The Washington critic., 1885-11-03
WASHINGTON, d. G., NOV. 3, 1ss;
TUE WAY TO PROSPERITY.

nero IS n general rear on int part
uf capitalists and manufacturers, said
n Cleveland bank president the other
day, "thnt Congress will interfere with
the tariff laws. For instance, man
is not going to buy 100000 worth of
goods which may be worth only $lj.-
GOO after Congress gets through tinker
ing with the tariff 1t will strike the
average mind that If u man buys SEQ
600 worth of goods with the cXpccta-
tion of holding on to them until Con-
grcss gets through tinkering with the
tariff they will become too shop.worn
to sell at any price. The truth of the
matter is that man who has $50 900
TO invest in goods can turn his money
over at profit good many times be-
fore tariff legislation proceeds to such
Il length as to rcvoluionizc the trade
of the country.
So far as the capitalists and manu-
facturers are concerned, they are sim
ply suffering for want of customers and
markets and profitable fields of invest
ment The only legislation they have
to fear is that which shall tend to Grip.
pie commercial enterprises and pro.
ductivc industries. 1t is not altogether
high tariff, and It is certainly not at
all the agitation of revenue reform that
has brought about this unsatisfactory
condition of things. 1t is due TO vari-
Gus causes, and TO the want of broad
cooperative busincs, policy on the part
of the Government more than to any
thing else.
The CRGTIC is OF those who believe
in liberal expenditures for public i'm
provcments, the reasonable subsidizing
of great commercial and transportation
interests, and aggressive competition
with other powers in the extension of
trade facilities.
Were this country mountain locked
instead of ocean bound it might con-
tent itself with negotiating like snail
in its shell. As it is bound in
stead of mountain.locked, it must
utilize the seas and become what Nature
designed ii to be, the greatest maritime
factor in the commerce of the world
The prosperity of the people is nc
more to be assured by cutting down
the duties on iron than it would be by
doubling them up The object is tc
find buyers for the iron-some place to
put the manufactured product. If VIC
manufacture more goods than our own
people want, or raise more wheat than
they consume, some way should be de
vised for supplying people who need
TO be fed and clothed and industrially
enlightened.
Yet Congress will consume half {
session in squabbling over barbed fence
wire as though the secret of our
National prosperity was somehow in
volved in the amount of protection ac
corded to this or some other "infan
industry" Glass legislation under
certain circumstances may be right and
proper, but class legislation exclusively
in the interest Of prohibitory customs
duties and none at all in the interest Of
free trade is an unmitigated evil, ant
will sooner or later break the backs o
any people.
What she country wants is a policy
of expansion instead of restriction. /
wants Congress that knows how tC
spend money with judicious liberality
rather than one all pinched up witt
primitive ideas of fruralitv.
The true economist is the man VIII,
builds himself up-not the man wht
starves himself down. 1t is the sam
with governments as with individuals
Give the merchant with his twenty
thousand dollars worth of goods nat
mal market in which to dispose o
them, instead of furnishing him will
artificial props to prevent their declin
ing on his hands.