The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-05-04
APPARENT CHEAPNESS.
The Decadence of English Industries and
the Poverty of English Worklngmen
Ilue To Free Trade.

The Decadence of English Industries and
the Poverty of English Workingmen
Uue to Free Trade.
IN an article on 1.-The Manufacture OF
Matches in England" the Manchester
Guardian says:
.Nhe question OF foreign matches should Se
mentioned They come from Sweden Norway,
Holland ard Belgium, and they are principally
used b the working classes on account Of Their
apparent III 'dDRCSs Among the poor they have
a very extensive sale. Messrs. Bryant May
reckon that If no foreign matches were used in
London employment might be given 10 1000
more English hands This ERE foreign COM
petition" in face of which 1.-The pore working
man don get no chanst,n is encouraged by no
one so much as the poor workingman himself
This short paragraph shows us, bet
ter than any long or detailed argument
could show, the whole purpose and end
of the free trade system. 1t is cheap
ness-not that healthy cheapness which
is the result of greater skill, improved
processes, or moderate competition. but
the cheapness which means desolate
homes and laborers out of work, and
which, in order to lower the price OF
ihdOSlCo W Ill bliShip NS6 w
takes away employment from 1000
men, and thus reduces the wages OF
those employed by a far greater
amount No wonder the Guardian says
this cheapness is only apparent Real
cheapness is not shown by a comparison
of the market prices ruling in one coun-
| try with those in another at any par
ticular time. If England would thor
oughly protect her match industry, we
predict that in a few years home made
matches would be selling more cheaply
in that country than foreign matches
are selling now Has it not been con-
clusively proved by our own experience?
We need only mention sheet iron,
which, thoroughly protected, is fifty per
cent. cheaper to-day than it was in 1878,
sheet iron and with which we have
been entirely supplied by Welshmen,
has not fallen in any like degree. Is
not, then, the protectionist justified in
thinking that foreign tin plate, al
though apparently cheap, has been in
reality dearly bought?
The mere fact that one country is
able, at a certain time, to sell an article
more cheaply than another, does not
show that it is better fitted to produce
that article; for economic battles be
tween different countries are only too
often won by the mistaken method of
reducing wages in order to lower the
cost of production. OF course the poor
English worlSingman will buy the
cheapest article he can find, but this
does not make him responsible for
own poverty, as the Guardian init
mates. 1t is the system which is at
fault. If England had an economic
policy which enabled her to control
her own markets, the English working
man could pay higher price for the
things he buys and yet have more
money left than he does now.
The protectionist does not decry
cheapness or advocate eXtravagant and
extortionatc prices, as free traders
claims; but he believes that the cheap
ness which is the result of low wages is
mistaken and apparent one, and that
real cheapness can only be attained by
| thorough control of our own markets
by home producers and healthy com
petition between them.