New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-20
FREE TRADE A FAILURE.

FhEE IH1DE II T6ILthE.
Lord Salisbury's speech at Hastings is likely
to be reck oned hereafter most important and
epoch making address. For fifty years it has
been the objectionable sin in England to ques-
ton the virtues or the beauties of Free Trade
Even now Lord Salisbury says. 81 shall ex-
pect to be communicated for propounding
such doctrine" namely, that the Free Trade
I theory "may be noble. but it is not business
like" Who would have thought it possible
that the British Prime Minister would sneer at
"the attitude we have taken in regarding it
dsloyal to the glorious and sacred doctrine of
Free Trade to levy duties on anybody for the
sake of anything we may get thereby? Yet
he evidently does not expect to be excommuni-
Gated by the voters for his daring speech was
made without doubt for the express purpose
of putting himself and his party into harmony
with the wishes of workingmcn, manufact-
rapidly learning to regard Free Trade as the
chief cause of their disasters
Lord Salisbury clearly admits that it is an
important cause of commercial depression. For
he says Fifty years ago everybody believed
that Free Trade had conquered the world, but
now, despite the prophecies of Free-Trade ad-
vocates, foreign nations adopting Protec-
ton. They are excluding us from their mar
kets, and are trying to kill our trade. And
this state of things appears to grow worse"
Nor does he shrink from admitting that the
British policy puts the industries of the nation
at the mercy of foreign rivals. Thus he de-
clareS: "While nations are negotiating To OBJ
tain each others commercial favor, none is
anxious about the favor of Great Britain, be-
cause Great Britain has stripped herself of the
armOr and weapons with which the battle is Ia
be fought. q. On these terms yOn will
and do get nothing. If you intend to hold
your own in this conflict of tariffs, YOU must
be prepared to refuse nations who injurc You
access to your markets. What an astonish-
ing admission for the Prime Minister of Great
Britain, and yet every word is true, and the
truth has been forced upon the attention of
the ruling class in Great Britain by the long
continued depression of workIngmen, manu-
facturers and farm owners.
The example of the United States and the
great contrast between the state of trade in
Great Britain and in this country have most
powerfully impressed the minds of workingmen
in England. They see that the Protective Tar
if here has closed many of their works in Great
Britain has established new works in this coun-
try by the hundred. has built up new and i'm
pOrtant industries in single year, transferring
as if by magicians wand great establishments
with skilled workmcn and costly machinery
across the ocean, and in countless ways has
stimulated business here while rec Trade de
presses business in Great Britain. They CON
trast the wages received by workingmen here
and there and plain common-sense cuts down
through all Free-Trade sophiStries to the main
truth that wages are sustained at a high level
here by Protection alone. Thus multitudes in
Great Britain are coming to the conviction that
their national policy has been ruinous, and 10
demand its modification or reversal. At the
outset, as is natural there is proposed only
system of defensive or retaliatory legislation,
called Fair Trade. But when the very founda-
ton is swept away from the Frcc-Tradc struct-
urc it will fall all the sooner for its bulk and
weight.
Lord Salisbury is shrewd in warning his
countrymen against expecting much from de-
fensivc measures against this country For
while, he says eve complain most of the
United States,' he is careful to remind them
that 1t so happens that the United States
mainly furnishes us with articles which are
essential to the good of our people and with
raw material which is essential 20 our manu-
facturers. We cannot exclude either without
a serious injury to ourselves | am not pre-
pared, in order to punish other countries, to
inflict dangerous wounds on ourselves" There
is sense in this also, but what becomes of the
fayortc theory of American Free Traders that
if we do not buy from Great Britain that
try cannot buy from us? A practical British
statesman treats with contemptuOus silence n
theory so long exploded and so frivolous. He
knows and admits that British wOrkngmen
must have food and British manufacturers must
have cotton, whether this country buys tin
plates or makes them.