Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-07-23

1 ouohV Aouk eAOubauu IHllUOuS OF QOlaTb ($z4,-
| UVO, OOO). The balance In this vast COM
merce inclined in our favor, but 1t would have
been much larger if our trade with the coun-
tries OF America, elsewhere referred to, had
been wisely adjusted.
| 1t is difficult even to appreciate the magni-
| tude OF our export trade since 1860 and we can
| gain correct conception of it only by COM
parlson with preceding results in the same field.
| The total exports from the United States from
the declaration of independence in 1778 down
| to the day OF Lincoln's election in 1860, added
| to all that had previously been exported from
the American colonies from their original settle
| ment, amounted to less than nine thousand
millions OF dollars cos, 900, 000,000). On the
other hand our exports from 1860 to the close
| OF the last fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand
millions of dollars ($12, ZOO, 900, 000)-the
| whole OF it being the product of American
labor. Evidently protective tariff has not in
Jured our export trade when under its influence
| we exported In twenty -four years 40 per cent
| more than the total amount that had been ex-
| ported In the entire previous history of Ameri-
can commerce. All the details, when analysed,
correspond with this gigantic result. The
| 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 har ;.
| Dor 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 larg-
est In the nation, and is entitled in every adj
justment Of revenue laws to the first considera-
| ton. Any policy hostile to the fullest develop
ment OF agriculture in the United States must
be abandoned. Realizing this fact the oppon-
of Of hova l..
lored very earnestly to persuade the farmers of
the United States that they are robbed by pro-
tect1ve 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 Sec
ton or by one interest at the expense Of an
| other section or another interest They see that
the agricultural states have made even more
rapid progress than the manufacturing states
The farmers SEQ that in 1860 Massa
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
Iiilnois had advanced to thirty-two hundred
millions. 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 eight hundred and
fifty millions of dollars, while the wealth OF
Iowa WAS increased by the sum Of fifteen hun
dred millions. They see that the nine leading
agricultural states of the West have grown SO
RAPIDLY in prosperity that the aggregate add
ton 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 ex-
clusively agricultural has shared in the general
| prosperity, and that having recovered from the
loss and devastation of war, has gained SO rapidly
| that lts total wealth is at least the double of
that which 1t possessed in 1860, exclusive Of
| slaves.
In these extraordinary developments the
| farmers see the hopeful impulse of a home
| market, 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
zee that even in the case Of wheat, which is our
chief cereal export they have sold, In the aver
| age of the years since the close of the war
| three bushels at home to one they have sold
abroad and thatin the case of corn, the only
| other cereal which we export to any extent, 100
| bushels have been used at home to three and
| One-haf bushels exported In some years the
| disparity has been so great that for every peck
| of corn exported 1U0 bushels have been con-
| suned in the home market. The farmers see
| that in the increasing competition from the
| gram fields of Russia and from the distant
| plains OF India, the growth Of the home market
| becomes daily Of greater concern to them and
| 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 In
| ternal commerce of the United States, They
suggest also that, in addition to the advantages
| which the American people enjoy from protec-
| ton against foreign competition, they enjoy
the advantages OF absolute free trade over
larger area and with greater population than
any other nation. The internal commerce of
our thirty-e eight states and nine territories is
carried on without let or hindrance, without
tax, detention or governmental interference of
| any KIND whatever. It 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 to-day by
| $4,000, 900 of American fresmen, and from this
enjoyment no monopoly is created. According
| to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the
same subject in 1890, "the internal competi-
ton which takes place does away with every
thing like monopoly, and by degrees reduces
the prices of articles to the minimum OF rea-
sonable profit on the capital employed. It is
impossible to point to single monopoly in the
| United States that has been created or fostered
| by the industrial system which is upheld by the
Republican party.
| Compared with our foreign commerce these
| domestic exchanges are inconceivably great in
| manufacturing merely as one Instrumental
1ty as large mileage of railway as exists to-day
| in all the other nations of the world combined.
These internal exchanges are estimated by the
Statistical Bureau of the Treasury Department
to be annually twenty times as great in amount
| as our foreign commerce. It is into this vast
| field of home trade-at once the creation and
the heritage of the American people-that for
eign nations are striving by every device to en-
ter. 1t is into this field that the opponents of
our present revenue system would freely adj
NIT the countries Of Europe countries into
| whose internal trade we C. uld not reciprocally
| enter; countries to which We should be sur
rendering every advantage of trade; from which
we should be gaining nothing in return.
| THE MECHANIC AND THE LABoRER.
| A policy Of this kind would be disastrous to
the mechanics and workingmen of the United
States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an
industrious man is not able by his earnings to
live in comfort, educate his children and lay by
sufficient amount for the necessities of age.
| The reduction of wages inevitably consequent
upon throwing our home market open to the
world would deprive them of the power to do
this. 1t would prove a great calamity to our
country. 1t would produce conflict between
the poor and the rich, and in the sorrowful
degradation of labor would plant the seeds of
| public danger.
| THE Rapuhlioay y,orkv hos s%oo5;1x, =