The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-07-25

IdinlneS-an eXtraVaRancs VIA Il eHDouleS
the highest form of justice In the recognition
and payment of a sacred debt When reduc-
ton of taxation is to be made, the Republic
can party can be trusted to accomplish it in
such form as will most effectively aid the
industries of the nation.
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
A frequent accusation by our opponents is
that the foreign commerce of the country
has steadily decayed under the influence of
the protective tariff In this way they seek
to array tho importing interest against the
Republican party. 1t is a common and yet
radical error to confound the commerce. of
the country with its carrying trade-an error
often committed innocently and sometimes
designeAy-but an error so gross that il does
not distinguish between the ship and the
cargo. Foreign commerce represents the
exports 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 suf-
fered 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 develop
ments of our trade beyond the sea. From
1860 to the present time the foreign com.
merce of the United States divided with ap-
proximate equality between exports and i'm
ports, reached the astounding aggregate of
$24, 900 100000. The balance In this vast
commerce inclined in our favor, but 1t would
have been much larger il our trade with the
countries Of America. elsewhere referred to,
had been more wisely adjusted
1t Is difficult even to appreciate the magni-
tuds Of our export trade since 1890, and we
can gain a correct conception Of II only by
comparison with preceding results in the
same field. The total exports from the
United States, from the Declaration of indie
pendence, in 1776 downto the day of. Lin
coins election, in 1850. added 70 all that had
previously been exported from the American
Colonies from their original settlement,
amounted to less than $4,000, 600, 900 On
the other hand. our exports from 1880 to the
close Of the last fiscal year exceededs $12.-
600, 0O0, 000v-the whole OF it.being the pro-
duct of American labor. Evidentlya pro-
tectiwe tariff has not injured our export
trade when, under its influence, we exported
in twenty-four years 40 per cent more than
the total amount that had been exported in
the. entire previous history ~ofs American
commerce. All the details, when analysed,
correspond with this gigantic result. sThe
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 five-fold. During the same period
the imports and.exports which have entered
and left her harbbr are more than double, in
bulk and value, the'whole amount 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 AND THE TARIFF.
The agriculture interest is by far the
largest in the nation, and is entitled in
every adjustment of revenue laws to the
first consideration. 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 have 'labored
very earnestly to persuade the farmers Of
the United States that they ore 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 intelligent and cannot be mis-
led by sophistry when conclusive tfacts arc
before them. They see plainly, that during
the past twenty-four' years wealth has not
been acquired in one section or by one inter-
est at the expense of another section or an
other interest They.seo that the agricul-
tural states have made even more rapid
progress than the manufacturing states
The farmers see that in j 800 Massachusetts,
and Illinois had about the same wealth--ube-
tween eight and nine hundred million, dollars
each-and that if 1880 Massachusetts, had
advanced toS2. Goo, Odt, 1000, while filinoishad
advanced, to 50, 300, 0OO, 900. They see 'that
New Jersey and Iowa wTe just equal in
population'in 1860 and that in.'twenty. ears
the wealth Of New Jersey was increased by
the sum of $3.50, 900, 600. while: the &eahhsof
Iowa was Increased by the sum of S1,5O0,-
1000. They see that the nine leading agri-
cultural states of the west haye grown. so
rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate adj
dition to their wealth since 1860 Is almost sas
great as the wealth of the entire country.in
that year. They see that the south, which
is almost exclusively agriculturak has shared
in the general prosperity and that having
recovered from the Toss sand 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 of home
market and they see that the financial and
revenue SySUeiu, elLtcIeu SllCe Inc tNeDuDu-
can party came into power, has established
and constantly expanded the home market.
They SEQ that even in the case of wheat,
which is,our chief cereal export, they have
sold, inthe average of the years since tho
close of the war, three bushels at home to
one they have sold abroad, and that in the
case of corn, sthe only other cereal whish,we
export TO any extent, 100 bushels have been
used at home to 311 bushels exported. In
some years the disparity has been so great
that for every peck of corn exported. 100
bushels have been consumed in the home
market. The farmers see that in the increas-
ing competition from the grain fields of Rus
sia and from the distant plains of India, the
growth of the home market becomes daily of
greater concern to them, and that its inn
pairment would depreciate the value of every
acre of tillable land in the Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE..
Such facts as these touching the growth
and cor sumption of cereals ut 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 en-
Joy from protection against foreign COM
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