The St. Johns herald., 1892-10-06
"BritiSh Free Trade.'

ly alarmed the McKinleyites affect to be over possible competition with the English manufacturer.
 The current pretense of the Amer ican protetionist is that the purpose of the tariff is to keep up the wages of labor. That is,,the straight-out declaration of the Republican plat form. The contention Is that the difference between wages in this country and the remainder of the world alone makes productive du- ties necessary.
 But. strange to say, the country with which competition is most feared is England, where wages are higher than in any other land, with the single exception of the United States.
 No terror at all is felt by the Mo- Kinleyites about competition with | the protected but still low-wage na- tions of the Continent.
 Why doesn't protection inFrance, Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia raise wages beyond the standard of free-trade England, if protection is the mother of high pay?
 Why don't these protected coun- tries with their low wages "flood' England with the products of their factories? Why don't China and India, where wages are but a few cents per day, do it?
 The answer is that high wages are earned only by intelligent workmen, aided by intelligent. capital, which employs the latest and best machin cry. In many industries in this country the workmen, though earn ing more than workmen elsewhere, turn ont more for the money paid them than any other laborers on earth.
 How comes it that the abandon. ment of protection-of precisely the same sort with which the Uni ted States burdens itself-has not ruined England, as the Mckinley ites assert a revenue tariff would run us? The same predictions of disaster that we see now in the Re- publicans organs were shouted out by the British Tories. Contrast England under protecti on with the England of to-day, foremost in manufactures and commerce, and the high-wages country of Europe. Here are the facts:
 Fifty-fve years ago England had just such a tariff as these special ] pleaders are now insisting upon for this country. In spite of the frantic cry of the protected classes that England would be plunged into ir retreivable ruin if the high duties were removed, a mighty uprising of the people swept away their sophis- tries. What was the conseQuenceY The wages of mechanics increased more than 100 per cent. Agricul- turists' earnings increased 60 per cent. Meanwhile, too, the hours of labor fell off 20 per cent. Crime diminished, pauperism decreased rapidly and vastly. The persistency with which the McKinleyites con tinue their unfair comparisons be- tween this country and England is only equaled by their persistency in refusing to compare the England of to-day with the high protection Eng land of fifty-five years ago.
 British free trade" is a bugaboo to scare ignoramuses. Commerce is not war-a battle in which one side must be damaged and beaten. Itis exchange, to mutual advantage. Healthy competition stimulates production, creates a demand for labor and thereby raises wages.T o say that American capitalists and American workmen are not able to hold the home market against all rivalry Is to accuse them of stupid itY and ineficiency. A revenue tar if would be the greatest of blessings 0 HzG