The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-07-19

ports and imports Of a country regardless Of
the nationality of the vessel that may carry
the commodities of exchange, Our carrying
trade has from obvious causes suffered many
discoursgemeDts since 1860, but our foreign
commerce has in the same period steadily and
prodigiously ncreased-increased indeed at a
rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf
all previous developments of our trade beyond
the sea. From 1860 to the present time the
Foreign Commerce of the United States ldivid.
ed with approximate equality between exports
and imports), reached the astounding aggre-
gate of twenty-four thousand millions u dol.
commerce inclined in our favor, but itwould
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 1860 and we
can gain correct conception OF 1t only By
comparison with preceding results in the
same field The total exports from the Unit.
ed States from the Declaration of Independ-
ence in 1776 down to the day of Lincoln's
election in 1860, added to all that had been
previously exported from the American colo
MES from their original settlement, amounted
to less than nine thousand million of dollars
($9,000,000). Ga the other hand our exports
from 1860 to the close of the last fiscal year
exceeded twelve thonsaGSs millions of dollars
($12 900 600, 000)-lhe whole of it being the pro-
duct of American labor. Evidently protee-
tive tariff has not injured OR export trade
xUh tie "a a.. ~,
twenty-four years forty per cent more than the
total amount that had been exported in the en-
tire previous history of American coE6lnsrce.
All the details, when analysed, correspond
with this gigantic result The commercial
cities OF the Union never had such growth as
they have enjoyed since 1860. Our chief en-
porium, the city of New York. with its depen-
denotes, has within that period doubled her
population and increased her wealth five-fold.
During the same period, the imports and ex-
ports 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.
The agricultural interest is by far the lar
gest in the nation, and is entitled in every adj
justment of revenue laws to the first consider
alton. Any policy hostile to the fullest devel-
opment OF agriculture in the United States
must be abandoned. Realizing this fact the
opponents of the present system OF revenue
have la5ored very earnestly to persuade the
farmers of the United States that they are
robbed by protective tariff, and the effort is
in favor of free trade But happily the far
mers of America are intelligent, 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 section, or by enc interest
at the expense of another section or another
interest. They see that the agricultural
States have made even more rapid progress
than thu manufacturing States
The farmers see that in 1860 Massachu setts
and Illinois had about the same wealth-be-
tween eight and nine hundred million dollars
each-and that in 1880 Massachusetts, had adj
vanced to twenty-six hundred millions, while
Illinois had adv to thirty-two hundred
millions, : =. It New jersey and Iowa
were just equal in p slation 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 hum
dred millions. They sec that the nine leading
agricultural States of the West have grown so
rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate sddi-
tion to their wealth snce41860 is almost as
great as the wealth of the entire country in
that year. They see that the South, which is
almost exclusively agricultural has shared in
the general prosperity, and that, having recc "
cred from the loss and devastation OF gar, has
gained so rapidly that it's total wealth is at
least the double of that which it possessed in
1860, exclusive OF slaves.
In these extraordinary developments the
farmers see this Ne'rful impulse of a home
market, and tt les ssctedat the financial and
revenue syste' %, eO@e nee the Republican
party came A. Aoto has established and
cscassss:e1sfy expanded - me 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 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 half bushels exported. In some
years the disparity has been so great that for
every peck of cora exported one hundred bush
els have been consumed in the home market.
The farmers sse that in the increasing compe-
tition 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 Impairment would depre-
ciate 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 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 o
larger area and with a.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, detention or governmental interference OF
any kind whatever. 1t spreads freely over an
area of three and half million square miles
almost equal in extent to the whole continent
of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed today by
fifty-six millions Of American freemen, and
from this enjoyment no monopoly is created
According to Alexander Hamilton, when he
discussed the same subject in 1890, s'the in.
ternal competition which takes place doe.
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" 1t is impossible to point to a
single monopoly in the United States tina,
has been created or fostsred by the indus
trial system which is upheld by the Republican
party.
Compared with our foreign commerce these
domestic exchanges are inconceivably great il
manufacturing merely as one instrument
tality as large mileage of railway as exist
today in all the other nations Of the world com
bined. These internal exchanges are estmat-
ed by the statistical bureau of the Treasury
Department to be annu. ally twenty times as
great in amount as our foreign commerce. II
is into this vast field Of home trade-at ono,
the creation and the heritage of the American
people-that foreign nations are striving b,