Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-08-21

largely exceeds the adjacent production,
lower where the production largely ex-
ceeds the immediate consumption Il put
out of view in this statement the inequali-
ties created by tariffs, as | choose at this
point to argue the question on the basis OF
universal free trade, which is of course
the basis most favorable to my opponents)
| say, then, if all tariffs were abolished to-
morrow, the price of wheat in England
that being the most considerable ultimate
market of SURPRISES, and the chief supplier
of our manufactures-would govern the
price in this country, while it would be
itself governed by the price at which that
staple could be procured in sufficiency
from other grain growing regions. Now,
Southern Russia and Central Poland pro-
duce wheat for expectation at thirty to
fifty cents per bushel but the price is so
increased by the cost of transportation
that at Dantzic it averages some ninety
and at Odessa some eighty cents per
bushel. The cost of importation to Eng
land from these ports being ten and fifteen
cents respectively, the actual cost of the
article in England, all charges paid, and
allowing for a small increase of price con-
sequent on the increased demand, would
not in the absence of all tariffs whatever,
exceed one dollar and ten cents per bushel;
and this would be the average price at
which we must sell it in England in order
to buy thence the great bulk of our manu-
features. | think no man will dispute or
seriously vary this calculation. Neither
can any rejecting man seriously contend
that We could purchase forty of fifty mill
ions worth or more of foreign manufaCt-
ures per annum, and pay for them in ad-
ditional products of our slave labor-in
cotton and tobacco. The consumption of
these articles is now pressed to its utmost
limit-that Of cotton especially is borne
down by the immense weight of the crops
annually thrown upon it, and almost con-
stantly on the verge of a glut. If we are
to buy our manufactures principally from
Europe, We must pay for the additional
amount in the products of Northern ag-
ricultural industry = that is universally
agreed on The point to be determined
is, whether we could obtain them abroad
cheaper r. really and positively cheaper,
all tariffs being abrogated-than under
an efficient system Of protection.
Let US closely scan this question. Hi
nois and Indiana, natural grain-growing
States, need clothes; and, in the absence
of all tariffs, these can be transported to
them from England for two or three per
cent. of their value. 1t follows then, that.
petition, the British manufacturer need
only put his clothes at his factory FIVE per
cent. below the wholesale price of such
clothes in Illinois, in order to command
the American market. This is allowing
fair broadcloth to be manufactured IN or
near Illinois for three dollars and a quar-
ter per yard, cash price, in the face of
British rivalry, and paving American
prices for materials and labor, the British
manufacturer has only to make that same
cloth at three dollars per yard in Leeds or
Huddersheld, and he can decidedly under
sell his American rival, and drive him out
of the market Mind, l do not say that
he would supply the Illinois market at
that price after the American rivalry had
been crushed; I know he would not, but,
50 long as any serious effort to build up
or sustain manufactures in this country ex-
listed, the large strong European establish
ments would struggle for the additional
market which our growing and plenteous
country so Invitingly proffers. 1t is we'll
known that in 1855, after the close of
the war, British manufactures were offered
for sale in our chief markets at the rate of
"pound for pound"-that is, fabrics OF
which the first cost to the manufacturer
was 81 A were offered in Boston market
at 50 SO, duty paid. This was not sac
ri6ce-it was dictated by profound fore
cast. Well did the foreign lubricants
| know that their selfinterest dictated the
utter overthrow, at whatever cost, of the
young rivals which the war had built up
in this country, and which our Government
and majority of the people had blindly
or indolently abandoned to their fate.
| William Cobbett, the celebrated radical,
| but with sturdy English heart, boosted
upon his first return to England that he
had been actively engaged here in pro-
noting the interests of his country by
comprising the destruction of American
manufactures in various ways which he
specified - Sometimes (says he by fire.
We all know that great sacrifices are often
submitted to by rich and long established
stage owner, steamboat proprietor or what
ever, to break down young and compare
| lively penniless rival. So in thousand
instances, especially in a rivalry for SC
large prize as the supplying with manu-
features of a great and growing nation
But here put aside all calculations of a
temporary sacrifice (; l suppose merely that
the foreign manufacturers will supply
our grain growing States with clothes at a
trifing profit SO long as they encounter
American rivalry; and | say it is perfectly
obvious that, if it cost three dollars and 9
quarter yard to make fair broadcloth
in or near Illinois in the infancy of oui
arts and like article could be made In
Europe for three dollars, then the utter
destruction Of American manufacture il
inevitable. The foreign drives it out o.
the market and its maker into bankruptcy
and now our farmers, in purchasing theil
cloths, "buy where they can buy cheapest,
which is the first commandment of free
trade, and get their cloth of England al
three dollars yard. l maintain that this
would not last year after the American
factories had been silenced-that then the
British operator would begin to think O
profits as well as bare cost for his cloth
and to adjust his prices SO as to recover
what it had cost him to put down the dan
gerous competition. But let this pass fol
the present and say the foreign cloth i
sold to Illinois for three dollars per yard
We have vet to ascertain how much sh.
has gained or lost by the operation.
This, says free trade, is very plain anc
easy. The four simple rules of arithmetic
suffice to measure it. She has bought, sa,
million yards of foreign cloth for tire
dollars, where she formly paid three ant
quarter for American; making a clea
saving of aquarter of million dollars.
But not SO fast-we have omitted on
important element of the calculation
We have yet to see what effect the pur
chase of her cloth in Europe, as oontrastet
with its manufacture at home, will hav
on the price of her agricultural staples
We have seen already that, in case she
forced to sell portion of her surplus pro
duct in Europe, the price of that surplu
must be the price which can be procure'
for it in England, less the cost of carryin
~ tbaro In ofhor xrords tho ayarao