Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-07-24
try with lis carrying trade-an error often

cSiSHcuiy -Uut an error so gross that
it does not distinguish between the shin
and the cargo. Foreign commerce rep
PRESENTS the exports and imports of a
country regardless of the nationality of
the vessel that may carry the commod-
tiles of exchange. Our carving trade
has, from obvious causes, suffered many
discouragements since 1860, but our
foreign commerce has, in the same
fperiod, steadily and prodigiously in
creased-increased indeed at a rate and
to an amount which absolutely dwarfs
all previous developments of our trade
beyond the sea. From 1860 to the pres
ent time the foreign commerce of the
United States, divided with approx
mate equality between exports and i'm
ports reached the astounding aggre-
gate of twenty-four thousand millions
of dollars 1924. 1000, 000,000). The bal
ance 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.
1t is difficult even to appreciate the
magnitude of our export trade since
1860, and we can gain a correct concep-
ton of it only by comparison with pre-
ceding results in the Same field. The
total exports from the United States
from the Declaration of Independence
in 1875 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
settlement amounted to less than nine
thousand millions of dollars $50, OOO.-
000,000). On the other hand our ex-
ports from 1860 to the close of the last
fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand
millions of dollars (S12,000,0 600, 00O)-
the whole of it being the product of
American labor. Evidently q protec-
tive tariff has not injured our export
trade when, under its influence, we ex-
ported in twenty-four years forty per
cent. more than the total amount that
had been exported in the entire previ-
Gus history of American commerce.
All the details, when analysed, CORES
pond 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 Dependent
cies, has within that period doubled her
population and increased her wealth
i've fold. During the same period the
imports and exports which have entered
and left her harbor are more than dou-
BILE in bulk and value the whole amount
exported and imported 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 THR TARIFF.
The agricultural 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 agricul-
ture in the United States must be aband-
oned. Realizing this fact the oppon-
ents of the present system of revenue
have labored very earnestly to persuade
the farmers of the United States that
they are robbed by a protective tariff,
and the effort is thus made to consolid-
ate their vast influence in favor of free
trade. But happily the farmers of Amer
| lea are intelligent, and carnot be mis-
| led 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 Agricultural States have
made even more rapid progress than
the manufacturing states.
The farmers see that IN 1860 Mass
achusetts and Illinois had about the
same wealth-between eight and nine
hundred millions each-and that in 49,
! so Massachusetts had advanced to TWEEN
ty-six hundred millions, while Illinois
had advanced to thilty-two hundred
millions. They see that New Jersey
and Iowa were just equal inpopulation
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 tie wealth of
Iowa was increased by the sum of tif-
teen hundred millions. They see that
the nine leading agricultural states of
the West have grown 50 rapidly in
prosperity that the aggregate addition
to their wealth since 1880 S almost a.
great as the wealth of the entire coun
try in that year. They see that the
! South, which is almost exclusively agri-
/
prosperity, and that having recovered
| from the loss and devastation of war
has gained so rapidly, that its total
wealth is at least double that which it
possessed IN 1860, exclusive of slaves.
In these extraordinary developments
the farmers see the helpful impulse of a
home market, and they see the finan-
cial and revenue system, enacted since
the Republican party came ntO 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 he 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 a half bushels exported. In some
years the disparity has been so great
that for every peck of corn exported
one hundred bushels have been consum-
ed in the home market. The farmers
see that in the increasing 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
impairment would deprecate the value
of every acre of tilliable 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 advantages of absolute
free trade over 4 larger area aud with
greater population than any other ma
ton. The internal commerce of our
thirty eight States and nine Territories
is carried on without let or hindrance,
without tax, detention or governmental
interference of any kind whatever. 1t
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 fifty-six millions of American
freemen. and from this enjoyment no
monopoly is created. According to Alex
ander Hamilton, when he discussed the
same subject in 1890, ''the internal COM
petition which takes place does away
with everything like monopoly, and by
degrees reduces the price af articles to
the minimum of reasonable profit on
the caDital empioypd - 1t is inpOSsihle