The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-06-10

the intervention of a friend, political anarchy
and social disorder will come to the conquered,
and evils scarcely less serious to the conqueror.
Our own government cannot take the ground
that it will not offer friendly Intervention to
settle troubles between American countries,
unless at the same time it freely comedies to
European governments the right of such inter
v%ention, and thus consents to a practical destruc-
ton of the Monroe doctrine and an unlimited
increase of European and mOnarchical inf1u-
ence on this continent. The late special en-
voy to Peru and Chill, Mr.. Trescot, gives it as
his deliberate and published conclusion that If
the Instructions under which he set out
upon his mission had not been revoked, peace
between those angry belligerents would have
been established as the result OF his laborS-
necessarily to the great benefit of the United
States. If our government does not resume its
efforts to secure peace in South America, some
Europeon government will be forced to perform
that friendly Office. The United States cannot
play between nations the part of dog in the man
ger. We must perform the duty of humane in
tervention ourselves or give way to foreign gov
ernments that are willing to accept the RESPONSE
bility Of the great trust and secure the enhanced
influence and numberless advantages resulting
from such a philanthropic and benetcient course.
A most significant and important result would
have followed the assembling of the peace con-
gress. A friendship and an intimacy would have
been established between the states Of North
and South America which would have
demanded and enforced a closer com
mercial connection. A movement in the
near future, as the legitimate o%utgrowth of
assured peace, would, in all probability, have
be a great commercial conference at the City Of
Mexico or Rio Janeiro, whose deliberations
would be directed to a better system of trade on
the two continents. To such a conference the
Dominion of Canada could properly be asked to
send representatives, as that government is
allowed by Great Britain a very large liberty in
regulating its commercial relations. In the peace
congress, to be composed of independent govern
ments, the Dominion could not have taken any
ap4 and 1rnc annGnnnnnflxr not INVITA- I'nnYn
this trade conference of the two continents the
United States could hardly have failed to gain
great advantages. AT present the commercial
relations Of this country with the Spanish-Amer-
lean countries, both continental and insular, are
unsatisfactory and unprofitable-indeed those
relations are absolutely oppressive to the inan-
cial interests of the government and PEG
pie of the United States. In our current
exchanges it requires about one hundred and
twenty million dollars to pay the balance
which Spanish-A1nerica brings against us every
year. This amount is so per cent more than
the average annual product of the gold and
silver mines of the United States during the last
five years. The vast sum, does not, of course,
go to Spanish America in coin, but it goes across
the ocean in coin or its equivalent to pay Euro
pean countries for manufactured articles
which they furnish to Spanish America-a large
proportion of which should be furnished by the
manufacturers of the United States.
THE TARIFF n SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE.
At this point of the argument the free-trader
appears and declares that our protective tariff
destroys our power of competition with Euro
pean countries, and that if we will abolish pro-
lection we shall soon have South American
trade. The answer is not sufficient, for to day
there are many articles which we can send to
South America and sell as cheaply as European
manufacturers can furnish them. 1t is idle, of
course, to make this statement to the genuine
apostle of free trade and the implacable enc
my of protection, for the great postulate of
his argument, the foundation of his
creed, is that nothing can be made as
cheaply in America as in Europe. Neverthe-
less, facts are stubborn, and the hard figures of
arithmetic cannot be satisfactorily nswered by
airy figures of speech. The truth remains that
the coarser descriptions of cottons and cotton
prints, boots and shoes, ordinary household
furniture, harness for draft animals, agricultur-
al implements of all kinds, doors, sashes and
blinds, locks, bolts and hinges, silverware,
plated ware, woodenware ordinary paper and
paper h~angings, common vehicles, ordinary win
dow glass and glassware, rubber goods, coal
oils, lard oils, kerosenes, white lead. lead pipe
and articles in which lead is a chief component,
can be and are produced as cheaply in the
United States as in any other part of the world.
The list of such articles might be heightened by
the addition of those classed as motions, " but
enough only are given to show that this country
would, with proper commercial arrangements,
+ 9NJ WV ~
Spanish America.
In the trade relations of the world it does
rot follow that mere ability to produce as
cheapiy as another nation insures a division
of an established market, or, indeed. any par
ticipation in it. France manufactures many
articles as cheaply as Engiand-some articles
at even less cost. Portugal lies nearer to
France than to England. and the expense OF
transporting the French fabric to the Portuguese
market is, therefore, less than the transporta-
ton of the English fabrics. And yet Great
Britain has almost a monopoly in the trade of
Portugal. The same condition applies, though
in a less degree, in the trade of Turkey, Syria,
and Egypt, which England holds TO a much
greater extent than any of the other European
nations that are able to produce the same fabric
as cheaply. If it be said in answer that Eng
land has special trade relations by treaty with
Portugal, and special obligations binding the
other countries, the ready answer is that she has
no more favorable position with regard to those
countries than can be readily and easily ac-
quired by the United States with respect to all
the countries of America. That end will be
reached as soon as the United States desires
it, and wills it, and is ready to take the steps
necessary to secure it. At present the
trade with Spanish America runs in channels so
strongly adverse to us that, besides our inability
to furnish manufactured articles, we do not get
the profit on our raw products that are shipped
there. Our petroleum reaches most of the Span
ish-American ports after twice crossing the At
%lantic, paying often a better profit to the Euro
pean middleman who handles it than it does to
the producer of the oil in the northwestern coun-
ties of Pennsylvania. Flour and pork from the
West reach Cuba by the way of Spain, and,
though we buy and consume 80 per cent. of the
total products of Cuba, almost that proportion
of her purchases are made in Europe-made, of
course, with money furnished directly from our
pockets.
THE OMNIBUS ADVERSE ALANc OF TRADE.
AS our exports to Spanish America grow less,
as European imports constantly grow larger, the
balance against us Will show an annual increase,
and will continue to exhaust our supply of the
precious metals. We are increasing our i'm
ports from South America, and the
millions we annually pay for coffee,
wool, hides, guano, chinchona, caoutchouc
cabinet woods, dye woods, and other articles, go