The Globe-republican., 1892-04-07
THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOL
LARS.
From the American Economist.


wishes to reduce the wages of labor and
the profits of manufacturing in this
country. 1t is also the sum by which
he proposes to increase the income to
laborers, manufacturers and middlemen
in Europe. We take it this is the only
meaning that can be attached to his
declaration that he would increase the
imports of this country by three hun
dred million dollars. For he and his
kind are opposed to the free imports of
luxuries; though they do not think any
thing made in England is luxury.
And as we learn from Representative
Holman it is not wrong to put a duty
on things not grown or produced in this
country, as that is revenue duty, the
increased importations wished for must
be either manufactured or agricultural
products which we can raise or make in
this country.
This immense sum, enough to give
six hundred thousand people five hum
ired dollars each, it is hoped to pass to
ioreign laborers, manufacturers, middle
men, bankers and others of the capital
st classes, and part of it is to go to
paying nearly three times as much
freight for carrying ton one mile as is
paid in this country, that English rail-
roads may declare larger dividend on
their immense capitalization than is paid
On one-fifth the capital per mile in this
country.
We are assured that this will be of
benefit to all classes in this country ex-
cept the monopoiist class. Since orr
sheep growers have been called monopo-
lists, it will be noticed that the true mo-
nopolist class is, in the mouth of the
free-trader, an elastic one.) But We
TAIL to see where the American farmer is
helped by the importation of wheat,
barley and eggs from Canada, or rice
from India, or cotton from Egypt. Nor
will it Immediately appear how the i'm
portation of, say, 100 locomotives from
Germany or England can increase the
work in our locomotive factories. Cap
tain Goldman would say, if foreign loco
motive builders hoped to establish a
trade here, that such an importation
pairs, and teach them how to build To-
comotives. And he is probably right
about repairs. Mr.. Mills will doubtless
say that by importing 100 locomotives
our freight rates would be lowered, but
We now have the cheapest freight rates
in the world, and free-trade England
has the dearest. This does not look on
its face as if free trade would reduce the
cost of transportation. And as mat
ter of fact, before about 1870 our freight
rates had always been higher than the
English rates.
The great advantage from this in
creased importation, as explained by Mr..
Mills, is that buying more, we will sell
more, and farmers will have an improved
market for their produce If this were
true, or even probable, it might be
worth while to try greater purchases.
Let US see what has happened when we
had little or no protection. From 1916,
the date Of the Walker tariff, until 1876,
when our receipts from duties on goods
and wares imported for the first time
since the war exceeded the receipts from
internal revenue, We bought over one
thousand and five hundred million dol
lars worth OF merchandise more than
we sold. There was no protection, and
We exported gold, bonds and other evil
dences Of Indebtedness to iquidate our
debts. This did not help the farmer,
unless he was capitalist loaning money,
for, according to Mr.. Edward Atkinson,
interest was about twice as high all over
the country as now.
At present we are exporting q great
deal Of farm produce and the other
grain-growing countries are not export
ing as much as usual. But the London
Financial Times writes of us that s.their