The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-02-01

now, tu0H, Is IL tnaC America, WHICH, as
you say, makes enormous waste by protec-
ton, nevertheless outstrips all other coun-
tries in the rapid accumulation Of her
wealthT' My general answer is that the case
Is like that Of m individual who, with waste
full expenditure, has a vast fortune, such a.
to leave him a large excess of receipts.
Let me observe, first, that America pro-
duces an enormous mass of cotton, cereals,
meat and other commodities, which Is sold
in the unsheltered market of the world at
such prices as it will yield. The producers
are fined for the benefit Of the protected in.
t~erests, and receive nothing in return; but
they obtain for their country, as we'll az for
the world, the whole advantage OF a vast
natural trade-that ia to say, a trade in
which production Is carried on at a minimum
cost in capital and labor as compared with
what the rest Of the world can do. America
invites and obtains in a remarkable degree
from all the world one of the great elements
Of production, without tax of any kind
namely, capital. While securing to the cap
italist producer a monopoly in the protected
trades, she allows all the world to do its
best, by a free immigration, to prevent any
corresponding monopoly in the class Of work
men. She draws upon q bank Of natural re-
sources SO vast that it easily bears those de-
auctions of improvidence which simply pre-
vent the results from being vaster still.
WHY AMERICA Is PROSPEROUS.
Let me now mention some at least among
those elements Of the unrivalled national
strength of America which explain to rs why
she is not ruined by the huge waste of tho
protective system. And first Of these I place
the immense extent and v~astness of her terri
tory. She carries on the business of domestic
exchanges OF a scale sue as mankind hos
never seen. OF all the staple products of h1-
man industry and care, how few are there
which, in one or another of her counties
regions, the soil of America would refuse to
yield.
Apart from this wide variety, I suppose
there is no other country Of the whole earth
in which. If We combine together the surface
and that which is below the surface, nature
has been SO bountiful to man. Now, this vast
aggregate superiority Of purely natural
wealth is simply equivalent to the gift, say,
of a queen In a game Of chess, with thisd diff
ference-that America could hold her own
against all corners without the queen. BY
protection she makes a bad move, which helps
us to make fight, and ties q heavy clog upon
her feet, SO that the most tiluid among u
need not now to greatly dread her competi-
ton in the international trade of the world.
Again, the international position of Aneri.
c may, in a certain light, be illustrated by
comparing together the economical condi-
lions under which coal has been produced in
the different districts Of this island. The
royalty upon coal represents that surplus
over and above estimated trading profit from
a mine which the lessee can afford to pay the
landlord. In England, generally, royalties
have varied from about sixpence a ton to
ninepence in a few cases; scarcely ever higher.
But in Staffordshire, owing to the existence
of a remarkable coal measure, called the ten.
yard coal, and to the presence of ironstone
a%bundantly interstratified with the coal, the
royalty has often amounted to no, less than
three shillings. This excess has a real analogy
to the surplus bounty Of Mother Earth in
America. And when l see her abating some.
what of her vast advantages through the
trick Of protectiqR, I IN reminded Of the
curious fact that This unusual abundance Of
the mineral made the getting Of it in Stat.
fordshire singularly wasteful, and that frac-
tons, and no small fractions, Of the tenyard
coal arc now irrecoverably buried in the
earth, like the tribute which America has
been paying to her protected interests.
BRITISH FREEDOM AMERICA.
Trade is, in one respect at least, like mercy.
It cannot be carried on without comforting q
double benefit. Again, trade cannot be in
Creased Without increasing this benefit, and
increasing it lin the long rum on both sides
alike. Freedom has enormously extended our
trade with the countries Of the world, and,
above all others, with the United States. It
follows that they have derived immense ben.
eft, that their waste has been greatly repair.
ed, their accumulations largely augmented,
through British legislation. We legislated
for our own advantage, and are satisfied with
tho benefit We have received. But it Is .
fact, and a fact Of no small Dimensions,
which, in estimating the material develop
ment Of America, cannot be lost sight Of.
In nc country, ] suppose, has there been 30
careful q cultivation Of the inventive faculty,
and in America the scarcity Of labor has,
in truth, supplied the great republic with
an essential element of severe Ind salutary
discipline. Thus it has come about That
race endued with consummate ability for
labor has also become the richest of all roces
In instruments for dispensing with labor.
It is thus obvious enough that a remark.
able faculty and habit Of invention, which
goes direct to cheapness, helps to fill up that
gap in your productive results which IL
created by the wastefulness Of protection.
The leakage In tho national cistern is more
than compensated BY the efficiency Of tho
pumps that supply it.
America makes no scruples, then, to cheaper
everything in which labor ID concerned, b.
cause this IL the road to national wealth.
Therefore, she has nc mercy upon labor, but
displaces it right and left Yet when 70
como to tho case where capital Is most In
question, she enables her ship builders, her
iron masters and her mill owners to charge
double or ssmi-double prices; which, II her
practice - 10 labor saving b right, must DO
the road to national poverty. e converse,
II she be right in shutting out foreign ships
and goods to raise the receipts Of the Ameri.
can capitalist, Why does she not tax the reap
ing machine to raise tho receipts Of tho
American laboreri .
ENGLAND NOT YET FIRE ENoU0a
lhave still to notice one remaining point
| do not doubt that production Il much
cheapened In America by the absence of all
kinds OF class legislation except that which Il
termed protection; IN instance alike vicious
and gigantic, but stll an instance only. In
our British legislation, the interest Of the in.
dividual or the class still rather largely pre-
walls against that Of the public. In America.
- l understand the matter, the public OBJ
tains full and equal Justice. I take for ex-
ample the case Of tho railroads; that vast
creation, n Of almost universal good to
mankind, now approaching to ons-tenth or
Of our entire national POSSESSIONS
It Is believed that n unnecessary parliarneu-
tary expenditure. and in abnormal prices