New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-06-09
A FREE TRADERS CHOICE.
A CONSUMER OPPOSES CHANGE OF TARIFF
THE SHORTEST WAY To CHEAPNEss.

We begged him TO face about and travel westward
saving most Of the distance. Once more, when he
was about To leave COnstantnople still going east
ward we urged that he c0uld still reach chicago
sooner by way Of New-York. Bat now he has
crossed Asia and the Pacific. and at San Francisco
would be a fool to turn back. At last, II he wants
to reach Chicago he is on the shortest road.
Consumers who believe in free trade also pro-
tested when the Nation started to get cheaper
goods by Way of protection. They believed that
was the Liverpool route to Chicago, not the
cheapest or best way. But, whether it was or not,
the Nation is now much more than half way round.
Now there is no question about it the shortest way
to get cheap things is 20 @ straight forward anu 10
encourage home production.
To get goods permanently cheaper by closing our
own manufacturers is no longer possible. For IN
stance. we cannot hope to bGv more steel thah
Great Britain now produces, without puttlhs up
the price there higher than it now is here We can
not Inv abroad even one third of our woollen
goods. rs VIC did in 1869, without causing much
wilder advance than the equipment OF orr army
caused in 1861 Last year we required S73, 10000
worth OF silks Only one Nation has ever produced
80 great a quantity and France, now producing
RS5 OOO 600 worth would be certain 20 charge wo
prices if our mills should stop. Il Is 50 Of other
articles in great number The needs OF the Ohlted
States have become so enormous, in proportion u
the supply for the whole world. that prosratlon 81
home industries would place Us quite at the mercy
of foreign monoposts Whether we like 1t or not
we must perforce rely mainly upon the encourage
ment Of home industry TO bring about such increase
of production. and sdch sharpness OF competition,
as will deliver US finally from the power OF mo-
nopolists here or anywhere else.
This effect. we know, has been produced by ade-
auate stimulus in many instances. Be it granted
that it has not yet brought down 10 reasonable
level the prices of all protected goods. In some
cases the encour lgcment has not been adequate;
wire rois tin plates, cotton ties, are obvious IN
stances But in Justice to ProtectonIsts we must
admit that they never claimed that adequate pro-
lection would thus reduce the cost OF all goods al
once. If anybody was foolish enough to expect
hat cheaper goods for everybody could be suddenly
obtained by equally protecting everybody, he
might have remembered that no mau can lift him.
self by his own boot-straps. Bat encouragement
can and does draw capital and industry INTO one
branch of production after another untu each IN
t1Iru becomes so far developed that II ceases 10 Ned
more than an average return for the outlay. Ihat
we know because have seen 1t. IL * possible
that the country has tried tn favor too many IN
dustri.s ut once. Bat that matters little a 70 the
| fnture IL as | find, many are now so tuuy de-
| veloped that they quite able To supply tle en-
| tire home demand at reasonable prices, and many
| others are already nearly able.
| There are named in a Late report by the bureau
Of Statistics. H. classes of manufactured products
| that are imported. But many OF them are more
largely exported showing that other countries tie
| mend on us for such products more than we depend
ON other countries. In less than one-1fth OF Iese
cases does the excess Of imports over exports eN-
| cead one-twentieth part of the home consumption
The excess in cutlery, for instance, is only , per
cent of the consumption. in other manufactures
1 o. IN Lea am -
per cent and in carpets only per cent. Practically
| the home manufacture supplies the whole demand
in 90 out OF the ll2 classes. We import over one
! twentieth of the entire consumption IN only y
| classes viz: Cotton goods lime and glue, each .
per cent; steel ngots aud ground coffee and spices
each : per cent; hair 9 per cent sauces ana
pjckles. 10 per cent; woollen goods, IL per cent ;
drugs and dyes, u per cent zilc, and books each
| Il per cent; glass and fancy goods, each 10 per
| cent; COMBS 20 per cent salt, % per cent;
| earthen and stone ware, 40 per cent; SILK goods
| % per cent; miscellaneous forms OF steel, 10 per
| cent buttons 4G per cent fax and hemp goods,
~ per cent: sheet iron SO per cent, and tin, ~
| Der cent. Only three out of the 112 classes are
supplied more largely by foreign than by home pro-
| duction This serves to show how few branches Of
manufacture there are that do not now closely ap-
| proach ability to supply the entire home demand
| With a little more growth, if undsturbed, nearly
all will command the home market entirely and by
| competition at home secure as low prices as con-
| sumers can reasonably desire.
| You have heard quite little cutlery for " modlh-
cation of the tariff Of late from States which have
| gained most by protection. 1t comes not at all
| from the wOrkmen, not from many manufacturers
but from a few who seem especially anxious that
the development of home industry shall be stopped
| where il is Possibly it would please some Eastern
| cotton manufacturers. for instance. TO have the
| rand growth at the South suddenly arrested by
| change of policy. But why should consumers want
| 20 be at the mercy of a monopoly, at home and
abroad The short way to get cheaper goods is 10
| continue the encouragement under which cotton
| mills are starting up III Georgia as well as IN Massa-
chusetts urder which iron and coal mines are beng
| op.ped and furnaces built in the Yirgnias, Ten
| nessee and Alabama, as well as in Pennsylvania
| and Ohio If we are close to.comDlete emancipation
| from monopoly by means of growing home COMPETE
tion "a in very many branches we are, am IN favor
of nushing straight forward, without any arrest OF
for he benefit of present producers IN
| Europe or at home.
| LET rs have nothing sectional about this matter
| We have all been bearing our part IN the cost OF
protection whatever it may have been, IN order TO
secure industrial independence, not for one StaIe Oh
! section but for the whole country. l do not pro-
| nose for one to see shrewd men at the East or
North CAPTURE ana DOCKET Ill Juc boh'4t VI P'N'
| inauaurated and upheld for the permanent good OF
| the whole people. want to see the South have q
chance If 1t is really true that some people down
| East - would Ike 10 abandon protection having
| cor the benefit of IT, before manufactures can DO
naced on a firm footing in other parts Of the coun-
trv / am in favor of holding the New-England nose
| tiy' ~, i'I.to,e EDAx.
| Nelr- York, June g, 1884.
| -----~--
STABBED BY HIS FATHER.
| There was n drunken row az No SO NlIett-