The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1884-07-26

| ncntS OF the present system OF revenue
have laborcd very earnestly to per
suadc the farmers of the United States
that they are robbed by Il protective
tariff, and the effort IS thus made To
consolidate their vast Influences 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 &C
CURED in one section or by one in
tercst at the expense of another sec
ton or another interest. They see
that the agricultural states have made
even more rapid progress than the
manufacturing states.
The farmers see that in 1860 Mas
sachusctts and Illinois had about the
same wcalth-bctwcen eight and nine
hundred million dollars each-and that
in $50 Massachusetts, had advanced
to twenty-siX hundred millions. while
Illinois had advanced to thirty two
hundred millions. They see that New
Jersey and Iowa were just equal in
population in 1900, and that in twenty
years the wealth of New Jersey was in
creased by the sum OF eight hundred
and fifty millions of dollars, while the
wealth of Iowa was increased by the
sum Ct fifteen hundred millions. They
see that the nine leading agricultural
states of the West have grown so rap
idly in prosperity that the aggregate
addition to their wealth since 1860 IS
almost as great as the wealth of the en-
tire country in that year They see
that the South, which is almost exclu-
sively agricultural, has shared in the
general prosperity, and that, having re
covered from the loss and devastation
of war has gained So rapidly that its
total wealth is at least double CT that
which it possessed in 1900, exclusive
of slaves.
In these extraordinary developments
the farmers see the helpful 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
sec that even in the case Of wheat,
which is our chief cereal export, they
have sold, in the average Of the years
since the close Of the war. three bush
els 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-hait bushels exported. In some
years the disparity has been SO great
that for every peck Of corn exported one
hundred bushels have been consumed
in the home marnet. 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 it,
impairment would dcprccate the valuc
of every acre of tillablc land in the
Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE.
Such facts as these touching the
growth and consumption of cereals at
homc give us some slight conception
of the vastncss OF the internal com
mercc of the United States. They sus-
gest also that. in addition to the adj
vantagcs which the American people
enjoy from protection against foreign
competition, they enjoy the advantages
of absolute free trade ovcra larger area
and with greater population than any
other nation. The internal commerce
of our thirty eight states and nine terri
tories is carried on without let or him
dranCc-Without tax, detention or gov
crnmental interference of any kind
whatever. 1t spreads freely over an
area of three and a-haif million square
miles-almost equal in extent to the
whole continent of Europe. Its profits
are enjoyed to-day by tifty-siN millions
of American freemen, and from this en-
joyment no monopoly is created. Ac-
corling to Alexander Hamilton, when
he discussed the same subject in 1890
'the internal competition which takes
place does away with everything like
monopoly, and by degrees reduces the
prices of articles to the minimum of 4
reasonable profit on the capital en-
ployed." 1t is impossible to point to a
single monopoly in the United States
that has been created or iostercd by
the industrial system which is upheld
by the Republican party.
Compared with our foreign COM
mcrcc these domestic exchanges are
inconccivably great in amount-requir-
ing merely as one instrumcntality as
large 4 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 an
nualIy twenty times as great in amount
as or foreign commerce. 1t is into
this vast field of home tradc-at once
the creation and the heritage of the
American peoplc-that foreign nations
are striving by every device to enter.
1t is into this field that the opponents
of our present revenue system would
freely admit the countries of Europe
countries into whose internal trade we