Sharp County record., 1891-03-05
FAN sTEAMERS AT CHICAGO.

,EAN STEAMERS AT CHICAGO
English Syndicate to Put on Line oi
teamers Between Chicago and England
-0pening the Market For Bushel oi
Wheat and Barrel of Pork
company has been organized with
.apital stock of s., 600, OO0 to build and
crate line of steamers between
,icago and England. A similar plan
,out two years ago fell through, as II
as found that the Canadian canals
,uld not accommodate vessels drawing
inc feet of water. An improvement,
oweyer. has been made in the shallow
st canal giving it depth of more
han nine feet. Already the scheme
las been re- ed, and an agent of the
company is l0w visiting the lake ports
n order to make contracts for freight
Zen Steamers will be built, and these
will carry out cargoes of dressed beef,
dairy products ETC., and will 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 atall our beef al
home" and buy little or nothing abroad
is directly opposed to this scheme tc
promote trade between Chicago and
England. According to the Mckinley
standard of political orthodoxy it would
be better to fill up those Canadian ca
mails 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-
er see in this what Blaine calls opening
the ''market for another bushel of wheat
and another barrel of pork" and if
these ships bring back English hard
ware, woolen 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" "
F, 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 ont in these ships in or
der to increase the flow of cheap for
eign goods into Chicago for distribution
in a 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
a 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 half-intelligent
man knows, the permanent exchanges
which we call trade, can not exist un-
less both parties make a profit-in other
words, unless they get something which
they like better than the thing they
parted with. A school boy will not
swap top for a set of marbles un-
less the marbles please him better than
the top; and, moreover, the boy isquite
sure that he is himself the only salts
factory judge as to which really does
please him better If the father Of the
family should step in and take 60 per
cent of his boys marbles and try to
persuade him that this was for the good
of the family, the boy would for once
face problem that would beat the
mysteries of the multiplication table.
There is another point about these
ships which deserves the farmers at
tention. The ship-owners not only cX-
pect to take away cargoes of American
produce, but they equally expect to
bring in cargoes of English goods.
Does anybody suppose that these ships
would come for our produce If they
could not bring a cargo with them? Or
if they should do so is it not clear that
our outgoing cargo would have to pay
two freights? Would not this make our
produce dearer when laid down in
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 market
make the prices of such produce sink to
q ruinous level?
These are simple questions in foreign
trade which are, Of course, easy TO an
swer; but they deserve to be thought
over again and again They have in
them the root of the whole tariff con-
trovcrsy,
FARMERS FOR FREE WOOL.