The Indianapolis journal., 1890-04-22
THE RESULTS OF FREE TRADE IN ENGLAND.

Sir Edward Sullivan is not an Irish
malcontent, but British baronet, whose
opinions, because of his prominence and
ability, have found place in the Tory
periodicals, though he has continually
opposed the free-trade policy of Great
Britain. In a recent article he sets forth
the condition of labor and industry in
Great Britain, in the course of which he
says: 50
After forty years experience of one-sided
free trade, tho condition of labor IN the
United Kingdom is very. alarming; many
industries have died out or removed to
other countries; in nearly every industry
English labor is undersold by foreign labor;
in most industries four days is now consid-
cred a weeks work.
He then proceeds to declare that the
United Kingdom is the only country in
the world that is going out of tillage to
grazing, and yet tillage produces eight
tiraes as much human food and three
times as much employment as grazing,
and as result this change from tillage
to grazing will force the emigration of
half the population-that all this is due
to the heresy of free trade, which puts
cheapness above employment. Proceed
ing, he speaks of the sources of national
prosperity, saying:
Employment not cheapness, is the MAIN
spring of national prosperity and content
ment The way to make nation happy
and prosperous is to give everybody an OPP
portunity of being employed. The idea of
supplying population of 34,000,0O0 with
everything at lower price than they can
produce it Is probably the most preposter-
GUS nonsense that ever entered the human
mind. This Is actually what free trade
pretends to do; we are attempting to sup
ply ourselves with everything cheaper
than we can produce it. In other words,
we place before our workers cheap food,
but put it out of their power to earn the
money to buy it,
England" he says, sis suffering from
Industrial invasion" because of its free
trade policy; and while armed invasion
would mean national disgrace, industrial
| invasion means ruin. Protection, he de-
clares is protection to native industry,
to ''those who eat their bread in the
sweat of their faces" On the other
hand, he declares:
| That free trade means untaxed foreign
competition. That foreign competition
means competition in cheapness competi-
tion in cheapness means competition in
| cheap labor; competition in cheap labor
means competition in flesh and blood; and
| competition IN flesh and blood is slavery
| That excessive competition is the greatest
| curse that can be imposed on a working
| community. That the unrestricted cOmpe-
tition of the whole world is rapidly making
the conditions of English labor impossible.
| That cheap clothing and cheap food are Of
no value If human labor is cheaper STILL
| That excessive cheapness is of no value to
| the community without employment That
employment means cheapness. That those
who have employment can buy. That
| those who have not employment cannot
buy. That free trade means cheap
ness to the rich. the idlers, those with
fixed incomes; but longer hours, lower
wages. harder work TO the workers. That
1 the workers are twenty to Que to the idlers
| and, therefore, free trade sacrifices the in
| terests OF the nineteen to the interests OF
| the one.
| He ridicules the theory that the vol.
ume of nations foreign trade is @
measure of the prosperity of people
give shillings spent OH the produce oi
English labor" he says, benefits the
| working class more than so shillings
spent on the produce of foreign labor;'
that internal production and internal
consumption are the only proofs of ma
tional prosperity" consequently, that
the first and paramount duty of every
government is to encourage conditions
under which every one can find employ.
I, ment."
These are not the opinions of "grasp.
ing monopolists, who have fattened by
robber tariff but of an educated En-.
glishman, now in hls old age, who has
carefully noted the decline of agri-
cultural and other industries in Great
Britain since the adoption of the free,
trade policy. They are the utteranct
of the profound convictions of mar
who speaks of things he has seen, ant
of an industrial decline which has beer