The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-09-23
JS TRADE A MISTAKE?
r pRoTscTlONiSTS ARE RIGHT,
COMMERCE IS A MISTAKE.

~,o Case of the Canadians Citcd-Thcy
r,our,sh by Not Trading with us, and
wc Flourish by Not Trading with
r,,om-An Absurd Tarif,te Argument.
Canadian protectionists are now TAX
;ro their turn at statistics. In recent
vears they have been trying high pro-
;ec,iye tariff, and they feel bound to
indicate its utility. At the same time
thew know the political value of reci-
nrocity talk, and have been engaged in
negotiations with the United States for
A reciprocity treaty, but nothing has
come Of it. The two nations lying side
nv side refuse to trade with each other
except under the severest restrictions.
Everybody Is familiar with the claims
Of our own protectionists as to what this
nolicy has done for us. They tell us
that il has increased our wealth enor-
mously, and has augmented the wages
of our workingmen. At the same time
this policy, they say, has not cost any
body anything. Although intended 70
nut up prices and thereby enable the
manufacturer to get better profits and
st the same time pay better wages, it
has resulted in putting down the prices
of manufactured goods, which are really
protected, and putting up the price of
farm products, which are only nominally
so. The result is happiness to every
body, without the cost Of a cent to any.
Protection has had magic influence; it
has enabled the manufacturer to take
less for his goods, pay more for wages
and cost of living, and still have more
left AT all events, this is the fairy tale
which they are telling to the voters of
United States.
If the shutting of the Canadians out
Of our markets has done so much for us,
one would expect that they had met
with great disaster. Such is not the
case, however, if we may trust the pro
tectionist statistics on the other side of
the line. They have been figuring on
labor and wages, and they find that un-
der protection wages in Canada have
advanced some 15 or 10 per cent. In
stead Of suffering from being shut out
of our markets they have Offset it, and
much more, by simply shutting us out
with us, and we flourish by not trading
with them. There can be but one ra-
tional inference from these facts, if they
are facts, and that is that commerce is a
mistake, mere device for losing money.
Prosperity is found not III trading, but
in not trading. The more we refuse to
trade the more money we get, and the
higher wages we are able and willing
to pay. Why then trade at all?
1t is true there are some facts which
protectionists on both sides of the line
invariably ignore. 1t is true that they
invariably assume that whatever occurs
under protection is caused by protec-
ton. In telling of increase Of wages
under high tariffs they suppress the fact
that they have increased under low
tariffs, and that in free trade England
there has been steady increase. In
telling Of the decline in the price of
commodities they leave out Of view the
well known cause, the use Of improved
machinery. They do not tell us why
high tariffs in France and Germany and
Spain do not make wages higher than in
England, where what is called free trade
prevails. If protection is the cause of
prosperity, we ought to find prosperity
wherever there is protection, and 10
prosperity wherever protection is want
ing.
If it is, so disastrous to us to trade
with Canada, or for Canada to trade
with us, it is singular that the states OF
the Union have not been ruined by trad
ing with one another. This Is one Of the
paradoxes that protectionists have never
been able to explain. Absolute free
trade among the states and territories is
guaranteed by the constitution, yet all
flourish together, though not equally.
Nor is the rate Of wages uniform. With
the same free trade st home, and the
same protection from abroad, wages In
different parts of the country refuse to
keep uniform level, but are regulated
by supply and demand.
When the subject is considered In all
its bearings we shall find that Mr..
Stevenson has expressed the whole truth
in one sentence, Tariffs have nothing
to do with wages, except to diminish
their purchasing power."- Louisville
COurier-J Journal.