New-York tribune., 1885-01-21
THE OLD F1LSEHOOD.


ahmed his teaching of errors, this time in the
neiobborhood of Boston, q region where econ
omic falsehoods appear to propagate rapidly.
In lecture before the Tariff Reform League
in that city. on Friday evening, MIR. Sumner
discussed tho policy which this country has
pursued wiGhin the last twenty years, ana
took occasion once more to make manifest not
only his own exceeding ignorance of that policy
and its results but his remarkable indifference
TO the truth.
The essence of his objection to the American
pocy is briefly stated in these sentences
= The statesmen of this country are taxing the
gpcople 40 "a to maintain tho home market.
.Tbe policy has now been carried to that
@cxtent that the home market has reached lts
limit Mr. Sumner knows that this Is not
frue. He has a large fund of msinformation
but nevertheless he is not an ignorant cross
roads polt;cian. and therefore knows that what
he states is utterly and glaringly false. lie
knows that there Sre n great number OF people
in this country who want more food than they
are mt present able to consume. lie KNOWS also
that there are great number OF people III this
country who want more clothing. more mats anu
boots and shoes, more tools and more house
room and furniture than they are at present
able 10 buy. He knows that the people who
want food are able to produce the houses ana
the clothing, and that tie people who want inc
houses and clothing are able To produce thc
food. Mr.. Atkinson, another teacher OF INC
same economic notions with Mr.. sumner ouC
much more inclined to respect the truth IN his
out-giyings, declared in his recent Work on
wages that revival of business activity IN TINS
country vould mean demand Tor all the prod
ucts of every spindle and every wheel now IN
the land. The difficulty is not that this or that
branch of manufacture has been extended
bcvond the possible or permanent demand OF
fine neople for consumption. 1t is not true that
,ho home market has reached itS limit. But 1t
!. truc that a disturbance and Reorganization
of industries caused largely by the economic
falsehoods which Professor Sumner teaches
has for tho time interrupted the natural ex-
cho,oo between producers and consumers.
Far short of ts limit. the home market has been
thrown into a state of panic for n time by mis-
chicf-makers of the Sumner variety.
All this Professors teachings rest upon
theory which he has evolved from his own inner
consciousness or borrowed from other theorists
who evolved it from their inner consciousness,
and which he states as follows: In the COM
.pcttion of the worlds exchange that nation
should prosper best which has most to offer OF
. those things which other nations want" This
assumption that foreign trade Is somehow
better for a nation than home trade, that 1t Is
somehow more blessed to sell things afar OF
than near at home, is the very essence oi the
Professors blundcring theory. Beginning with
that bald economic iaschood, when ne
assumes without II grain OF proof, he naturally
advances through various steps OF error, to u
political philosophy 50 mischievous and false
that the very fear that it may in part be
adopted has prostrated industry IN all parts oil
the country. to a degree never witnessed before
since the outbreak of the civil war. The truth,
ON the contrary, is that nation prospers most
and most permanently, if it is able by due ad-
iu,tment of its own industries to provide most
completely the things needful for the support
and comfort of its own people by their own
wel-paid labor. The highest prosperity, the
world over, is that which depends least rela-
iyely speaking, upon trade with foreign
potions Until the Professor can grasp this
simple truth he will not be able to teach any
thing but error, either i'll Yale College or at
IostDu.