Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1891-11-11
The Valley and the New England
POLICY.

issippi Valley it is coming to be
understood that it takes imports to
to move exports, and that
these imports must come from the
country to which we wish to export.
The people Of Illinois and Iowa, of
Missouri and Kentucky very seldom
see gold piece, and they know that
there is not gold enough in the world
to carry 5 per cent. of the worlds
trade. And knowing that gold is as
scarce in Europe as it is here, they
can understand why their exports are
cut down in quantity and price by the
policy which refuses to allow them to
import goods in exchange.
In order TO sell what we have to sell
we must find country that needs it
then we must take in exchange what
that country can pay us or else we
cannot trade with it.
The Republican party has been
forced to acknowledge this in its So
called reciprocity" but even in ac-
knowledging the principle of exchange
in trade, it seeks to turn it against the
Mississippi Valley. South American
farmers do not need our farm products.
What they offer for export to the
United States will as imports here
move out manufactured goods, but
not breadstuffs, provisions and cotton.
Perhaps we might sell some wheat in
Buenos Ayres or some cotton in Brazil,
but everybody knows we could not
move the crops Of the Mississippi
Valley by such trade as that. For
Buenos Ayres exports wheat, hides
and wool, and Brazil cotton and hides
These the Mississippi Valley produces,
and under fair trade Brazilian sugar
and coffee imported here would move
out exports of Massachusetts, manu-
features, while European imports
would move the products of the Miss
issippi Valley to Europe.
On this, however, New England
puts veto. 1t wishes to exchange
its manufactured goods for the agricul-
tural products of South America, but
it denies to the Mississippi Valley the
exchange with Europe through which
alone the farming States of the valley
can hope to market their surplus prof
itably.
l Under this policy New England
proposes to trade. 1t admits that
trade is first-rate thing, and accord
ingly it will use the whole power of
the Government to build up trade
for itself with South American farm
ers, taking their farm products in ex-
change for manufacturers. eve will
do the trading" it says to the Valley
States. Free trade is good if proper
ly conducted. so we will trade freely
with our South American customers
and while we are doing it you can sell
what you can in Europe for gold, so
that you will have the gold to give us
for our goods at our prices"
So the high tariff wall shuts the
valley out from its European market,
while New England is using the free
trade back door cut in the wall for
its convenience. The Valley States
cannot long submit to this. They
produce wealth above any other region
of the earth, and the high tariff Custom
Houses, with the high tariff gold basis
for foreign trade, shuts out this wealth
from exchange and deprives it of a
very large part of its exchange value.
Unless we can exchange our wheat,
corn, provisions and cotton, they have
no exchange value, and rything
which lessons the freedom of exchange
for them deprives them of exchange
value to the extent Of reduction. If|
the valley is not allowed to exchange
its products with Europe it can never
have either sufficient supply of mon
ey or of the necessaries and comforts
of life. The same reciprocity New
England has with Brazil and Buenos
Ayres, the Mississippi Valley must
have its customers in England and
Ireland, in France, Germany and
Italy. The New England policy is
throttling the production and the com.
meroe of the Valley States, and it
must be changed. The country from
the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mount
aims and from the Lakes to the Gulf
is the wealthiest in the world in its
products, and it must be allowed to
realize the full exchange value of the
wealth it produces.-Republic.
Boies on Demonstration.