New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-10-23
DEPRESSION IN ENG LAND.

An ingenious English Free Trader has pro-
pounded the theory that hard times come every
eleven years with the recurrence OF sun-spo's,
the sun-spots producing drouth and famine IN
India, and famine in India resulting in trade
depression in England. Unfortunately for this
philosopher with the exception OF short bursts
of prosperity in certain branches OF trade from
1880 to 1888 and from 1883 TO 1890, the de-
preston in England has been uniform and gen
eral since 1875.
The closing of the tn-platc mills in Wales
the collapse at Saltaire the announcement that
the cotton-s pinDers are once moro reducing
wages and other signs of the times all serve
TO confirm the findings of the minority of the
Royal Commission appointed in 1855 by Lord
Salisbury's Administration to inquire into the
depression OF trade and industry. This minor
ity was composed of Lord Dunraycn, Farrer
Elroyd. Neville Lubbock and u. A. Muntz
IL reported that there had been a relative de-
cline in some of the greatest national industries
of Britain, and that the cause was free imports
in other words Free Trade. Agriculture had
decayed, and the poverty of the farming class
had led to diminished demand for manufact
ured goods in the home market. As for for
eign trade, the effect upon this country" said
the minority, " of foreign tariffs and bounties
is to narrow the market for our manufact-
ures and so to cramp the exercise of our in
dustries and arrest their growth to render
the employment of those engaged in them par
tial and irregular, and thus seriously to limit
our total production of exchangeable wealth."
The Free Trader alleges that when an indus
| try is ruined by foreign competition or by for
eign tariffs the labor and capital employed in
it readily transfer themselves to some more
lucrative occupation, as if the Welsh tinwork
ers who have been thrown out of work by the
establishment of plate mills in the United
States could begin in a day or two TO act as
black smiths, carpenters or cotton operatives.
The minority with greater wisdom found that
" it is on many accounts impossible for those
whose industry is thus checked to turn to the
production of something else which will be
accepted in exchange, but primarily for the
simple reason that those forcign) tariffs arc
now applied to almost every exportabc product
of British industry" The "persistent inilu-
ence" of foreign tariffs and bountics " has Gre
ated protected industries in displacement of our
own over so large an area of the civilized world
that the exercise of our industry is at last
effectually limited, and we are disabled from
providing adequate employment for our large
and increasing population" The same per-
sistent influence tends to discourage and
lessen the investment of capital in the develop
ment of our own agriculture and manufactures,
and to stimulate and increase its investment in
foreign land and securities and foreign indus
trial enterprises" Free Trade statisticians are
fond of quoting figures to show that the adop-
ton of Free Trade has reduced the amount Of
pauperism and crime. The answer of the
minority is that these figures will not bear
the test Of close examination and inquiry be-
cause the general spread of education and the
improved administration Of criminal law have
done much to diminish crime, while the
stricter enforcement of tests in the admins
tration of the poor law and the aid now so
widely given by friendly and trade societies
limit or defer the paupeIization of the uncm-
ployed or partially employed, even in periods
of long continued depression"
Altogether, the report of Lord Dunraven and
his colleagues. which impugned the soundncss
OF the Frcc-TraGc doctrine from beginning to
end, is being strikingly verified by events.
The main hope of the British Free Traders just
! now is that Mr.. Cleveland may be elected and