St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-30
VIEWS OF THE REVIEWS.

CABOT Lodge contributed an article on
Protection or Free Trade, Whieh?'' In
it he promised that in neither policy was
any moral question involved, that it was
simply question of balanced loss or
gain, a purely business transaction, and
then he presented the usual protection
ist arguments to show that the greater
gain resulted from the policy of protec-
ton. This clearing the ground of all
discussion OF the right of free trade or
the wrong of protection was the result,
no doubt, OF lingering trace in Mr.
Lodge of the conscientiousness of his
puritanic ancestry who habitually
put this queStian of right in
the foreground and acted on the
answer they gave it. honest in motive if
mistaken in Judgment. 1t may have
been due, too, as sort of apology to the
Lodge who, before he become a seeker
for public place, administered to the
protectionist Hamilton some severe crit
icism. In the December number David
a. Wells follows the young MaSSachu-
sets congressman under the same title,
and, beginning at the same initial, he
plants the right of free trade to conSid-
Grafton diStllctively on moral grounds.
Mr.. Lodge having stated that Adam
Smith, in his wealth of Nations" had
aSDitted that no moral question was in
terwoven with either policy, Mr.. Wells
replies that there is not line or para
graph in the book that sustains the as
sertion. He then proceeds to show
that so deep moral question
as slavery is involved; that
products of labor is the equivalent of
the right to those products, and whether
any other man or aggregation of men
may take all or part of those products
without compensation is but question
of degree, and not at all one of princi-
pie. The right of freedom of trade he
classes as natural one, springing from
THAT of personal integrity or owner
ship and control of ones own person.
Slavery and protection have the same
obJectlve: 80 restrict or prevent. apart
from the requirements of the state for
its economical support, the producer or
la6orer from determining for himself
how he shall use the results of his la
bor;'' and the Justification in each case
is the salne-the general good. Re-
strlctlons on international trade are
acts of war in reality, breeding
the retaliation and hatred which
war develops. They rest on the me-
dlaval abSurdity that swhat one gains
in trade is some others lOss," and re-
ject 1.-THE real truth that trade will not
be carried on for any length of time I'M
less both parties to the exchange are
materially benefited" Mr.. Wells
passes Mr.. Lodges contention that po-
,litical economy is not an exact science
and that free trade is not new subject
as wholly irrelevant, and gives a palms.
taking refutation to his statement that
free trade has not benefited the masses
of England, inStituting, with that full
ness of detail and power of generaliza-
ton of which Mr.. Wells is master, a
historical comparison of England under
restriction from 1910 to 1912, period of
comparative peace, with a correspond
ing period since Peel began to unfetter
trade. The REPUTATION of Mr.. Lodges
statement is complete. Trade multiplied,
manufacturers and commerce Increased
far beyond the ratio of increase of popu-
lation; wealth more evenly distributed,
as shown by the increase of
those paying taxes on less
than $1,000 income; deposits in
savings banks there in the ratio of S2S %
per head as against S22.S2 here, are some
of the facts he demonstrates. With BIT
ter sarcasm he calls Mr.. Lodges atten-
ton to the fact that there is not city
or town in England in which the per-
centage of returned pauperism is as
\
England, an inevitable condition in a
country in which 100, 900 of the 63,000,-
600 people own half the wealth of the
country" The remaining statements
and arguments Of Mr.. Lodge go down as
completely as these under the sturdy
blows of MIR. Wells. l cannot refrain
from quoting this from the close Of the
article; "a 20 per cent tariff tax may
be fairly considered as the representa-
ton Ito farmer) of a bad road; so
per cent. of broad river without prop
er facilities for crossing; rs per cent,
of swamp bordering such river on
both sides; a 100 per cent duty, such as
is levied on blankets. window glass, cot
ton ties and the like, can only be com
pared to band of robbers who strip
the producer of nearly all he takes to
market and make him thankful that he
escapes with his life"
North American-Prof. Bryce gives US
his Thoughts on the Negro Problem"
which, like NeSuvius, has its periods of
activity succeeding lapSeS into repOSe.
1t is one of the singular condolences
which we have frequently to note as Oc-
curing in our social and political con-
ditions, that the negro problem rises
into prime Importance simultaneously
with the recurrence of the effort OF
certain political party to hold or regain
its control of the national affairs, and
lapses into quiet when that is &C
Probably this hitching of
the question to the political fortunes of
a party has served in this country to
obscure the real Importance of the mat
ter, and it is only seen III its true per-
spective through the eyes of some disin-
tereSted foreigner like the professor.
Whether it is a condition which must
be left to time and the play of all
the social forces to adjust itself,
or problem, as Mr.. Bryce terms it,
to be solved by human wisdom, is
question. the prepOnderance of opinion
in this country being probably in favor
of the former. But he regards it as a
question which takes rank above the
tariff, the financial and the railway
problems. He ranks it with the labor
and the suffrage questions. He gets at
the facts of the problem at present and
finds that the cenSuSeS show gradual
transference of the negro from the
northern to the southern portions of
the country. Another important fact is
the relatively slower rate of increase In
numbers of the negro race and that cit
grows only III regions to which it is ell
matically adapted, and it grows, except
in few places, more slowly than the
white. lime is on tue side or the lat
ter" From all the testimony
relating to the condition of the
negro two facts stand out"
But few of them, proportionally, have
acquired wealth IN trade or eminence in
the professions. The other is that they
are industrious and are slowly learning
thrift and self-control. Considering that
the negro is hardly three removes from
the African savage, he does not regard
this as discouraging. and the evidences
OF Improvement are many, due to the
influence of the whites. to climate and
the spirit of our institutions. But it has
not brought him any nearer to the
whites; he remains even more distinctly
apart than when a slave, for the mis-
cegenation of the races has almost
entirely ceased. But this social separa-
ton does not imply condition of hos
tility; the desire, on the contrary, IS to
live amicahlv and De9cpahiv foUpfhpr