The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-21
Mr.. cIadstons.s Views.

The existing difference Of practice between
America and Britain with respect to free
trade and protection of necessity gives rise
to 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 pleasant novelty; but once
upon time we British folk were surfeited,
nay, almost bored to death, with it. It is
simply the old song of our squires, 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 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
Tea first and foremost. But did our rate Of
wages thereupon sink to the level of the
continenti 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 incremenn by so per cent
In the great exportable manufactures Of
Bradford and Huddersfeld the lowest aug
mentations are 20 and 80 per cent, and in
other branches they rise to so, 50. 100, and
even to $50 and 100 per cent. The quasi
domestic trades of carpenters, bricklayers
and masons In the great marts of Glasgow
and Manchester show mean increase of 60
per cent. for the first, Is 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 peculiar
dread the effect of free trade upon shipping,
/ further quote Mr.. Giffen on the monthly
wages of seamen in 1888 and 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 &C per
cent, in Glasgow So per cent, in Liverpool
for different classes from 25 per cent. to 20
per cent, and in London from As 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 at 60 per cent. Together with this in
crease of pay there has been 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, we shall
find that the cases are very few in which the
increment does not range as high as from 30
and towards 100 per cent.
Within the same period he prices of the
main articles of popular consumption have
certainly declined. The laborer's 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 ''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 projection had no such tale to tell at all
For liz working population at large 1t meant
stag.iai on, depression, in many cases actual
nni ,4aiiy hunger and thirst, in some unques-
tiorutl, and even gross degradation.
l:..,AT WASTE OF PROTECTION
ln'rrns .ionai commerce is based, not upon
al hit'" r. or fanciful considerations, but upon
the ri:3Gal distribution among men and re
giois u .ptitudes to produce the several com.
nlodil.e.' which are necessary or useful for the
susienni.cc, comfort and advantage of human
lie
The ar. uinent of the free trader is that the
legi,latpr ought never to interfere, or only to
interfere 50 far as imperative fiscal necessity
may require it, with this natural law of dis,
trbuton
All interference with it by GOV ernmcnt
in order to encourage some dearer method of
production at home, in preference to cheap
er method Of production abroad, may lairly
he termed artificial AMI every such inter
ference means simply diminution of the ma
tional wealth. Ii region A grows corn at
home for fifty shillings which region 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
shillings respectively.
So much for the waste unavoidably attach
ing to dearness of production. But there are
other end yet worse descriptions of waste, as
to vi i:'li | k.iow not whether America suf
fers greatly from them, but know that in
this country we suffered from them griev-
ously under the sway of protection. When
the barrier erected by protective duty is
SO high that no foreigner can overlap it,
that duty enables the home manufacturer
not only to charge high price, but to force
on The consumer a bad article. Thus, with
an extravagant duty on foreign corks, we
had for our own use the worst corks in
Europe. And yet again, protection causes
waste of another kind in large class Of cases.
Suppose the natural disadvantages of the
home producer to equal Is per cent, but the
protective duty to be 80 But cheapness re-
quires minute care, economy and dispatch at
all the stages through which production has
to pass This minute care and thrift depend
mainly on the pressure Of competition. There
were among US, and there may be elsewhere,
many producers whom Incidence tempts to
neglect; who are not sufficiently drawn to
resist this inertia by the attraction OF raising
profit to a maximum, for whom the prospect
OF advantage is not enough without the sense
of necessity, and whom nothing can spur to
a due nimbleness of movement except the
fear of not being able to sell their articles
In the case | have supposed, the second Is
per cent. is free margin whereupon this in
dolence may disport itself: the home pro
Queer is not only covered for what he wastes
through necessity, but for what he wastes
from negligence or choice; and his fellow
countrymen have to pay alike for both. We
suffered grievously from this in England, for
oftentimes the rule Of the producer is, or
was, to produce not as well as he can, but as
well only as he must. And happy are you II,
through keener energy or more troublesome
conscience in production, you have no similar
suffering in America.
There is yet another point which | cannot
pass without notice. | have not admitted
That protection keeps ct home any capital
which would otherwise 20 abroad. But
now for the moment accept and reason upon