St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-19

udllOudiiLy VI lut fcSSSl tuIb udy carry COln-
modities of exchange. Our carrying trade has
from obvious causes suffered many discourage
ments since 1860, but our foreign commerce has
in the same period steadily and prodigiousy in
creased, increased indeed at rate and to an
amount which absolutely dwarf all previous de-
velopments of our trade beyond the sea. From
1860 to the present time the foreign commerce
of the United States, divided with approximate
equality between exports and imports,) reached
the astounding aggregate of twenty-four thou
sand millions of dollars $4,000, OO0, ,o0o). The
balance 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
or our export trade since 1860 and we can gam
correct conception of 1t only by comparison with
preceding results i'll the same field. The total
exports from the United States from the declara-
ton OF independence in 1776 down to the day OF
Lincons election in 1860, added to all that had
previously been exported from the American col
onies from their original settlement, amounted
to less than nine thousand millions of dollars
go, 200, coo, ,000). On the other hand our ex-
ports from 1869 to the close of the last fiscal year
exceeded twelve thousand millions of dollars
($12, 600 900, ,O00)-the whole of 1t being the pro-
duct of American labor. Evidently protective
tariff has not injured our export trade when,
under its influence, we exported in twenty-four
years forty per cent. more than the total amount
that had been exported in the entire previous
history Of American commerce. All the details,
when analysed, correspond with this gigantic
result. The commercial cities OF the Union
never had such growth as they have enjoyed
since 1850. Our chief emporium, the cisy OF
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 harbor are more than double in bulk and
value the whole amount imported and exported
by her between the settlement of the first Dutch
colony the island of Manhattan and the out
break of the civil war in 1850.
AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF.
The agricultural interest is by far the largest
in the nation, and is entitled in every adjust
ment of revenue laws to the first consideration.
Any policy hostile to the fullest development of
agriculture in the United States must be aband-
oned. 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 are robbed by the protective
tariff, and their effort is thus made to consoli-
date their vast influence in favor Of free trade.
But happily the farmers of America are inteli-
ligent and cannot be miscd by sophistry when
CONClublHc 1dcLs are DelOre llclu Ivy GCO
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 the agri-
cultural states have made even more rapid pro-
gress than the manufacturing states.
The farmers see that in 1860 Mas sackusetts
aud Illinois had about the same wealth-between
eight and nine hundred million dollars each-and
that in 1880 Massachusetts had ad ced to
twenty-six hundred millions, while Illinois had
advanced to thirty-two hundred millions They
see that New Jersey and Iowa were just equal i'll
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 has increased by the
sum of fifteen hundred millions. They see that
the nine leading agricultural states of the vest
nave grown so rapidly in prosperity that the az
gregate addition to their wealth since 1860 is AZ
most as great the wealth of the entire country
in that year. They see that the south, which IL
almost exclusively agricultural, has shared il the
general prosperity, and that having recovered
from the loss and devastation of war, has gained
80 rapidly that its total wealth is at least the
double OF that which it possessed in 1859, exclu
siye OF slaves.
In these. extraordinary Developments the
farmers see the helpful impulse OF a home
market, and they see that the financial aud
revenue system, enacted since the Itepubiican
party came into power, has established anu con
stantly expanded the home market They see
that even i'll 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
bushels at home to one they have sold abroad,
and that in the of corn, the only either
| cereal which we export to any extent one
hundred bushels have been used ut home to
three and half bushels exported In some
| "a digDnritV has a thnt for
every peck OF corn exported one hundred bushels
| have been consumed in the home market. The
farmers see that in the increasing com, .etiti0n
from the grain fields Of Russia and from the dis
tant plains of India, the growth OF the home
market becomes daily of grcatcrcouccrn to them
and that its impairment woud dcprecate the
value of every acre of tilao!e land in the Union.
oUF INTERNAL COMMERCE.
such facts as these touching the growth and
consumption of cereals at home give Us some
slight conception of the vastncss of the internal
commerce of the niled 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 Il larger area and with Il
greater population than any other nation. The
internal commerce of our thirty eight states and
nine territories Is carried without let or hin
drance, without tax, detention or governmental
interference OF any kind whatever It spreads
! freely over an area of three and half million
square miIes-almost equal in extent to the
whole continent of Europe. Its profits are en-
! joyed to-day by fftys millions OF American
freemen, and from this enjoyment nc monopoly
is created. According to Alexander Hamilton
! when he discussed the same subject in 1890
''the internal competition which takes place
does away with every thing like monopoly, and
! by degrees reduces the prices of articles to tbs
minimum OF q reasonable profit the capital
/ employed II is impossible to point to n single
monopoly in the United States that has been
| created fostered by the industrial system
! which is upheld by the Republican party.
! Compared with our foreign commerce these
! domestic exchanges iuconceivahly gret; In
! amount-requirin9 merely as one instruMentaty
/ large mileage of railway exists to-day in
| all the other nations of the world con,5ined
! These internal exchanges are estimated by the
| statistical bureau OF the treasury department to
| be annually twenty times rs great in amount Us
our foreign commerce. IL is into this vast l;eld
! of home trade-at once the creation and the
/ heritage of the -Anerican peOple--that foreign
! nations are striving by every device to eater Il
is into this field that the opponents of eur. pres
| ent revenue system would freely admit the cour-
! tries OF Europe-countrics into whose internal
! trade we could not reciprocGlly enter countries
| 10 which we should be surreEdcring every advan-
tagc OF trade; from which We should be gaining
| nothing in return.
EFFECT UPoN THE MECHANIC AND THE LABoRER
| a policy of this kind would be disastrous to
the mechanics and workincmen 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, aud lay by
1 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 Go
this. 1t would prove great calamity to cur
country. Ii would produce conflict between