Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1894-10-27
A Fallacy.

NeUS, OctODer ~, representing ulm-
self as can Englishman by birth, now
an American citizen, having sworn to
protect the best interests of this coun-
try" says:
favor Abraham Lincolns idea on protec-
tion-buy one ton of iron from Great Britain
for $40 we have the iron and they have the
$50, but buy the same amount home you
have the $50 and the iron.
1t was to such miner that the
JOURNAL remarked it did not believe
Mr.. Lincoln ever said it.
For, protectionst as he was, he was
too shrewd and too broad statesman
to tie himself down to proposition so
narrow-a proposition that could be
applied only in an impossible COM
munity of people whose food, drink,
wear and shelter were rOn'
And, then, if it could be said about
iron it could better be said about
wheat, corn, meat and everything else
that we produce in superabundance.
But suppose Mr.. Lincoln had been
talking about coffee: as well as iron
could he not have said with more than
equal force
five have $50 and need its worth in coffee,
and buy it in Brazil, then we have the coffee
and Brazil the so? But Brazil wants $50
worth of iron in exchange for the coffee; we
furnish it then what is the matter? Why,
Brazil has the iron and we have both the
coffee and the money
But the statement quoted by "Miner'
from Mr.. Lincoln is fallacious in the
fact that it makes the "$20''-the yard
stick of the transaction--the paramount
factor in the exchange. '$2O'' is the
mere money measure by which dissimilar
quantities of commodities are made
similar in value. In iron 500 repre-
sents so many tons in coffee pounds,
and so on. To us coffee is more desir-
able than iron to Brazil iron, especial
ly in implement forms, is always
needed. Consequently, trade is mu-
tually advantageous.
If iron, therefore, were the only
commodity to be traded, the proposal
credited to Mr.. Lincoln would be
sound.
And then everybody, including pro-
tectionists. would haye to abandon the
scheme of supporting government by
taxing imports.
Reduced to its last analysis, the
quoted passage, taken IN connection
with the fact that there are many other
eXchangeable articles besides iron.
reads with equally absurd force this
way:
buy one ton Of IRON from Great Britain
for $40, we have the ton of iron and they
have the yardstick, but buy the same amount
at home and we have both the iron and the
yardstick
What boots the $40 to them if they
have to buy with 1t our wheat
Or to us if we have to spend it for
coffee?
For the 500 is valuable to the holder
only for what it will buy to supply his
needs.
Coming closer home and getting
down to a commodity which more
nearly approaches Mr.. Lincoln's i'm
puted illustration as to iron, there is
and cannot be in Nova Scotia any
comparative trade return to us for
the loss of our coal market.
Hence, it the author of the para
graph attributed to Mr.. Lincoln had
said:
buy one ton of coal from Nova Scotia for
ST. we have the coal and Nova Scotia the 81,
but buy the same amount in Georges Creek
and we have the coal and the money
the illustration would have been
much happier, because Nova Scotia,
wholly unlike Great Britain, cannot
indemnify us in hardly any degree for
the lost money. Great Britain would
sooner or later send it back to us for
wheat, meat, ETC., but Nora Scotia neyer
aoould
In fact. Nova Scotia necer could,
This discussion, therefore, goes to
confirm, if it does not cliuch the JOUR
NAILS contention that coal is SUI generis
among commodities.
Especially in this region it has real
claims upon governmental favor
claims that nothing else in the whole
realm of international commerce can
prefer.
Since the foregoing paragraphs were
prepared the JOURNAL has found an
extended reference to the subject in
the New York Post.
correspondent in Chicago sends us the
following paragraph, which he has clipped
from the Tribune of that city, which para
graph he says is doing yeoman service for
the high tariff fanatics thereabout:
Mr.. Lincoln said once
1t the United States has $40 and needs a
ton OF iron, and buys it in Europe it has the
ton OF iron, but has parted with the money
IL that sum OF money is spent for ton of
iron made i'll this country, then we have both
the iron and the $40.
He tells us that he has not been able to
find this in Mr.. Lincoln's writings, and that
he has applied to the Chicago Tribune for the
citation without getting any response, and he
wants to know what we think about it.
Of IL