The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1893-10-06
ALL eosn.
'Ao balance OF Trade Nonsense PUN, Ex.
p~".ed->psin AS an Example.

""'' ~ srsue Nonsense Fully Ex
p"-ed spain AS AN Example.
IL has been given out that we hay,
an adverse balance If trade agains,
rs OF ss5, 600. 600 for the year ended
June 80 last Now it is discovered liza,
inns total includes an error Of over
s'o, 600, 900 and that the so-called lad.
verse balance is only $50, 600. 900.
But IL is entirely in order to demand
OF pro~tectionists. who say the balance
OF $780, 900, 900 Is adverse, that they shall
show in what the adversely consists
and how we are to he hurt by this Goa.
dition Of our trade.
The balance being $50. 900, 900. il can
not figure on way or the other ia q
trade SO vast as ours is with the outer
world. But where il exists. no matter
to what extent, protectionists have not
demonstrated that il is adverse. They
have merely called il SO.
IL we acquire from abroad more real
wealth than we send abroad, we are so
much the richer: and this is exactly
what happens when we have what ad-
vocates of trade restriction call IAN adj
verse balance Their theory is that
anything that we are allowed tn buy
from foreigners or TO get from them in
any way is a dead loss as soon as il is
brought into this country.
III France o. England should make
us a present this year of $500. 600. 900 in
such merchandise as we badly need.
the trade restrictionists would calmly
count IL into the adverse balance"
against us and proceed T. assert that
we must inevitably be brought to ruin
by it.
Absurd as this theory Is. it is the
fundamental theory of all trade re-
striction and protectionism. All who
hold il think that we ourselves ought
to be obliged 10 create all the wealth
We are allowed to enjoy. and to that
end they would shut us up in our coun-
try as if in a prison II. by chance. we
manage to import more foreign wealth
than the amount of our wealth we
have offered foreigners IN exchange,
they mourn over il with all the pub
licity they can secure by their clamor-
Gus style of insisting that the presence
Of this wealth brought in from abroad
is a certain sign of existing or ap-
preaching adversely.
Spain was the first country Of Europe
to be afflicted with lunacy. 1t be-
lieved that the gold it had stolen from
the Mexicans and Peruvians was real
wealth and that il would be a great
misfortune to exchange il for commod-
tiles Therefore it shut itself up inside
It's own boundaries and shut out all
who came with wealth to offer it in
exchange. 1t kept its hoard of gold
for some time, and so kept what its inn
itators call "a balance of trade in its
favor" but il lost its trade. lost its SUI
premacy on the ocean. lost the advcn-
turous AID enterprising spirit which
had made ii great. and with this lost
the gold for which it had foolishly
parted with everything best worth
having. This happened several hun
dred years ago, but to this day Spain
has not recovered from the effects OF
that experiment in keeping q favora-
BILE balance Of trade"
The people of the United States are
determined to have a favorable bal
of trade. but they will not believe
that getting more wealth from abroad
than they send abroad means adversely
for them. They want all the foreign
wealth they can honestly obtain. and
they have decided in an affirmative
the question of whether they shall be
to bring it home after having
acquired an honest title to it abroad.
A balance Of trade is useful only for
the nerves of bankers. and then only
in gold-grabbing times If they all I'M
the truths of trade it would
nave no possible use.-St Louis Repub-