Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-01-24
MR.. GLADSTONE'S VIEWS.

MR. GLADST ONES VIEWS.
The existing difference of practice between
America and Britain with respect to free
trade and protection Of necessity gives rise
to a kind of international controversy on
their respective merits. To interfere from
across the water in such a controversy is an
act which may wear the appearance of i'm
pertinence.
The constant tenor of the argument is this:
high wages by protection, low wages by free
trade. 1t is even as the recurring burden of
"a song. And | can state with truth that |
have heard this very same melody before;
nay, that | am familiar with it. 1t comes
to us now with a pleasant novelty; but once
upon time we British folk were surfeted,
nay, almost bored to DEATH with it 1t is
simply tue old song of our squles. which
they sang with perfect assurance to defend
the corn laws Protectionists terrify the
American workman by threatening him with
the wages of his British comrade, precisely
as the English landlord coaxed our rural
laborers, when we used to get our best wheats
from Dantzig, by exhibiting the starvation
wages Of the Polish peasant.
These arguments were made among u.s. in
the alleged interest of labor and of capital,
just as they are now employed by you; for
America may at present be said to diet on
the cast off reasonings of English protec-
tionism.
But we broke down every protective wall
and FLOODED the country" $50 the phrase
then ram with the corn and the commodities
of the whole world: with the corn of Amer
lea first and foremost But did our rate of
wages thereupon sink to the level of the
continents No; it rose steadily and rapidly
TO a point higher than it had been ever
known before
GREAT GAINS OF THE BRITISH WORKMAN.
Mr.. Giffen, of the board of trade, whose
careful dispositions are known to command
the public confidence, supplies us with tables
which compare the wages of 1888 with those
oil 1888 III such way as to speak for the prin-
cipal branches of industry The wares of
miners, we learn. have increased in Stafford
shire (which almost certainly is the mining
district of lowest increment) by 50 per cent
In the great exportable manufactures of
Bradford and Huddersfied the lowest aug
mentations are 20 and 80 per cent, and in
other branches they rise to 81, 50, 100, and
even to 80 and 100 per cent The quasi
domestic trades of carpenters, bricklayers
md inasons in the great marts of Glasgow
and Manchester show mean increase of GO
per cent. for the first, 60 per cent. for the
second. and A per cent. for the third. The
lowest weehly wage named for an adult is
twenty-five shillings las against seventeen
yhilings in 1888. and the highest thirty-six
Shiings. But it is the relative rate with
which we have to do and, as the American
writer appears to contemplate with peculiar
dread the effect of free trade upon shipping,
] further quote Mr.. Gffen on the monthly
wages of seamen in 1888 and 1883 in Bristol,
Glasgow, Liverpool and London. The per-
centage of increase, since we have passed
from the protective system of the navigation
law into free trade is in Bristol 66 per
cent, in Glasgow 55 per cent, in Liverpool
dor different classes) from p per cent. to 20
pei ceiit., aud i'll London from 10 per cent. to
90 per cent. No such return, at once exact
and comprehensive, can be supplied in the
case of the rural workman. But here the
facts are notorious We are assured that
there has been an universal rise somewhat
checked, | fear, by the recent agricultural
distress), which Card and other authorities
place at 90 per cent, Together with this in
crease of pay there has been a general diminu
ton of the hours of work, which Mr.. Giffen
places at one-fifth. If we make this correc
ton upon the comparative table. shall
find that the cases are very few in which the
increment does not range as high as from so
and towards 100 per cent
Within the same period the prices of the
main articles of popular consumption have
certainly declined. The laborer's charges,
except for his abode, have actually diminished
a whole. For his larger house rent he has
a better house. To the government he pays
much less than he did, and from the govern
ment he gets much more, and 1.-THE increase
of his money wages corresponds to real
gain" If it be SAID that the tale | have told
is insufficient, and that wages ought still to
rise, this may be so, and rise | hope they will,
but protection had no such tale to tell at all.
For the working population at large it meant
stagnation, depression, Ill many cases actual
and daily hunger and thirst, in some unques-
tionable and even gross degradation.
GREAT WASTE OF PROTECTION
International commerce is based, not upon
arbitrary or fanciful considerations, but upon
the unequal distribution among men and re-
gions of apttudes to produce the several COM
modities which are necessary or useful for the
sustenance. comfort and advantage of human
life
The argument of the free trader is that the
legislator ought never to interfere, or only to
interfere SO far as imperative fiscal necessity
may require it, with this natural law of dis
trlbution.
All interference with it by gov eminent
in order to encourage some dearer method Of
production at home, in preference to a cheap
er method Of production abroad, may fairly
be termed artificial. And every such inter
ference means simply diminution of the ma
tiona wealth Ii region A grows corn at
home for fifty shillings which region B can
supply at forty, and region manufactures
cloth at twenty shillings with which region
A can supply at fifteen, the national wealth
of each is diminished by the ten and five
shillmgs respectively,
So much for the waste unavoidably attach
ing to dearness Of production. But there are
other and yet worse descriptions of waste, as
TO which ! know not whether America suf-