The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-05-10

away dCTOSS Tue Sed. OO IL Is Will tHC
cotton spinner, the wooden weaver, the
potter, and all the rest. Offer to re-
duce the duty, even slightly, on any
one of his products, and he will cry
Murder" loud enough to wake a
sleeping city, and declare that the
least reduction will destroy him in
stantly and forever. If he would
consent to die alone, it would not be
so alarming-we might attend one
tuneral-but he is equally positive
that the country w"uld perish with
him. lie wants no foreign trade
of course The home market is good
enough for him. There the COM
petition of the foreigner is forbid
den by law, the competition Of
his neighDors, whenever it gets
troublesome, is regulated by ring or
trust which stops production and keeps
up prices as dividends may demand,
and there is none to molest him or
to make him afraid. When by
chance he miscalculates and finds
himself possessed of more goods than
he can sell at home, he ships them
abroad and markets them in compe-
tition with the foreign paupers. If
he suffers any loss he makes it up out
of his own people, who are not allowed
to buy anywhere else, and he goes on
prospering and to prosper. In this
way we have failed to secure the trade
of foreign nations. It is all done at
the instance and tor the benefit of
the protected classes By it they con-
troll the home market; if prices tend
downward they buoy them up by
combinations if the supply is getting
too large they shut down their mills
and turn their operatives into the
streets. Having control Of the engine,
they move forward, backward, or
stand still, as suits their pockets.
Meanwhile consumers are at their
mercy, and the farmers worst Of all.
Their market prices are fixed abroad
by the competition of the whole world;
their purchases are made in the re-
stricted home market. If they want
wooden cloth they send their wheat to
Liverpool and sell it for, say one dol
lar per bushel there the cloth they
need could be bought at twenty five
cents a yard-one bushel of wheat
paying for four yards. But tariff
of seventy five per cent. prevents them
from doing that; so they bring the
dollar back, and from a Massachusetts,
man they buy with it two yards of the
same cloth. The farmer has lost two
yards of cloth, and the public wealth
is that much less. The manufacturer
has made that much, not by fair and
voluntary exchange, but by an un-
just and unconstitutional law. Not
all the sophistry of all the talent which
ill-gotten wealth can hire to prevert
human reason can make anything
else out of such transaction. The
farmer cannot at will shut deyn his
operations and discharge his laborers
his productions are perishable and
will not keep over indefinitely there
fore he is obliged to sell his surpluf at
any price he can get, or lose it alto
gether. Therefore it is that year
after year seven eights Of the exports
of this country are agricultural pro-
ducts. The farmer supports the man
ufacturers, maintains our foreign trade
and exchanges, and does his full share
in bearing the public expenditure be-
side: and all this he does with the
most necessary conditions of political
economy reversed in their application
to him-being forced to sell in the
cheapest market and to buy in the
dearest.
Small as your foreign trade is, there
would be universal distress aud fnan
cial ruin without it. 1t furnishes the
exchange which pays for whatever
we are obliged to buy abroad, reaps
our precious metals at home, and
maintains credit of our country. 1t
could be made double its present vol
ume in brief time if we would only
legislate little in the interest of the
whole country and not in that OF
class. We have twice the population
Of Great Britain, ten times the mate
rial resources and thirty times the ter.
ritory, yet she has double the foreign
trade that we have. Ours has been
protected to death. It has been fitted
with an Chinese shoe, and can only
grow by distortion.
] In the same way our merchant ma
rine has perished. We undertook te
protect it; we not only mposed heavy
duties on the material of which ships
are built, but we excluded foreign
ships from all internal and coastwise
trade, and tried to exclude it from
the open sea also by refusing registra
tion and the American flag to any
ship in whole or in part made abroad
though owned entirely by American
| citizens. But there we failed w,
could bind the land. and make facto
| ry men rich by excluding competition
we could control our inland water
and our coasts and enrich our domes
| tic vessel owners but the great, fire.
seas refused 10 be bound. They re
fused to obey any laws except such a
God imposed upon the intercourse o
nations As our people could no
build and operate ships as cheaply a
other nations, owing to high tariff:
and as they could not buy them from
others without forfeiting their right
as American citizens, our once mag
nifcent merchant marine lay dow
quietly to die It was not even pei
mitted to die in peace. Its last hour
were disturbed by the >clamor of th
quacks who brought it low. In thei
anxiety to divert attention fror
their malpractice, they loudly accus
their adversaries of the authorship 0
the calamity. They say that but fo
] the government they would have give