The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-22
ports of
silver over


18SS ~ 634, $50
1899 1901, 033
1890 13,S40,9i5
1891 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 1854. los
1892 Observation-Disclosures. 12So5, 4I3
1895 Observation-Disclosures. li,o44,uoi
Total .s12S, O6,61S
Clearly we did not receive the bal
ance in silver.
Here, then, is the official record of
the workings of a protective tariff in
ten years of exporting more than we
import on the theory that we Should
receive the balance in gold and sill
YER:
Excess of merchandise exportedS566, 91S, 442
Excess of gold exported. ......-.. 1I3 606, III
Excess of silver exported. ....... 12S,SO6, 6lS
Total loss, ten years. 1853 33l, Ill
Take any years you like. For the
nineteen years ending 1891, our exports
of merchandise exceeded our imports
by $3.50, SS6,742 Our exports of gold
exceeded our imports by $25, 462, O93.
Our exports of silver exceeded our i'm
ports by $23S, $50, III; or a total loss of
wealth of s1,s45,17S,SS6 driven out of
the country by laws which encourage
exporting and discourage importing.
Protection teaches that the more
wealth we export and the less we i'm
port the richer we shall become.
When we give more than we get, pro-
tectionists say we gain the difference.
When we get more than we give, they
say we lose the difference.
But remember that we do not re-
ceive this balance in money. We
never did. No nation ever does or ever
could. There is not enough coin in all
the banks of Europe to pay for two
years export of goods from this coun-
try. Goods pay for goods between ma
tons. There is no international money.
We send out each year about SS00.000,
600 worth of goods and bring back each
year about $500, OOO, 900 in goods. If one
IS not the pay for the other, what is
it the pay for? 5ie
Exports include every commodity
that goes out of "a country. Imports
include everything that comes in. When
we send away more wealth than we
get back-when we give more than we
get-protectionists say we are gaining
the difference! Common sense shows we
are losing it. No individual loses it, but
this country loses it, and the country
in which this balance is left or in
vested gains it.
When our imports exceed our exports
the balance is invested by foreigners
in this country.
When our exports exceed our i'm
ports, Americans are investing their
surplus in other countries than their
own.
Within the past thirty years pro-
lection has driven out of this country
and into foreign investment three bill
lions of dollars. and that has been the
balance of trade in our favor" And
| it has been sin our favor because the
government of the United States was
relieved of the necessity of taxing it
and taking care of it. We have forced
another government to protect this
amount of property and keep the own
ers in peaceable possession of It,
| Imports are the pay for our exports,
and to diminish imports is simply to
cut down the rewards Of our own L.
Dor. We endeayor to export much and
import little, and we resort to taxing
the imports of goods on the theory
that we could receive the balance in gold
and silver, This only drives our wealth
abroad into foreign investments. The
Republican policy of taxing imports,
so that our exports should exceed our
imports, simply makes US give more
than we receive. The Republican theory
is that the more wealth we send abroad
and the less we receive in return the
richer we shall become. Republicans
fear that other nations will make this
country dumping ground" for their
surplus wealth. that they will flood
us with their cheap goods and that we
shall not be able to stem the tide of
this flood of good things.
| 1t must not be supposed, when we
say imports are the pay for exports,
that the man who sends goods from
this country receives his pay in the
| goods of other countries. That is the
final result of the transaction for the
country as a whole, but it, is accom-
phshed by maze of transfers and re-
| transfers made by brokers'. Each man
I.sells for cash. which in international
commerce is merely another name for
credit. 1t is a slip of paper, check,
or letter of credit, which he can ap-
ply to the purchase of goods to bring
| back, or have it Dashed at any great
bank, or he can invest it in foreign
| business or bonds. This credit is good
for its face value in any country in the
| world and is transferred hourly by
mail or photographed from one country
| to another with perfect safety. Thus A
| worth 81 600 to London; through a Lon
don bank he receives a check good for
that amount on the New York banks,
and he draws his money from one of
them. Then B, in London, sends a car
go Of cloth, worth $1,000, to this coun-
| try and receives a check for that
amount on a London bank. and draws
his money. Each bank is thus indebted
to the other to the extent of $1,000,
and the accounts between them are
cancelled. The wheat thus pays for the
cloth, though it is not directly bar
tered for it.
| When we expert more than we inn
port, we can bring back the difference
in gold and silver but it will not pay
us to do that, for the purchasing pow