The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-02-01
time considerably more chan lOO. ooo mites o

railroad have been built In the United States
The steel rail and other metal connected there
with involved so vast a sum of money that II
could not have been raised To send out OF the
country in gold coin. The total cost could moi
have been less than $j,000,000,00O, We had
large interest u pay abroad on the public
debt. and for nine years after 1870 gold was
at premium in the United States. During
these years nearly 10000 miles Of railway
were constructed, and 10 import English rail
and pay for II with gold bought at a large
premium would have been impossible. A
very large proportion of the railway enter.
prises would of necessity have been aban
doned If the export of gold to pay for the rails
had been the condition precedent to their
construction. But the manufacture Of steel
rails at home gave an immense stimulus 10
business Tens of thousands of men were paid
good wages and great investments and great
enrchments followed the line of the new road
and opened TO the American people large
fields for enterprise not heretofore accessible.
The grain growers of the west and the
cotton growers Of the south will observe that
Mr.. Gladstone holds out to them a cheerful
prospect! They ''should produce more cereals
and more cotton ut low prices" Mr.. Glad
Of cereals and cotton as high prices"
Protectionists owe many thanks to Mr.,
Gladstone for his outSpoken mode o. dealing
| with this question of free trade. He gives
us his conclusions without qualification and
without disguise The American free trader
is not 50 sincere. He is ever presenting half
truths and holding back the other half, thus
creating false impressions and leading to false
conclusions. The western farmers instinct
is wiser than Mr.. Gladstone's philosophy.
The farmer knows that the larger the home
market the better are his prices, and that as
the home market is narrowed his prices fall.
Mr. Gladstone makes another statement Of
great frankness and Of great value Com
pairing the pursuits in the United States
which require no protection with those that
are protected he says; mo adversary will, !
think, venture upon saying that the profits
are larger in protected than in unprotected
industries" This is very true, and Mr.. Glad
stone may be surprised TO hear that the con
slant objection made by American free
traders against the protected industries" as
he terms them, is that the profits derived
| from them are illegitimately large.
Mr. Gladstone makes another contention,
in which, from the American point of view,
| he leaves out of sight "a controlling factor,
| and hence refers an effect to the wrong cause
Regarding the advance of wages in England,
| he says: wages which have been partially
| and relatively higher under protection have
become both generally and absolutely higher,
and greatly higher, under free trade" do
| not doubt the fact, but venture TO suggest
that such advance in wages as there has been
| in England is referable to another and pal
pable cause-namely, the higher wages in the
United States, which have constantly tempted
British mechanics to emigrate, and which
| would have tempted many more if the induce
| ment of an advance in wages at home had not
been interposed.
ENGLAND EMPLOYS PROTECTION WHERE
NEEDED.
| The zeal of Mr.. Gladstone for free trade
reaches its highest point in the declaration
that ''all protection is morally as well as eco
nomically bad" There is protection on sea
as well as on land. Mr.. Gladstone, while
chancellor of the exchequer, carried through
parliament bounty Of GlS0,0O0 to u line
of steamers running between England and
the United States-a protection that be-
gan six years before free trade was pro
claimed in English manufactures, and con
tinued nearly twenty years after In the
whole period of twenty -tive years an aggre-
gate of many millions of dollars was paid out
to protect the English line against all com
petition
Does not this justify the opinion that the
English policy of free trade is urged where
England can hold the field against rivals, and
that when competition leaves her behind she
repudiates free trade and substitutes the most
pronounced form of protectOn}
1t will not escape Mr. Gladstones keen OBJ
servation that British interests in navigation
flourish with less rivalry and have increased
in greater proportion than any other Of the
great interests of the United Kingdom. | ask
his candid admission that it is the one interest
which England has protected steadily and
determinedly, regardless of consistency and
regardless of expense Nor will Mr. Gladstone
fail to note that navigation is the weakest OF
the greatest interests in the United States,
because it is the one which the national COY.
eminent has constantly refused to protect
We really feel as much afraid of protec-
ton at sea as Mr.. Gladstone is Of protection
on land The positions of the American con-
gress and the English parliament on this sub
ject are precisely reversed. England has
never been affrighted by the word subsidy,
fear, she has taken possession Of the seas by
the judcious, and even the lavish, inter
position Of pecunary aid.
FARMER AND LABORER GET THE BENEFIT
Mr.. Gladstone feels sure that, though the
protected manufacturers in the United
States may flourish and prosper, they do SO
at the expense of the farmer Both Mr..
Gladstone and the American free trader
have, then, the duty of explaining why the
agricultural states of the west have grown
IN wealth during the long period of protec-
ton at more rapid rate than tho manu-,
featuring states of the east.
In 1860 eight manufacturing states of the
east returned an aggregate wealth Of 81, l2i,
900. Twenty years afterwards, 10y the
census of 1880 the same states returned an
aggregate wealth OF SlG,22S 900 900 The
rate of increase for the twenty years was
slightly more than ZIG per cent. In lstD
eight agricultural states of the west illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mime
sofa Nebraska and Wisconsin, returned an
aggregate wealth Of 81 ri 10000 Twenty
years afterwards, by the census of 1880 pro.
lection all the while i'll full force, these
same states returned an aggregate wealth Of
Sll, PCS 900, coo The rate of increase for the
nor