Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-04-13

protective tariff has injured our foreign CON-
merce, and thus deprived our shipping of the
cargoes which it possessed under lower tar
if.
The groundlessness of this charge is shown
by the official statistics of our foreign CON-
merce, (which is measured by the volume OF
exports and imports. Our foreign commercs
never grew so rapidly IS it has since
the close of the war. The cargoei
to be carried from and to this
country have multiplied as never before. The
difficulty has been that this increase OF car
goes has been carried bv foreign vessels. Ii
our foreign carrying. trade had increased a.
rapidly as our exports and imports We should
have had to-day 4 merchant marine IN the
foreign trade four times as large A. that
which We actually possess.
Let me call the attention of gentlemen who
sometimes indulge in the assertion that our
protective tariff has destroyed our foreign
commerce to the following official statistics
from the last report of the Bureau of Stats
tics:
In 1865, when our civil war closed, the
value of our foreign commerce was S4O4,-
IA 1888. In 1881 the value of this commerce
had increased to Sl.545 04l ,974, growth IN
sixteen years of almost 300 per cent. The
increase of our foreign commerce from 1916
to 1861 was only 20 per cent. and vet there
are many persons who are constantly assert
ing that the palmy days of our foreign COM
merce were under the tariffs of 1916 and 1861,
and that the high tariffs since the war have
DESTROYED our foreign trade.
There are those who are advertng in and
out of season to the ''unexampled growth of
the foreign commerce of Great Britain in the
last twenty years. / desire to call attention
to the fact that in 1865 the foreign commerce
Of the United Kingdom was valued at
81 1884 III, l40, and in 1881 it was 81,
1868, 266. an increase of only so per cent, or
only one-sixth of the increase of the foreign
commerce of the United States. Even includ-
ing the war period. when the foreign commerce
Of this country was 50 seriously impaired and
that of Great Britain so prosperous, the sta
tistics show that the value of the foreign com
merce of the United Kingdom increased be-
tween 1860 and 1885 only SO per cent, and
that of France 80 per cent, and that OF the
United States 95 per cent
In other words, the forei gn commerce of
the United States has increased since 1860
more rapidly than that of Great Britain
or that of any other nation. Gentlemen
who find it convenient to lament what
they call the "decine" of our foreign
commerce and point to the growth of English
Commerce as something which our "bllnd
protective policy" prevents us from attaining
unto should consult the official statistics.
OUR EXPORT TRADE.
Again, there is no basis for the oft repeated
assertion that the protective tariffs OF the
United States since 1861 have restricted the
export trade of the United States. which it is
assumed the revenue tariffs in force from
bod sponiolly foStprp1
According to the official statement of Mr..
Evans of the Treasury Department, our ex-
ports increased only l64 per cent in the
revenue tariff decade between 1851 and 1861,
or 60 per cent, if the wears 1850 and 1860
are compared. While in the protective de-
cades between 1861 and 1871 our exports in
creased l46 per cent, and between 1871 and
| 1881 increased 593 per cent. Our total eX-
ports in the decade ending with 1860 we're
eight hundred and fourteen and one-half mil
lions; in the decade ending with 1880 they
were fifty-one hundred and twelve millions.
Comparing population and exports, and the
official statistics show that in the decade be-
tween 1851 and 1861 our annual exports were
50 "a per inhabitant; in the decade between
1861 and 1871 our annual exports were $40
&c per inhs bitant; and in the decade between
| 1871 and 1881 they rose to Sl4 SO per inhabi-
tan', AMI in 1888 to SIS % per inhabitant.
| With an stfical showing of annual exports
of only 500 per inhabitant IN the revenue
tariff decade between 1851 and 1861. and of
5l4 SO per inhabitant in the protective decade
between 1871 and 1881, it is time that the oft
repeated assumption that protection has de-
stroyed our foreiga export trade should no
longer be used by men who profess to seek
the truth
Sid. hy aida with tina official av;dapca hot
eur foreign exports per inhabitant are so per
cent larger under protection than they were
under revenue tariff, having risen from
1928 500 4S6 in 1861, to 1898. 452, S91, in
1881. | wish to place the additional
fact that this growth of exports has
not been solely in crude products,
AS many of our free-trade friends aver,
but that the growth of our exports of par
TALLY and wholly manufactured articles has
been even more rapid than the growth of our
exports of crude articles.
In the decade between 1851 and 1861 off.
cial statistics show that only l6s per cent of
our exports we're manufactured goods and
only Is per cent. partially manufactured
but in the decade between 1871 and 1881 20
per cent of our exports were manufactured
rising in 1888 to % per cent. manufactured
and 22t per cent. partially manufactured
The growth of our exports of manufac-
tured goods will be clearly seen BY any one
who will take the trouble to examine the off.
| cial statistics. In the decade between 1851
and 1861 no agricultural implements were
exported: but in the decade between 1879
and 1883 the value of these implements ex.
ported was twenty-seven millions In
the first decade not single watch or clock
was exported; in the last decade watches to
the value of S600,0 and clocks to the value
of ten millions. In the first decade forty
millions in value of iron and steel were ex.
ported, in the last decade one hundred and
| fifty millions. In the first decade leather and
leather goods to the value of ten millions was
exported in the last decade, seventv-eight
millions. In the first decade manufactures
of wood to the value of eighty -seve millions
were exported; and in the last decade one
hundred and ninety millions
And vet there are gentlemen who continue
to gravely assert on this floor that protection
has destroyed our export trade, particularly in
manufactured goods, and taken away carpoes
from vessels.
desire to call the attention of gentlemen
who so frequently in this hall lament the
alleged loss through protection of the expor,
trade to various countries, which was sup
posed to have been so fouri.hing in the reve.
| nue. period before the war, to the fact dis.
. closed by the official statistics that there i.
| scarcely country to which we do not EXPORT
twice as much, and in many cases three four
and even five times as much, under our pro
tective policy as we did under revenue
tariff
IN . ~