The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-11-04
HISTORY REPEATS.
DISASTROUS PREDICTIONS AS PLEN-
TlFUL YEARS AGO AS NOW.


| and Under 1t Eas Improved in Every
way-The Figures That Prove This.
We notice that some of our Republic
an contemporaries are going back forty
years in order to find quotations in ref
erence to the tariff, and they are going to
| English sources, too, for their literature
Fifty years oven forty years ago
| there was strong protective party in
| England. Protection was popular, espe-
cially among the landed aristocracy
| The great land owners cared nothing For
! the condition of the English luborcr on
| the farm or elsewhere, and even less II
possible for the prosperity of Ensland's
commerce.
These land owners, therefore, opposed
strenuously and bitterly the abolition Of
the corn laws-that is, Of laws imposing
u tax on grain imported from foreign
countries. They wanted high rents,
| and to get them were willing to shut
foreign grain out of their home market,
even at the risk Of pauperizing millions
of their follow subjects,
These English landlords occupied ez-
actly the position occupied today by the
factory lords Of Pennsylvania and Now
England.
The contest thore, as here, was n con-
test between the privileged classes on
the one hnnd aud the oppressed masses
on the other.
The English people had TO fight their
masters for free bread, as the American
people have to fight their masters today
for free clothing.
Each contest is but chapter in tho
story of liberty. The corn law uprising
il England was as much strike against
oppression rs was the execution of
Charles l.
In America the Chicago platform of
1892 is Il second declaration of indCpend-
ence. Neither movement is isolated;
each is one Of connected series Of
events leading the Anglo-Saxon to con-
dition of fullest freedom and greatest
prosperity.
AS matter of course, then, our Re-
publican friends will seek and find in
English history forty or fifty years ago
arguments they are using and propne-
Then, as now, free trade advocates
were denounced as unpatriotic, selfish
and mercenary. Then, as now, the op-
ponents of commercial freedom propho-
sled all manner OF evil and untold calarl-
tiles. Then, as now, the Tory news
papers were filed with appeals to the
benefciaries of the tariff tax to save
the government from the foolish flee
traders.
But in the light Of subsequent Eng
lish history these evil predictions carry
Il lesson not intended Free trade has
not wrought the ruin of England as
promised by its opponents during the
corn law agitation On the contrary,
under free trade England has secured
unrivaled commercial dominion. Under
free trade the condition Of the working
classes Of England, judged by any stand
ard, has vastly improved, Under free
trade the political conditions Of England
have all been changed for the enlarge
ment of the liberty Of the million at
the expense Of the aristocracy.
Said these prophets then, Free trade
If persisted in must lead 10 dislnember-
ment and overthrow of the British en-
pire, and the decline OF British and for
eign shipping will be so rapid that for
eign tonnage employed in British trade
| will exceed the British"
Now see these figures: IL 1910 tho for
| eign commerce of the United Kingdom,
exports and imports, exclusive of bullion
| and specie, was $G6J, 600, ,0O0; in 1880 it
was$ So ,4s5, 600, 900; in 1889 it was I3,7lG,-
| 100000; III 1890 it was $3.50, 900, ,0CO.
There is nothing in commercial history
comparable to this expansion.
In 1910 the imports of corn, wheat and
flour averaged AZ pounds Yer head for
the entire population; in 1880 the guam
tity was 2l0 pounds. In 1910 the guam
tity OF butter imported was pound per
head; in 1880 it was pounds. In the
same period England's agricultural pro-
duction changed somewhat in character,
but did not suffer in the aggregate. This
increased consumption of food shows
that free trade has greatly benefited the
poor and has increased their purchasing
power.
Did free trade injure British shipping
as Its opponents predicted2
In lS4O the total tonnage of all vessels
entering and clearing at ports of the
United Kingdom was: British, 6,04O, ,4S5
tons; foreign, 2,949,lS2.
In 1880 it was: British, Al ,34S, 1854 tons;
foreign, l7,3S7079.
In 1880 the exhibit was: British, 49,
973,1l2 tons; foreign, 2O,2lO,757.
1t is useless to multiply these statis-
tics. Even the most ignorant knows
that the past fifty years under free trade
has been the golden era of English COM
merce; it has been the era of greatest
comfort to the masses of the. English
people, and it has been period in which
popular liberty has made the greatest
progress.
! At every point every evil prediction
made by the prophets Of protection forty
years ago proved untrue, yet the Ameri-
can people are asked to hear and believe
in 1892, these same prophets of Baal.
Down with the robber Tariff ,oris.