The herald., 1895-06-13
THURSDAY, JUNE IS. 1903.
BEGGING THE QUESTION

Throughout the entire controversy over
the tariff the advocates of high protection
and a home market have insisted that
duties could not be lowered and profits
and wages kept up. They could not say
why this could not be done from actual
knowledge, but they assumed it and
stuck to it with such organized and de-
termined cry that it became almost
fundamental doctrine among the majority
of business men. VINO thus were kept to-
gether as coworkers in the Republican
ranks.
But the duties have been lowered, the
markets OF the world are opening, and
what do we find ? We find that the
largest contract ever made by the Japan
ese overnment-for the Toxic water
works-was secured little while ago by
an American firm, after bids from all
over the world had been received. The
incident not only shows the possibility
and probable trend of trade in the future,
but it has disclosed actual prices of iron
abroad and here. The current price of
pig iron in England is about IS. 80 to
$1O.5o; in Belgium, $s.45 tc $40, while in
Alabama, the headquarters of the New
South, prices range from 81 to SO. Con-
cerning the success of the American firm
in the above case a trade contemporary
says;
The securing of such a contract in the
face of the de termined opposition of both
British and Belgian bidders is an unques-
ticned proof of the ability of American
manufacturers to enlarge the market for
their product. 1t is in this direction
more than any other that We must look
for the further expansion of our manufac-
turing industries. for it will afford a
safety-valve through which to relieve our
home market when congested.
Here, then, is frank and cordial ad-
mission of the truth OF the Democratic
position on the tariff. The home mar
ket, in the long run. cannot be depended
upon, and is so often congested that labor
is suspended and distress and danger
must prevail in the meantime. The sys-
tenn of hot-bed nursing of any industry
has probably had its day in this country.
At any rate. in the face of growing
trade with the whole world, and volun-
tary restoration of remunerative wages
for labor, the old cry, the old begging of
the question. will be no longer he eded.
I1c WnO III blt luluIt ulsCussts llt eIIeCL
of a lowering tariff upon trade in our
great lines of manufacturing will not be
forced to hear the false and fraudul lent
claim made by campaign orators IN the
past that. in order to compete with for
eign manufacturer, we can only pay the
wages he pays. 1t has been a falsehood
on its face, and it has now been specific
ally demonstrated to have been false-a
claim and u cry intended to get the labor
er's vote. and then to justify, if neces-
sary, the grinding him down afterwards.
There is not an intelligent observer of
modern affairs, nor a faithful reader OF
history, who does not know that the man.
ufactured goods for all countries paying
mean wages are furnished by countries
paying higher wages-from the oldest OF
the Asiatic countries down to newest
Mexico. Nothing in modern politics has
been so shamefully wrong and wicked as
the treatment of this question by the
champion of the protected and petted
American manufacturer.