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
| frequent accusation by our opponents is
that the foreign commerce of the country has
| steadily decayed under the influence of the pro
tective tariff In this way they seek to array
! the importing interest against the Republican
party. 1t is a common and yet radical error to
| confound the commerce of the country with its
! carrying trade-an error often committed inno-
| Gently, and sometimes desgnedly: but an error
| so gross that it does not distinguish between
the ship and the cargo Foreign commerce
| represents the exports and imports of a coun-
try, regardless of the nationality of the vessel
that may carry the commodities of exchange.
Our carrying trade has, from obvious causes.
suffered many diScouragements since 1860; but
our foreign commerce has in the same period
steadily and prOdigiOusly increased-increased.
| indeed, at q rate and to an amount which abso-
| lutely dWarfs all previous developments of our
| trade beyond the sea. From 1860 to the
present time the foreign commerce Of
the United States, divided with approx
| innate equality between the exports and
| imports, reached the astounding aggregate of
| twenty-four thousand millions of dollars. The
balance in the vast commerce inclined in our
favor, but it would have been much larger if
| our trade with the countries of America, else
where referred to, had been more wisely ad-
! justed. 1t is difficult even to appreciate the
magnitude of our export trade since 1860, and
we can gain a correct conception of it only by a
comparison with the preceding results in the
same field The total exports from the United
States, from the Declaration of Independence,
in l776, down to the day of Lincoln election, in
| 1860, added to all that had previously
/ been exported from the American colonies from
their original settlement, amounted to less than
| SO 600, 900 000 On the other hand, our exports
from 1860 to the close Of the late fiscal year eN
ceeded Sl2,O00,OO0,000, the whole of it being the
product of American labor Evidently a pro
tective tariff has not injured our export trade,
when under its influence we exported in
twenty-four years 30 per cent. more than the
total amount that had been exported in the en-
tire previous history of American commerce.
All the details when analyzed, correspond with
this gigantic result. The commercial cities of
the Union never had such growth as they have
enjoyed since 1860 Our chief emporium, the
city of New York, with its dependencies has,
within that period, doubled her population and
increased her wealth five fold. During the
same period the imports and exports which
have entered and left her harbor are more than
double in bulk and value the whole amount
reported by her between the settlement of the
first Dutch colony the Island of Manhattan
and the outbreak Of the civil war in 1860
AGRICULTURE AND THE TARIFF.
The agricultural interests are by far the largest
in the nation, and are entitled in every adjust
ment Of revenue to the first consideration. ANY
policy hostile to the fullest development of agri-
culture in the United States must be abandoned.
Realizing the present system Of revenue, parties
have labored very earnestly to persuade the
farmers of the United States that they are
robbed by a protective tariff and the effort is
thus made TO consolidate their vast influence in
favor of free trade But happily the farmers OF
America are intelligent, and cannot be mslcd
by sOphstTy when conclusive facts are before
them. They see plainly that during the past
tWenty-f0ur years wealth has not been acquired
in one section, or by one interest, at the expense
ofanother section or another interest. They
sec that the agricultural States have made even
more rapid progress than the manufacturing
States. The farmers see that in 1850 Massachu-
sets and Illinois had about the same wealth
between eight and nine hundred million dollars
each-snd that in 1850 Massachusetts had ad-
vanced to twenty-six hundred millions while
Illinois had advanced to thirty-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 in
creased 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 non-trading az
ricultural States of the West have grown so
rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addi-
ton to their wealth since 1850 is almost as great
as the wealth of the entire country in that year.
They zee that the South, which is almost ex-
clusively agricultural, has shared in the gen
cral prosperity, and shat, having recovered from
the loss and devastation Of the war, has gained
so rapidly that its total wealth is at least double
that which it possessed in 1SG0-exclusive ofthe
slaves In these extraordinary developments
the farmers see the helpful impulse of
home market, and they see that the fnan-
cial and revenue system enacted since
the Republican party came into power has es-
, tablished and constantly expanded the home
market. They see that even in the case of
whcat-which is your chief cereal export-they
have sold in the average Of the years since the
close Of the war, three bushels at home to one
they have sold abroad, and that in The increase
of com-the only other cereal which we export
T.. 4
used at home to three and q half bushels ex-
ported. IN some years the disparity has been
so great that for every peek Of corn exported
one hundred bushels have been consumed in
the home market. The farmers see that in the
increasing competition from the grain fields of
Russia, and from The distant plains of India the
growth Of the home market becomes daily of
greater concern to them, and that its impair
ment would depreciate the value of every acre
of tillable 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 vastpess 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 ad-
yantages of absolute free trade over a larger
| area and with greater population, than any
other nation. The internal commerce OF our
thirty eight States and nine Territories is carried
on without let or hindrance, without tax de-
/ tention or governmental interference of any
kind whatever. II spreads freely over an area
Of three and half million square miles-al-
most equal in extent to the whole Cont
neHt Of Europe The profits are en-
ioyed today by 100000 of American free
men, and from this enjoyment no monopoly
is created. According to Alexander Hamilton,
| when he discussed the same subject in 1890. the
internal competition which takes place does
| away with everything like monopoly, and by
| degrees reduces the prices of articles to the
minimum of n reoeoraf,Fa r,rof+ m, rho nor;tel