Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-02-03

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 we'll as eco
nomically bad" There is protection on sea
as we'll as on land Mr.. Gladstone, while
chancellor of the exchequer, carried through
parliament a bounty of e1S0,000 to a 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-five 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 protection?
1t will not escape Mr.. Gladstone's 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 gov
eminent has constantly refused to protect
We really feel 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,
and, while we have stood still in impotent
fear, she has taken possession of the seas by
the judicious, and even the lavish, inter-
position of pecuniary 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 a more rapid rate than the manu-
featuring states of the east.
In 1860 eight manufacturing states of the
100000 Twenty years afterwards, by the
census of 1850, the same states returned an
aggregate wealth of $16,22S 100000 The
rate of increase for the twenty years was
slightly more than 2l6 per cent In 1860
eight agricultural states of the west illinois
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mime
sofa, Nebraska and wisconsin, returned an
aggregate wealth of $2,27l ,0000 900 Twenty
years afterwards by the census of 1880 pro
same states returned an aggregate wealth of
$11 ,26S, 100000 The rate of increase for the
twenty years was 396 per cent
The case will be equally striking if we take
the fifteen southern states. The rate of in
crease for the twenty years was so per cent.
Consider that during this period eleven states
of the south were impoverished by civil war.
And yet, at the end of twenty years, the
southern states had repaired all their enor-
nous losses and possessed nearly double the
wealth they had ever known before.
1t may perhaps surprise Mr. Gladstone to
be told that out OF the fifty largest fortunes
in the United States-those that have ar
rested public attention within the last ten
years-certalnly not more than one has been
derived from protected manufacturing; and
this was amassed by a gentleman of the
same Scotch blood with Mr. Gladstone him
self In no event can the growth of large
fortunes be laid to the charge of the pro
tective policy. The benefit of protection
goes first and last to the men who earn their
bread in the sweat of their faces The aus
picious and momentous result is that never
before in the history of the world has
fort been enjoyed, education acquired, and
independence secured by so large a proper
ton of the total population as in the United
States of America
JAMES G. BLAINE