Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-02-19
OCEAN STEAMERS AT CHICAGO.

OCEAN STEAMERS AT CHICAGO.
An English Syndicate to Put on a Lin. of
Steamers Between Chicago and England
Opening the Market For . Bushel of
Wheat and . Barrel of Pork.
A company has been organized with
a capital stock OF s., 900, 600 to build and
operate a line of steamers between
Chicago and England A similar plan
about two years ago fell through, as it
was found that the Canadian canals
could not accommodate vessels drawing
nine feet of water. An improvement
however, has been made in the shallow
est canal, giving it a depth of more
than nine feet Already the scheme
has been revived, and an agent of the
company is now visiting the lake ports
in order to make contracts for freight
Ten steamers will be built, and these
will carry out cargoes of dressed beef,
dairy products, etc, and viii bring
back general merchandise.
Protectionists will doubtless view
this movement with alarm, and see in
it another scheme OF the greedy. grasp
ing British to enrich themselves at
other peoples expense The protection
notion that we should ''eat all our beef at
home" and buy little or nothing abroad
is directly opposed to this scheme to
promote trade between Chicago and
England. According to the Mckinley
standard of political orthodoxy it would
be better to fill up those Canadian ca
nails rather than deepen them
But the farmers will not see any thing
alarming in having British ocean steam
ers loading and unloading at the wharfs
of Chicago and Detroit They will rath-
= - 1-. 11r
the market for another bushel of wheat
and another barrel of pork" and if
these ships bring back English hard
ware, wooden goods, or other articles
of merchandise, the farmers will reflect
that it is precisely such things as these
that they need. They will not hasten
to lift up their hands against flood
of cheap goods"
In fact, the farmers will be so old
fashioned as to rejoice in seeing that
flood of cheap goods rise higher and
higher; and they will be only too glad
to see a corresponding stream Of sur
plus wheat, corn. pork, beef and butter
and cheese go out in these ships in or
der to increase the flow of cheap for
eign goods into Chicago for distribution
in q hundred country towns As these
same farmers can make wheat and corn
and fatten livestock much more easily
than they can make cloth, or knives, or
hundred other articles, they Will find
it paying business to ship these farm
products to England for the manufact-
ured products named. The farmers
will feel no harm to themselves from
such an arrangement; and it will be
difficult to make them believe that
harm results to the country at
large by the exchange described. The
| fact is, as even every Acknowledgment
man knows, the permanent exchanges
which we call trade, can not exist un-
less both parties make a protein other
words, unless they get something which
they like better than the thing they
parted with. A school boy will not
swap a top for a set of marbles un
less the marbles please him better thar
the top; and, moreover. the boy is quite
sure that he is himself the only salts
| factory Judge as to which really doe:
please him better. If the father of tn,
family should step in and take GO Pc
| cent. of his boys marbles and try t.
persuade him that this was for the goot
of the family, the boy would for onc'
face a problem that would beat tn,
mysteries of the multiplication table
| Is pO1hS
ships which deserves the farmers at
tention. The ship-owners not only ex
pect to take away cargoes of American
produce, but they equally expect t,
bring in cargoes of English goods
Does anybody suppose that these ship
would come for our produce if the,
could not bring a cargo with them? o.
| if they should do so, is it not clear thai
our outgoing cargo would have to pay
| two freights? Would not this make oul
produce dearer when laid down il
Liverpool and less able to compete with
| the produce of other countries?
| If the ideal McKinleyisms were car
ried out and the tariff made absolutely
prohibitory, would not the expectation
of our produce practically cease
Would not the glut of the home marke
make the prices of such produce sink Il
| ruinous level?
| These are simple questions in foreign
trade-which are, of course, easy to an
swer; but they deserve to be though
over again and again. They have il
| them the root of the whole tariff con