The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-07-19

country with its carrying trade-an error
often committed innocently and sometimes
designedly-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 country regardless of the nationaH-
ty of the vessel that may carry the commodities
of exchange. Our carrying trade has from obvi-
Gus causes suffered many discouragements since
1860, but our foreign commerce has in the same
period steadily and prodigiously increased-in-
creased 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 divided with approximate equality be
! tween exports and mports) reached the astound-
ing aggregate of twentyfour thousand millions
of dollars. The balance in this vast commerce
inclined in our favor, but it would have been
much larger if our trade with the countries Of
America. elsewhere referred to, had been more
wisely adjusted.
It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude
! of our export trade since 1861 and we can gain a
correct conception Of it only by comparison with
preceding results in the same field. The total
exports from the United States from the Declare
ton of Independence in 1776 down to the day of
Lineoln's election in 1860 added to all that had
previously been exported from the American
colonies from their original settlement amounted
to less than So 900, O00,0 0O On the other hand,
our exports from 1860 to the close of the last
fiscal year exceeded $12, 600 600 000-the whole of
it being the products of American labor. Evil
IDENTIFY protective tariff has not injured our
export trade when, under its influence, we ex-
ported In twenty-four years 40 per cent more
than the total amount that had been exported
in the entire previous history of American
commerce. 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 emporium, the city of New
York, with its dependencies, has within that
period doubled her population and increased her
wealth fvefold. 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 out
break of the civil war in 1860
AGRIcULTURE AND THE TARIFF.
The agricultural interest is by far the largest
in the Nation, and is entitledin every adjustment
of revenue laws to the first consideration Any
policy hostile to the fullest development of agr-
culture in the United States must be abandoned.
Realizing this fact, the opponents of the present
system Of revenue have labored very earnestly
to persuade the farmers Of the United States
that they are robbed by 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 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 one interest at the expense of another section
| or another interest They see that the agricul-
tural States have made even more rapid progress
than the manufacturing STATES.
The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts
| and Illinois had about the same wealth-between
$500, 600 900 and $780, 900 900 each-and that in
1880 Massachusetts, had advanced to So, 600 00O,-
900, while Illinois had advanced to So 200 600 600
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 $780, OOO, 900: while the wealth Of
Iowa was increased by the sum of 81 500 600 900.
They see that the nine leading agricultural
States of the West have grown so rapidly in
prosperity that the aggregate 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 agricultural,
has shared in the general prosperity, and that,
having recovered from the loss and devastation
of war, it has gained 50 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 Of a home mar
ket, 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 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 becr
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 in
creasing 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 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 adj
vantages Of absolute free trade over larger area