The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1886-02-16
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Free trade champions in America are
Voutto yiudicate their proposed policy by
po;ntiDg to Epgland's growth in wealth
and mower since she made her Tree trade
departure. The INTRLLIGENcER has said
before, and it cannot be too often said,
that Tree trade might be wholesome for
England, and yet it would not follow that
free trade would be iRttening diet Tor
The United States. Ii any country on
earth can thrive on Unrestricted COMPETE
ton with the world, surely that country is
England.
II, however, 1t be true that England is
not thriving At all under a policy u Tree
trade, he would be rash and unpatTioIic
who would urga this country to plunge
into the same gui That England isplns-
ing through time OF great industrial de-
pression and d ress admits Of no dispule'
Her newspapers and her trade journals are
filled with repiuiug Aroy0I commission,
the Euyliah balm Tor every i'll, is inquir-
ing into The causes OF the distress. The
social order Of London ia shaken with
bread riots, led, it IS true, by men who
would not work II they could, but whose
exploits ara made possible by the ground
swell Of real misery and hopeless discon'
tent. Mr. Joseph Hattop, writing to the
Philaielphia P,',I gives this condensed
view Of the situation:
We arc having an unusually bitter win
ter. ard there IL terrible distress in most
Of our industrial centres, No sooner has
Qua heavy snow melted than another falls.
While write London, having at last got
rid OF tue sBoW blocks OF the last two
weeks, Is once more white world. Tho
marks, 0naIeB and suburbs are pictures nl
winter that recall pictuIca oil "Old English
winters" but all this means to the poor an
awful increase OF suffering, | have never
known tho London streets 80 full Gt beg
Ysrs az they are now. never reCsiyed so
many appeals by letter and otherwise for
help. The trade Of the country goes from
bad 10 worse. In Sunderland families Of
working people are suffering the pinch OI
want even to starvation. Everywhere men
are working ut lower wages than they
have made for yeaTs, and while aIi around
our xpork trade is decreasing in volume
and IN value that Of Germany, Belgium,
France and America are increasing.
Our iron trade, manufactured and UNI
manufactured, Ia shrinking, our farmers
are being ruined, land ia going down ia
price mouth by month and year by year,
and the outlook has no CLEAN oil light in
1t. A great deal II this trouble could b1
corrected by q moderate revision OF the
tariff and tRxRtion OF luXuries from
abroad but the Tree traders stand TO their
guns and will do so, dare cay, until they
aie blown to pieces. Fee trGda ID a
British fetch, 20 dear to the national heart
that the head Ia not factor in the matter.
IiAmeriCa wanted an Argument Tor a
nrott elton Of certain industries here 1t is:
II England desires TO contemplate one q
the holes IN the great sieve Of tier vanish
ing trade she should 10 to the port Of Ilar.
wich, where the wrought iron comes in
from Belgium and Germany. Thousands
OF tons come into this free English port
every week, most Cf the sLuu stamped
with English brands to b. sold in English
markets. On the other hand, everything
we send 10 the other sidei Is met at the for
eign ports with duties that range from 10
to $50 percent. And In the North extra
police have had TO be sworn in TO protect
the bread shops from tho starving crowds
OF iron workers out q employment
Something 10 wrong about this, Oh 2"
= In our own country things are not 60
ingso well as they might, and yet there
arc Americans who seriously propose to
improve the situation by openingthe doors
wider to the surplus manufactures Of every
land