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

MR.. GLADSTONE'S VIEWS.
The existing difference of practice between
America and Britain with respect to free
trade and protection Of necessity gives rist
to kind of international controversy OF
their respective merits. To interfere from
across the water in such u controversy is ar
act which may wear the appearance Of i'm
pertnence.
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 pleasant novelty; but once
upon time we British folk were surfeited
nay, almost bored to death, with it. 1t is
simply the old song of our squires, which
they sang with perfect assurance to defend
the corn laws Protectonists 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 us, 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
D,.S 4 "a %
wages thereupon sink to the level of the
continentl 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
of 1888 in such way as to speak for the prin-
cipal branches Of industry. The wages Of
miners, we learn, have increased in Stafford
shire (which almost certainly is the mining
district of lowest increment by so per cent.
In the great exportable manufactures Of
Bradford and Huddersfield the lowest aug
mentations are 20 and 30 per cent, and in
other branches they rise to so, 80, 100, and
eNcl W lUO hlll iOO pci SCuU. AhC IuooA-
domestic trades of carpenters, bricklayers
and masons in the great marts of Glasgow
and Manchester show mean increase of G3
per cent. for the first, 65 per cent for the
second. and AZ per cent for the third The
lowest weekly wage named for an adult is
twenty-five shillings las against seventeen
shillings in 1883, and the highest thirty six
shillings. But it is the relative rate with
which we have to do; and, as the American
writer appears to contemplate with a peculiar
dread the effect of free trade upon shipping,
further quote Mr.. Giffen on the monthly
wages of seamen in 1888 aud 1888 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 IS per cent, in Liverpool
for different classes) from 25 per cent to 20
per cent, and in London from 45 per cent. to
SO 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 ut 90 per cent. Together with this in
crease of pay there has been a general dimnu'
ton of the hours of work, which Mr.. Giifen
places at one-ffth. If we make this correc-
ton upon the comparative table, we shall
find that the cases are very few in which the
increment does not range as high as from 80
and towards 100 per cent.
Within the same period the prices OF the
main articles of popular consumption nave
certainly declined. The laborers charges,
except for his abode, have actually diminished
as 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, in 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 aptitudes 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
NAV require it, with this natural law OF dis
tribution.
All interference with it by government
IN order To encourage some dearer method OF
production at home, in preference to cheap
r method Of production abroad, may fairly
ne termed artificial And every such inter
terence means simply diminution OF the ma
tional 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
II each is diminished by the ten and five
shillings respectively.
So much for the waste unavoidably attach
ing to dearness Of production. But there are
,ther and yet worse descriptions Of waste, a.
20 which | know not whether America suf