Evening journal., 1888-05-30
FREE TRADE POLIoV.
Carefully Defa ned by Professor
Ksbert RiIIs Thompson.


The only possible gain to labor in
tho transition from protection to free
trade would ba the cheapening Of GER
tain articles Of general consumption.
But the laborer. like every other PRO
ducer, is not a buyer only. He has to
sell. His interest IL 10 being able to
secure a plenty Of commodities for his
day's labor, not in being able TO secure
them for a given SIM Of money. This IS
the test OF which policy is bssi for
him. Now, no lsborer in any part of
the world can buy so much clothing,
or firing, or delf, or iron, or food for
days labor as can the American work
ing man. And under no policy has a
days work gone so far in purchas.
ing these things as under the present
tariff. Are there results to be sacri-
feed for theory?
Mr. Scott was equally urgent for the
farmer to come over to free trade and
buy everything cheaper. But just as
the laborer really makes his purchases
with days work so the farmer really
makes his with a bushel of wheat or a
carcase of pork. 1t is not his question
whether dry goods and hardware and
salt are cheap in money price. but
whether they are cheap in the terms of
what he has to give in exchange. And
here again the free trader runs his head
against the facts. AT no time in our
history and under no policy has the
farmer been able 10 get 50 much Gotten
OF wooden cloth. or OK chains, or salt
for bushel Of wheat as under tbs
present tariff. Judged by the test OF
facts as presented by the market re-
ports, the farmer has everything to
lore and nothing to gain by abandon
ing protection.
Mr.. Scott foretells a great gain to
the country in the adoption OF free
trade, as cheap raw materials would
enable us to produce SO cheaply that
we woul be able TO export in large
quantities. The three elements in the
cost of any manufacture are labor, raw
materials, and transportation. No
change in the tariff will give us the
former cheaper than England, our
great rival for foreign markets, has
them. Mr.. Scott's own party means
to make sure that we are not 10 get
transportation as cheap as the English
manufacturer gets it. While England
subsidies the steamship lines which
ru- D. .Eom her ports TO those or tue very
countries in which we would have to
compete with her, the majority in
the House and in the administration
both stand In the way OF any
help of that Kind to cur steam
ship lines. How are our manufactur-
ers and merchants to get this disad-
vantage made up to them? Is IL by
putting the rate of wages for given
piece OF work down TO a lower level
than is paid in England? AT present
work OF all kinds. taken not only by
the day but by the piece. is paid for
higher than in England. And labor is
the only thing we can pinch in order
to cheaper products and force exports.
We cannot force people to sell us raw
materials on lower terms than to
England; we cannot get our manu-
features carried with 80 little cost to
the producer. On labor and on il
alone the brunt OF free trade policy
must fall in the long run.
Mr.. Scott, indeed, does suggest
another alternative. He thinks the
American manufacturer should be
content with lower profits. He insists
that because the property Of the Edgar
Thomson Steel Works advanced rap
idly in value, while the business Of
; steel-making was still in it's initia
stages and was a potent monopoly
therefore there now must be a larg,
margin of profits which can be reduced
No person who looks at the figures o
the production and consumption oil
iron and steel, at the prices obtained
and at the number of furnaces out o
blast, will be of Mr.. Scott's mind. /
ia true. as Mr.. Swank's last report o
J the trade shows, that we are producin
both iron and steel in unparallele'
& quantities We make more steel of al
grades than does Great Britain; an
we make very nearly as much iron
i And when we subtract the exports an
add the imports IN both countries, W
L find our consumption is far create
than hers ever was.
y When the tariff OF 1S47 was adopte
q we were making 100000 tons of pi
II iron a year. It's lower duties force
L the product down to 50l, 600 tons will
d cut securing lower prices to America
consumers. In fact, prices went up &
soon as our production was cripple
y y and our producers discouraged. Th
80 stimulating effect of the gold discoy
cries caused it to rally after 1854, bl
& (. it was not until 1864, and under tn
protective policy, that we mao
= 1000, 900 tons of iron year. By 1Sl
D. it was nearly 1900 600; in 1885
IN resched 4, 529, 500 tons; in 1885 it rol
TO 1855, 3e5 tons; in 1887 no less ths
Of 7.lg7. .20G tons OF pig iron, or ten tim