The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-08-29

How 1t Has Become Depressed and Ruined
By Her Free Trade Policy-BritIsh Testi-
mony of Both Protectionists and Free
Traders "A Home Market Always the
Best. s.
England had protective policy until
her manufactures were established and
her foreign trade fixed fact. Now she
advocates free trade. She has not acres
enough to support her people, and she
must make goods to sell to other people
to support her population. She must
trade with others, decrease in popula-
ton, or starve. She must have the
worlds market. She long ago supplied
her own. . .
To have that market she must pro-
duce cheaply; cheap production means
cheap labor; cheap labor means cheap
food; cheap food means small returns to
the farmers. Great Britain has devel-
oped her manufactures at the expense
OF her agriculture. The proof of this is
abundant She had her corn laws"
which laid duty upon breadstuffs i'm
ported into the Kingdom These pro-
tected her farmers. To secure cheap
food for her cheap labor she, under the
leadership of Richard Golden, repealed
those laws For forty years this has
been her policy. What has been the
result? Let US summon the witnesses.
Sir Edward Sullivan, writing since
1887, says: g. r.l
There is a great and rapidly increasing
abandonment of tlllage; we are rapidly re-
linquIshing the power to supply our own
consumption, and we are rapidly increasing
our dependence on foreign nations for food
In every county land Is going out of tillage,
being laid down In grass or being abandoned
altogether During the last ten years i.ooo,-
coo acres, one-fourth of our whole wheat
area. has gone out of wheat cultivation
During the last few years this process has
been going on at rapidly accelerated speed.
In the meantime agriculture in all its
branches Is depressed and discouraged. 1t
Is looked upon as a ruined industry, and any
one who puts money into it Is considered a
lunatic. A large portion of the capital in
vested In agriculture has been lost.
The number of farming bankruptcies has
Increased six times in ten years. Bills of
sale have multiplied ten times in i've years.
But it may be objected that Sir Ed
ward is a protectioniSt and his testi-
mony may be colored by his personal
views. Well, here is another witness,
the great free trade statistician Mulhall.
He has recently published a book en-
titled Fifty Years National Progress,
1s37-lsS7. IL is written to show the
progress of Great Britain under fifty
years of free trade, and he marshals
statistics to prove her advance in popu-
lation, wealth, trade, etc, during those
fifty years, yet he writes less than two
pages of the introduction to his work
before he makes this admission:
The only item which shows a positive de-
cline IS agriculture, which Is six per cent
lower than 10 was fifty years ago; and in
reference to population ss per cent lower.
And again, speaking of agriculture,
he says:
This industry has declined so considerably
during the present reign. notwithstanding
the reclamation OF 100000 acres Of waste
land, hat the production of grain Is now
only eight bushels per inhabitant, against
thirteen In the year following the Queens
accession
Further on he says:
Capital having an irres istable tendency to
run out of losing trades and seek those
which are profitable, IL Is not surprising to
see that grain growing 10 rapidly diminish
, ing in the United Kingdom
And then he gives table Of the pro-
duction of grain in the Kingdom, which