The Forrest City times., 1891-05-15
GIVING OUR MARKETS" "
THE BALCONIES or THE
 RECIPROCITY IDEA.

rich Ourselves by What We Get in Ex- change e-ssReciprocIty" Good, but Must He WIder-ThousD,ts for Farmers.
 A shrewd Yankee shoe manufacturer fndorses reciprocity for the reason that ~it will open up for us markets, without our being compelled to give for them, as . price, markets well and cheaply sup piled by our own labor.
 But when we "give our markets" we do not do so to accommodate other peo- pie, but ourselves. The pretense that in putting sugar, for instance, upon the free list we are doing great favor to Cuba Is . piece of transparent hypoc- risy. We put sugar on the free list be- cause we Americans want cheap sugar.
 "Giving our markets" by removing du- ties is precisely like the citizens of some isolated town going to work to build railroad in order to put themselves in communication with the outside world they .give their market and get a mar tet The market which they get adds their market" they do not take one pen ny from their w. alth. On the contrary, they grow richer by opening their mar ket to outsiders The "Rive their mar ket" in order to get goods into it; and surely these goods are 8 blessing, else the citizens of the town were great fools in building their railroad.
 Pursuing this analogy further, if these citizens should take up Repub- hcan notions about protection and reef procty, and should determine that their market" was too valuable thing to @give away" they could easily protect that precious market and make 1t harder for outside goods to come in, by passing law that all incoming trains shou consist of only two cars, that they should not run above ten miles tAn hour, and that there should be only one such train day. Of course they build their railroads in order to get goods as well as to sell them, and these regu- lations would merely defeat the object they had in view in building the road; yet such regulations are an exact parallel to the whole protection system. Duties are levied on foreign goods in order to render the hone market moro Or less inaccessible. The same thing could be accomplished by compelling all steamship companies to use steamers pnly half as large as those now in use, 10 make their trips less frequently, or Do remain anchored five days outside our harbors before landing.
 
 motions on which reciprocity rests. Yet for all that, there is no man in the United States doing more to undermine the pro- tection system than Blaine with his reciprocity treaties Those treaties, if they increase our foreign trade, will only make 1t plainer to the people that in giving away our markets" we are sEainers and not losers.
 Moreover, what arc to be the limits of reciprocity? It was first intended to be purely an American affair-a thing for i~sister republics" But already it has crossed the Atlantic and has taken in monarchical Spain Where shall the thing end? If it is good to trade with one country, why is it not good to trade with any other country? If trade is to be freer with Spain, why not cross the Pyrenees and make it freer with France? Why not cross the Channel and make it freer with England?
 But all this is strong. meat for the packers of reciprocity They look back with timid concern to the home mar ket, feali ing lest we give away" that market-"the best market in the world. !" They are like the farmer who should de- eide that he would not open his market" flor every farmer is market--to more tAdu OiiC Oi DiOWS UT wagons or cloth or sugar. The simplest minded farmer in the country knows that it is best for him to open his little mar ket as widely as possible to all the man. .ufacturers of blows, in order that they may bid against each other and so reduce the price of blows; ditto of wagons, cloth, sugar, and all other commodities
 Competition is tho life of trade" says the old adage, and in order that there may be competition there must be open markets.
 American and English shoe- Making.
 The London Boot aud Shoe Trades Joua7sM gives an interview with MT. A. Harden, an American who is in En- gland for the purpose of introducing American shoe-making mac hinery there. This MT. Harden makes some statements which should be read with interest in this country.
 The London journal says: "Invited to give his opinion upon our systems and quality of work produced, he expressed himself as considerably surprised at the high degree of excellence attained by the mixed up methods now prevailing here. and candidly admitted that there was little to be desired in the latter respect, but in tho former he considered we were just about in the same position as the Americans were about twenty years ago; but he could observe that many of the manufactut were of progres sive type, and with the facilities afforded by the numerous, large and well-appointed factories we should rapidly overtake his countrymen the two things necessary being the adoption of good machines and systems and the co. operation of the workmen. The work men in America had learned that ma chinery was beneficial to them and to the whole community. It dispensed with great portion of manual labor, the men using brains instead. It also meant to them higher wages and shorter hours, to the manufacturer increased profits, and to the community at large the advantages aecruing by the cost of production being essened, thereby su- perior goods could be bought at even reduced prices, and SO increasing the consumption to such an extent that hand labor could not cope with the demand, and he was certain our workmen would speedily become cognizant of the above advantages"
 If tho system of shoe manufacturing in England is twenty years behind ours, where is the need for our s5 per cent duty on boots and shoes? Certainly it is not necessary to protect labor, for, as MT. Harden points out, our machinery gives the laborer an advantage over his foreign competitor.
 In late number of the Boston Boot and Shoe Recorder it's Brockton Mass. ] correspondent reports that an Engli sh- man had been in that city and had said that he found labor cheaper there than