The Springdale news., 1889-08-30
PROTECTION X FAILURE.

tilO '" dl tdIlu dild luC Nho'S 'hSO ry of protection has Q hard road to travel, especially if he knows any thing about the history or theory of political economy. The gentle man in charge of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin IS not troubled by any knowledge of this kind. With him Ignorance is bliss and its folly to be wise.' In recent issue of that journal we find the follow ing, which IS a fair sample of the stuff offered hy tho Republican edi- tors for the consumption of the American people:
 If free trade helps to make nation rich and its people prosperous, why IS it that America is so much better place to make money than EnglandF The latter has had free trade for over fifty years. While the United states has had tariff, and sometimes avery high one, ever since the Government was organized Yet at the present writing money in this country brings twice aS much interest net as 1t does i'll Eng land, and there is constant and in creaslng demand ell the part of British capitalists for good investments III the United States
 In the first place, England has not had treo trade for over fifty years-itIs only little over forty. The fact that interest is lower in England than in America implies that money is more abundant in England than it. America. The wealth ot England is one of the marvcls of history, A little island with few natural resources, has pursued a wise commercial pohcy and makes every nation in the world pay tribute to 1t. Because of free trade, EnglanI really com mands the commerce of the world. Because she does this money Is abundant, interest low, and her cap italistS have to go outsiOe ot the little island for tbcir investments, Tins, instead of proving that tree trade is running England, proves shat it Is making 1t every year d greater power in the financial world.
 Our-illformed contemporary con times:
 "rhlt is one aspect of the subject: tyie other relates to tpe condition or he working classes in the two countries. No governmental rolicy can he best for a nation to adopt unless 1t brings prosperity to all classes of people-thc greatest good to the greatest number should always be the motto Here We have the cheapest and best food of any people in the world. and our W0rkmell are better housed and Clothed than any other similar class under the sun. our industrial prosperity along ali lines 0i activity and in every department ot enterprise. from agriculture lo laahu- featuring in all its branches. has been the one amazing thing that mas cnal- lenged the admiration of the Slatlatici ans and political economists ci the whole civilized world.
 England never expects or intends tOpay her national debt. nor can she ever cancel it except hy repudiatlun. while in d few years more ncle sam will not owe dollar. Meanwhile, EU9tdltu iid t itt iNill iN LII Nllt iiiNi N'7t agriculture is not paying the farmers. manufacturing languisheS far want Of better markets and she has not tonud free trade the universal panacea lorna lional ills that Adam smith and other theorists predicted
 1t would be difficult to put into one paragraph more misrcpresenta, ton. The only statement here that is true that food is cheaper ir America than in England. This IS not due to the tariff at all but to the fact that thls IS . great contln, cnt, instead of an is Ian and. while we are exporting food products, England buys such things from all quarters of the world Before she had tree trade, there was tax on corn, pauperlsm prevailed among the the working classes everywhere, discomfort. sdch as has not been known in the last forty ycars-cN- cept during the civil war-led tbc workingmen of England to go about the country in mobs, destroy ing mills and factories, and mob Jlng the inventors of improved ma chinery. Instead otpauperlsm in. crcasing under free trade in Eng land, 1t has steadily declined. From lS49 to 1883 tho population of the United Kingdom increased from twenty eight million to thirty-hve million, or 27 per cent; paupers de- clined II per cent, and criminal convictions declined 6l per cent. In the fifty years from 1881 to l88! the savings banks deposltorS in creased from 429,000 to 4,l40,000 The condition of the working class os in Englan is as well shown by the statistics of the cooperative as soclations as anything else The first reports of these institutions were made in 1862. The members then numbered 90,C00, in 1881 they nu mbered 525 ,000; thclr capital in creased from two and quarter mil lion dollars to thirty-tive million; their sales from eleven million to one hundred million. In lS43 the income tax showed that there were only l06,000 incomes over seven hundred dollars; in 1880 there were 320,000. In l849 the steam vessels of the United Kingdom were 414; m 1882, 1 ,32l. In 1855 the exports of England were five hundred and eighty million; in 1880, fourteen hundred million. In the fifty years from 1883 to 1883 the wages of car nenters increased 42 per cent; of weavers, l25 per cent; of reelers, s3 per cent; mlncrs, 50 per cent, sailors, 55 per cent From .84O to 1882. sugar had dccllnei 6S per cent; wheat, 17 per cent; cotton cloth, 40 per cent. She eep had in creased in value 5s per cent; aad rent had increased l50 per cent. The consumption of bacon in thirty SIX years, ending in l9S2, had in creased l600 per cent; butter and cheese, 4l3 per cent; tea and coffee,