The Mineral argus., 1884-07-31

eNO NDAillAOulJlts Ol eAGIlauQH. OuT CARVING
trade mas from obvious causes suffered many
ANNOUNCEMENTS since 1860, but our foreign,
commerce has in the same period steadily
and prodigiously increased-increased in
ueed at a rate and to m amount which abso-
lutely dwarf all previous DEVELOPMENTS of
our trade beyond the sea. From 1850 to the
present time the foreign of the
United States, divided with approximate
equality between xport and impOrts).
reached the astounding aggregate OF twenty
four thousand millions of dollars 1924. OOO.-
OOO,OOO). The balance of this vast com
merce inclined in our favor, but it would
have been much larger ii our trade with the
countries of America, elsewhere referred to,
had been more wisely adjusted.
1t is difficult even to appreciate the magni-
tude of our export trade since $50 and we
can gam a correct conception of it only by
comparison with preceding results in the
same field. The total exports from the
United States from the declaration of indie
pendence in 1870 down to the day of Lin
coins election in 1860, added to all that had
previously been exported from the American
colonies from their original settlement,
to less than nine thousand millions
of dollars ($9, 900, 900, OOOl. On the other
hand our exports from 1860 to the close of
the last fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand
millions of dollars ($12, 600, 600, 000)-the
whole OF it being the product of American
labor. Evidently a protective tariff has not
injured our export trade when, under it's in
huence, we exported in twenty-four years
40 per cent more than the total amount that
mad been exported in the entire previous
history OF American All the de-
tails, when analysed, correspond with this
gigantic result. The commercial cities
of the Union never had such growth
as they have enjoyed since 1850.
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 imported
and exported by her between the settlement
of the first Dutch colony on the island of
Manhattan and the outbreak of the civil war
in 1860.
AGRICULTURE AMI THE TARIFF.
The agricultural interest is by far the
largest in the nation, and is entitled in every
adjustment 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 this
fact the opponents of the present system of
revenue a labOred very earnestly to per-
suade the farmers of the United States tina
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 intelli-
gent and cannot be misled by sOphistry when
conclusive facts are before them. They see
plainly that during the past twenty-four
years, wealth has not been acquired in one
11CbAC W W WV A0AC6 az bAC C0DNloC vi
anUJScr section or another interest. They
see that UkG. agricultural states have made
even more rapid progress than the manufact-
uring states.
Tn farmers see that in 1860 Massachu-
sets and Illinois had about the sam. wealth
between eight and nine hundred miiiaon
dollars each-andt hatin 1880 Massachusetts,
had advanced to 81, 600, 600, 900, while nli-
nois had advanced to SO 1900, o 10000. 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 $3.50, 000, 900, while
the wealth Of Iowa was increased by the sum
of 81, 500, 900 1000. They see that the nine
leading agricultural states of the West have
grown so rapidly in prosperity that the ag-
gregate addition TO their wealth since 1S60is
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, |
and that having recovered from the loss and
devastation of war, has gained so rapidly
that its 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 af a home
market, and they see that the financial and
revenue system, enacted since the Repub-
lican 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
Olu III liz dNGId2G VI but 1GdlS SlllIt luE 1
close of the war, three bushels at home to
one they 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 at home to three and a half
bushels exported. In some years the dis
parity has been so great that for every peck
of corn exported one hundred bushels have
been consumed in the home market. The
see that in the increasing competition
from the grain fields of Russia and from the
plains of India, the growth of the
home market becomes daily of greater con-
Germ to them and that it's impairment would
depreciate the value of every acre of tillable
and in the Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE..
Such facts as these touching the growth
and consumption of cereals at home give us
slight conception of the v~astness of the
of the United States.
They suggest also that, in addition to the ad-
vantages which the American people enjoy
protection against foreign competition,
they enjoy the advantages of absolute free
over a larger area and with a greater
population than any other nation. The inter
nal m of our thirty-eight states and
nine territories is carried on without let or
hindrance, without tax, detention or govern
mental interference of any kim whatever.
1t spreads freely over an area of three and a
half million square ~miles-almost equal in
to the whole continent of Europe.
It's profits are enjoyed to-day by SO, 900, 900
Of American freemen, and from this enjoy
no monopoly is created According to
Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the
same subject in 1890, 'the internal compe-
tition which takes place does away with
everything like monopoly, and by degrees
reduces the prices of articles to the mini
mum of a reasonable profit on the capital
employed" 1t is impossible to point TO a
single monopoly in the United States that
has been created or fostered by the indus
trial system which is upheld by the Repub-
lean party.