Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-05-23
WILL HERB sE EXAMINATIONS

merciaI lnlcpendenc. and Commercial
 VT.
 Itis considered by many to be a mark of our sturdy Americanism" that our tariff makers have gone about their work with absolutely no regard for other nations. With these people it is held to be high and glorious sort of patriotism to shut ourselves off from the rest of the wor to build Chinese wall of high protection around us and to live in hap py cXclusiven"ss ss from the rest of man. kind. We are such vast country, they argue, we have such enormous undevel- oped resources within our borders, and we are withal such an ingenious and en- terprising people, that we are sufficient | unto ourselves and should make our selves "commercially independent" of other nations. As we have got the best bone on the tray, we will snap and snarl and fight for it against every dog in the pack.
 But nations that try to live on the | snapping and snarling principle will find out sooner or later that It does not pay, whether this principle be held with a view to protecting our own bone or in | order to infl'ct an injury on some pauper | dog not so close to the tray as we are. When we talk about making ourselves 'commercially independent" by shut | ting out foreign products in order that our own people shall be compelled to manufacture those products for them selves, we forget that our prosperity de- ponds in a large measure upon our abll- ity to sell our own products in foreign markets. This is especially true of our agricultural products. The farmers are complaining everywhere now of hard times: all agricultural products, except cotton, are lower than for many years; and corn has been burnt for fuel in Sev- eral Western States during the past win ter. FarmC IFS Il readily understand then the importance to them of a foreign market for their surplus products.
 | Lnst year we sold abroad grand total | of $Sl4.O00, 900 worth of goods of all | kinds Of this total the growers of cot | ton sent out S.66, 900. 900 worth; the | wheat growers over SSS.00A, 900 in wheat | and flour. and the corn growers l some S36, ,0O0. .0O0. Adding other farm | products it is found that our farm | CTS sold abroad last year very near | 500. 900. 00O worth of products These | figures are taken from tn official re- | ports of the Treasury Doparl mcnt. Tn " | show that our farmers ent out three | fourths of all our exports fo' 1889. This | large proportion of agricu tural products | shows the farmer how important the for | eign market is to him. Tho greater the | demand for our farm products abroad. | the higher and steaT CT will prices be in
 our own market. It is in Liverpool that 1 the prices are fixed. and the cond
 tions affecting prices are the demand
 and the supply in all larts of the world. | Just now there is danger that our | farmers will lose part of their foreign
 market, and that portion of thein | products heretofore exported will be l kept at home to deprcss pr ccs still | further. Reports come from various
 sources that foreign nations are about
 to enter upon a plan of retaliat on
 against us. in view of the Chinese wall
 that the h.gh tariff party in Congress | means to erect against those nations.
 The Canadians are up in arms against | us. The Mckinley bill will operate | disastrously to the export trade of Can
 ada, as about half the foreign trade of | Canada is with the United States We
 sold the Canadians last year some fifty | million dollars worth of goods. and | bought from them about seven millions | less than that. The protectionists ought I
 as what they call the balance of trade" 1 is largely in our favor. Hut the pro-
 tectionists are II, satisfied: the balance | of trade" must be made still more favor
 able to us and so up goes the tariff wall. But the Tory Government of Canada
 does not mean to sit idly by and see the
 Canadian export trade damaged without
 striking a blow to save it. By no means. ] Col hos 1x,
 proclaimed a policy of commercial war
 fare against us. If we refuse to buy
 from Canada. the Cabinet at Ottawa does
 not mean that Canada sha l buy from us.
 If we refuse to buy forty-three million
 dollars worth of goods from Canada, she l will refuse to buy fifty millions from us. And who among us are to be hurt by
 this? One provision of the proposed Canadian tariff is to increase the duty
 on cattle, sheep and hogs to 30 per cent.
 ad valorem; and a large delegation of
 meat packers from Montreal has been to
 Ottawa to protest aga .nst this and to | show that unless they can get their live
 animals from us they will have to close.
 We sold Canada last year more than
 twenty million dollars worth of agri-
 cultural products. and many of the manufactured articles sold to Canada
 were composed of farm products as their
 raw material,
 From all this the American farmer
 will see that Canadas market IS of great
 importance to him. If this market is
 closed to the American farmer by the
 recently proposed Canadian tariff it will
 mean that large part of the twenty
 millions of farm products now sold to
 Canada will have to stay at home, to be
 sold in the already glutted home market. Is it not wiser to follow MT. Butter
 worth. of Ohio and offer unrestricted
 reciprocity to Canada? He has bill
 before Congress which proposes absolute freedom of exchange between us and Canada. Let us have free trade, says
 MT. Butterworth, but only in lopgitud'
 inal lines; and there is a large party in Canada that is in sympathy with this