The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-07-19
SHALL We HAVE COMMERCIAL WAR;

SHALL We HAVE COMMERCIAL WAR;
TIE Danger to which Our High Tariff
Apostles Are Exposing Us.
One Of the favorite ideas Of the pro-
tectionists is that the country must be
made what they call commercially inde-
pendent of all the rest Of the world.
Everything that can be made on sacred
American soil, that we must make; con-
gress must legislate to have it done; con-
sumers must pay higher prices in order
that it may be done, and we will keep
our money at home and all grow rich
together. The foreigner we will treat as
commercially our enemy, for he that
cares not for his own household is worse
than an infidel.
Foreign m is scarcely to be de-
sired, it is held, and 90 we will pass Nc
Kinley administrative customs bills and
Mckinley tariff revision bills and wall
ourselves in commercially from the rest
Of the world.
The harbarism and anti-progressive
spirit Of these sentiments are worthy Of
the middle ages. It is such sentiments
as these that the civilized nations Of the
world have succeeded within the present
half century in getting China, the hermit
nation Of the east, to abandon.
But if we grant that these sentiments
are just, we must still note that those
who hold them overlook one part of the
problem Of commercial intercourse. We
a prevent the importation Of foreign
goods, and we can continue to prosper
in a less degree, of course, but still to
prosper.
The more important question is, can
we get on equally well without selling
anything to the foreigner? What, for
instance, do the growers OF wheat and
corn and cotton think Of this question:
Our farmers exported three-fourths OF
the 1914, 000, 600 worth of products sold
abroad last year. The cotton growers
sent out $3.50, 000, 900 worth; the wheat
growers Owe $88, 0OO, 900 worth Of wheat
and flour, and the corn growers added
about s36, 600, 600 more. Other farm prod
ucts bring the grand total up to almost
$500, 900, 900.
Now, what do the farmers think Of
this commercial independence" schemes
Are they willing to see commercial in
%tercourse endangered to their own hurts
Do we suppose that we can pass laws
shutting out foreigners from our ports
with their wares and not be retaliated
against by these same foreigners2 Our
farmers have already had a taste of this
kind Of thing in the action of France
and Germany in shutting out American
pork. Do the farmers want more Of that
kind of thing? Are they ready to see
their own foreign markets endangered
OF restricted in order to give our protect
ed manufacturers a high protection wall
to defend the holy home market for
them?
This is not an idle theory. A French
paper at Lyons, France, has recently
printed an article which has attracted
some attention in this country, showing
that the principal European nations
would most likely take retaliatory steps
to protect their interests if the Mckinley
bill should become a law. According to
this paper, a member Of the French
chamber of deputies, NJ. Maxine Le-
comte, recently had an interview with
the French minister of foreign affairs,
and learned that France, England, Italy
and Switzerland have united in a joint
address to the United States government
on the subject. These nations will show
our government that we sell them q great
deal more than we buy, and that hence
it is a matter Of much greater import
ance to us to hold our European market
than to shut the European out of the
American market.
The Lyons paper calls attention to the
fact that congress passeda law two years
ago authorizing the president to take
of reprisal against Canada; and
the French editor closes with the follow
ing significant warning to our American
law makers: ''They could not be sur
prised, therefore, If the governments of
countries whose commerce is threatened
by the application Of the Mckinley bill
should do the same thing on their own
behalf, should this ill advised measure be
adopted with the oppressive and out
rageous provisions which arouse against
1t SO justly the indignation of the COM
mercial classes Of the Old World"