New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-06-25
UNEXPECTED EVIDENCE.

The depths of ingraitude can no further go
After these strong champions in America OF
English manufacturers and their cause nave
been laboring for years, regardless OF all patrl-
otto feeling, comes a dispatch from London to
l,nocl, all their theories on tho head 1t states
that Consul General Booker, in the discharge
of his official duty to report to the British UoV-
eminent the condition and progress of industries
in this country, declares that new and higher
duties have afforded benefit to American manu-
featuring interests and impaired new life to the
cotton and woollen industry everywhere, but
" especially is this the case in Southern states,
where new textile mills are going up with sur
prisino activity, while all the old mills are
being operated on full time" He further says
in his official report that the silk industry is the
only exception to this state of general pros
perity: but he does not say, and perhaps was
not aware, that the obvious explanation is found
in the fact that the duties on silk manufactures
were not changed by the new tariff.
This official report is in some respects tne
most cruel blow that the Free Traders III thiS
country have ever received. They have fairly
deafened mankind for five years or more With
their outcries against Protection, on the pre-
tenco that il was in fact retarding American in
dustrv. Before the new tariff was adopted, dur
ing all those years when Democratic maJonteS
in tho House were fighting for the Mills bill OF
other measures of like nature, the pretence was
that Protection was starving out the industries
of this country, by rendering production more
costly and cutting off the markets that they
needed. and the only possible remedy was
I'D; noOnln l.
ated this theory in 1888 and the Mckinley bill
was framed the same body of Free Traders set
I'm The pretence that it would only prOstrate the
industries of this country by making the pro-
duction still more costly, and by depriving the
country still more of foreign markets for Its
products
An official report by the British Consul
General in this country is to people OF that sort
the highest possible authority. 1t is at all
events certain that he is in no way twisting or
straining the facts for the purpose OF helping
the Protective policy which Great Britain pro-
foundly detests. At this particular time, when
the new tariff is denounced throughout Great
Britain as having been framed in peculiar hos
tility to the industries and the trade of that
country. an official recognition of its great
DeneiU 10 American IhuuoulCS ,biA W nv ''
be attributed to any desire to please the British
public or British politicians. When the Con-
| sul-Gen states what he sees, unde; sucn
| circumstances as these, the argument is an eX-
ceedingly difficult one for Free Traders TO face
| Mr. Booker does not hesitate to admit that the
new life which he observes in all industries ex-
| cept the silk manufacture, but particularly in
the cotton and tho woolle1 manufactures, must
be attributed to the new and higher duties
enacted last fall Yet the Free Traders in this
country are even now stupidity denying that
there has been any improvement in these in
dustries, and further denying that if there be
any improvement it is due to the new duties.
Those who look at facts without prejudice will
be apt to conclude that the British Consul.
General is telling the truth and that the Ameri-
can Free Traders are not.