The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-02-01

lose upon one of them, and yet may have a
good balance sheet upon the whole. he must
not and cannot lose upon them all without
ceasing to be trader; and nation, with re-
spect TO its aggregate Of production, Is as
single trader
Without, then, absolutely denying it to be
possible that in some isolated and exceptional
cases there may be relation between protec-
ton land all protection, so far as 1t goes, Is
monopoly and high wages, | contend that to
refer generally the high rate of wages in the
United States to this cause would be nothing
less than preposterous.
GLOW, then, is it that America, which, as
you say, makes enormous waste by protec-
ton, nevertheless outstrips all other coun-
tries in the rapid accumulation OF her
Wealth. My general answer is that the case
is like that of an individual who, with waste
full expenditure, has a vast fortune, such as
to leave him a large excess of receipts.
Let me observe, first, that America pro-
duces an enormous mass of cotton, cereals
meat and other commodities, which is sold
In the unsheltered market of the world at
such prices as it will yield The producers
are fined for the benefit Of the protected in
terests, and receive nothing in return; but
they obtain for their country, os we'll as for
the world, the whole advantage of a vast
natural trade-that is to say, trade in
which production is carried on at a minimum
cost in capital and labor as compared with
what the rest of the world can do. America
invites and obtains in remarkable degree
from all the world one Of the great elements
Of production, without tax of any kind
namely, capital While securing to the cap
italist producer monopoly in the protected
trades, she allows all the world to do its
best, by free immigration, to prevent any
corresponding monopoly in the class of work
men. She draws upon bank of natural re-
sources 50 vast that it easily bears those de-
auctions of improvidence which simply pre-
vent the results from being vaster still.
WHY AMERICA Is PROSPEROUS.
Let me now mention some at least among
those elements of the unrivaled national
strength of America which explain TO us why
she is not ruined by the huge waste of the
protective system. And first of these place
the immense extent and vastness of her terri
tory She carries on the business of domestic
exchanges on a scale such as mankind has
never seen. OF all the Staple products of hui
man industry and care, how few are there
which, in one or another of her countless
regions, the soil of America would refuse to
yield
Apart from this wide variety, l suppose
there is no other country of the whole earth
in which, if we combine together the surface
and that which is below the surface, nature
has been so bountiful to man. Now, this vast
aggregate superiority of purely natural
wealth is simply equivalent to the gift, say
of queen in game of chess, with this diff
ference-that America could hold her own
against all Corners without the queen. By
protection she makes bad move, which helps
us to make fight, and ties heavy clog upon
her feet, so that the most timid among us
need not now to greatly dread her competi-
ton in the international trade of the world.
Again, the international position Of Ameri-
ca may, in certain light, be illustrated by
comparing together the economical condi-
tons under which coal has been produced in
the different districts of this island. The
royalty upon coal represents that surplus
over and above estimated trading profit from
a mine which the lessee can afford to pay the
lapdlord. In England, generally, royalties
have varied from about sixpence ton to
ninepence in a few cases; scarcely ever higher.
But in Staffordshire, owing to the existence
of a remarkable coal measure, called the ten
yard coal, and to the presence of ironstone
abundantly nterstratified with the coal, the
royalty has often amounted to no less than
three shilings This excess has a real analogy
to the surplus bounty of Mother Earth in
America. And when see her abating some
what of her vast advantages through the
trick of protection, | am reminded of the
curious fact that this unusual abundance of
the mineral made the getting of it in Stat
fordshire singularly wasteful, and that frac-
tions, and no small fractions, of the tenyard
coal are now irrecoverably buried in the
earth, like the tribute which America has
been paying to her protected interests
BRITISH FREEDOM HELPS AMERICA.
Trade is, in one respect at least, like mercy.
1t cannot be carried on without comforting a
double benefit. Again, trade cannot be in
creased without increasing this benefit, and
increasing it lin the long rum on both sides
alike. Freedom has enormously extended our
trade with the countries of the world, and,
above all Others with the United States. 1t
follows that they have derived immense ben
eft, that their waste has been greatly repair
ed, their accumulations largely augmented,
through British legislation. We legislated
for our own advantage, and are satisfied with
the benefit we have received. But it is
fact, and 6 fact of no small dimensions
which, In estimating the material develop
ment of America, cannot be lost sight of.
In no country, / suppose, has there been so
careful cultivation of the inventive faculty,
and in America the scarcity of labor has,
in truth, supplied the great republic with
an essential element of severe and salutary
discipline. Thus it has come about that a
race endued with consummate ability for
labor has also become the richest Of all races
in instruments for dispensing with labor.
1t is thus obvious enough that a remark
able faculty and habit of invention, which
goes direct to cheapness helps to fill up that
gap in your productive results which is
created by the wastefulness of protection.
The leakage i'll the national cistern is more
than compensated by the efficiency of the
pumps that supply it.
America makes no scruples, then, to cheaper
everything in which labor is concerned, be-
cause this is the road to national wealth.
Therefore, she has no mercy upon labor, but
displaces it right and left. Yet when we
come to the case where capital is most in
question, she enables her ship builders, her
iron masters and her mill owners to charge
double or semi-double prices; which, if her
practice as TO labor saving be right must he