Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1894-08-23
NATIONAL LEDGER.
THE NEW YORK HsRALD'S DELlesR'
ATE FINANCIAL DECEPTION.


tween Debts and Credits-A National
Policy Advocated That Would Ruin
James Gordon Bennett-Editor Beware.
The New York Herald, which is now
notorious for the deliberate deception in
its editorial articles ON political sub
lects, has let one of its writers loose on
the national ledger. from which it i'm
parts "a lesson. If there is one sub
ject upon which The Herald editorial
staff W ties more falsehoods han upon
any other it is in its dealings with the
national ledger. and it is u mighty
good thing for The Herald that the
theories of its editors are carefully ex-
cluded from its business department.
We all remember the complete de-
struction that came over the country
last year through the Sherman silver
law, 50 The Herald said. but it was I'M
fortunate i'll not discovering the damna-
BILE effects of that law during the unpre-
cedented prosperity of 1893. We all
know the ridiculous prophecies for a re-
turn of prosperity Immediately the Sher-
man law was repealed. But that law
has been repealed for n year now, and
the restoration of prosperity has failed
10 materialiZe. 1t was followed instead
by the distribution of free clothing from
The Herald's advertising fund to those
who were freezing to death from actual
distress and want.
Now we find the anne apologist for
the Cleveland hard times squirming
around for another excuse because the
era of prosperity promised by The Her
aid when it induced the people to vote
for free trade has not e~ventuated. In
its agony of despair it has taken up the
statistics of our import and export trade,
deploring the decrease in our imports of
foreign goods, saying that from its 1.-THE
foreignl point of view I'VE did better
in 1880 and nearly as we'll 20 years
ago" 1t then goes on:
mo better proof can be desired to
show that the Mckinley tariff has had
a 'prohibitive' effect upon importations
and has thus been a grand success in
checking, crippling and dwarfing on
international trade, which, in the judg-
ment of economists, is the chief factor
of a nations wealth and business pros
perity."
Undoubtedly the Mckinley tariff has
had a '~'prohibitive effect pom i'm
portations. This was intended, and
his made the country SO prosperous
from 1908. Our international trade
during those years was neither crippled
nor dwarfed. 1t was much larger than
usual, but ii We read The Herald's our
10 mean the English, French and Ger
man interests, and more especially their
shipping interests, because there was
less foreign freight offering to be car
ried in foreign bottoms at the expense
OF Americans, then we can understand
its regret for the gripping and dwarf
ing" But this cripple is a dwarf to the
following palsied decrepit:
But they (protectionists) ignore the
fact that this Import trade is indispen-
sable to the extension of our export
trade, and also that the former is as
much a source of wealth as the latter.
Thus England imports annually $3.50.
0UO, 900 worth Uf raw cotton, out of
which she manufactures enough cotton
goods and yarns 10 supply the wants OF
her own people and 10 make IA surplus
of 500, 900, 600 worth of cotton goods,
which she exports and sells Ill all parts
of the world. Certainly i'll such cases
importation does not mean ruin"
The proprietor of The Herald, who
has lived abroad, should hasten To in
form his stay at homes that England
does not grow cotton, hence Is compell-
ed TO buy cotton just as she buys her
raw wool, not being large enough on
able To both produce and manufacture,
and finding the latter branch of trade
the more profitable. How much iron,
how much coal, how much salt, does
England buy from us: These she has in
abundance and is not compelled to buy
them; cotton she cannot get elsewhere
and must buy from Us, and therefore
does SO for her own immediate gain be-
cause she can make money by buying IL
here and will sell il bach TO us in the
shape of manufactured cotton goods as
soon as the tariff has been lowered by
The Herald's political destructionists.
In the United States We possess in
abundance every raw material except
sugar, and there is no earthly reason
for US to purchase abroad. but by our
protective tariff we prohibit the impor-
tation of foreign raw material i'm order
that American labor employed in work
ing on our raw material may not be
compelled to slave like Europeans at
starvation wages and in order that
American women may not be compelled
10 work in the mines as they have to do
in England iii order to get bread enough
TO keep body and oul together. This Is
the condition 10 which The Herald
would degrade American labor while
posing with double faced hypocrisy as
its friend The writer then goes ON to
say:
As well might the 'protectlonlst
argue that the less stock a merchant
buys the more profit he will derive from
his business as to argue that the smaller
a country's importations the richer IL
will become.
The Herald's business apprentice Is
ignorant even of he very ethics Of
trade. Does he not know that The Her
aids prosperity l. due to what II sellsI
Every copy of the paper and every line
of advertising matter more that is sold
by The Herald each day and each year
increases its profit. Its expense ccou
does not. Such Il deliberately false theory
as The Herald's editorial writer advo-
Gates, if put into practice i'll The Her
aids counting room, would o bring
its proprietor flying back from Europe,
and ii seems a pity that he cannot be
induced to take a similar interest in the
advocacy of "A system that would be
people as it Is to the pockets of James
Gordon Bennett. American Economist
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