The Portland daily press., 1895-08-09
THE EFFECT OF PROTECTION.
An Interesting Avowal by Canadian
Newspaper.
Montreal Gazette. J


(Montreal Gazette
The British i'Iron and Coal Trade Re-
view is alarmed, and not without rea-
son, at the way in which the iron INDUS
try Is going ahead in the United States
The FACTS are familiar to everyone on thls
continent, though the Canadian Liberals
try hard to shut their eyes to the growth
of a protected industry which tells dead
against all their theories; but to have an
English trade paper acknowledging that
British manufacturers have been beaten
IN the race for low prices is remarkable
enough to be put on record. Here Is the
extract
1.-The growth of the American export
trade is one of the factors with which
Engilshmen will have to reckon IN the
near future. The American trade and
| other journals are devoting a great deal
more space to this subject than our own,
although the issues involved are proDaply
much more serious to our own country
than to the United States We cannot
very we'll keep up our industrial sand
commercial supremacy without large
export trade, whereas the United States
would still be great and prosperous and
progressive even if they did not export
| dollars worth Of produce, whether raw
or manufactured, from years END TO
years end But the growth OF the Amer
lean export trade of late years has been
startling, and in some directions, even
pretentious. In previous issues of the
Review we have shown how far Amer
| lean iron and steel manufacturers were
| invading our Canadian markets until
they had reached the point OF sending
larger volume of iron and steel goods into
Canada than we send from England.
This is but one of many signs and tokens
| that have been but too apparent during
| tho last few years, and more especially
pnring the last twelve months, when the
| Yankees have beaten the record for cheap
| prices. The export of manufactured
| goods from the United States is now
| nearly one-third of the total exports OF
the country, which at one time, and that
not SO very long ago, consisted almost
exclusively Of food and agricultural
| products.
| The United States iron trade was built
up behind protective tariff. Wltho ut
fiscal aid it is doubtful if it could have
achieved quarter of its present proper
tions. The duty levied at the frontier,
by enhancing the cost OF foreign made
| iron, raised the market price to figure
at which United States makers could
compete and live. 1t compensated the
| United States capitalist for the higher
wages he had to pay to his workmen and
| the greater cost of his machienry COM
pared with the European iron master.
| iron, of course, costs more in the United
| States than it did in Euordean countries;
but the period of the development Of the
unexampled prosperity and progress
throughout the whole country, agricul-
| turally as we'll as commercially and in
dustrially. In the eastern states there
has been established a manufacturing
population which outranks even Great
Britain as consumer of American farm
products. A.dozen great railroad systems
East the food products of the West, and
| to the West the output of eastern mills.
These mills would have had a ten times
more difficult ask in establishing their
business, but for the protection afforded
| by the tariff. Now, as a result. British
trade journals are pointing out that
United States manufacturers are under
selling Britith iron in Canada, and
the export of manufactured goods is year
| ly becoming greater item in the
country S foreign trade, a condition, to
use the g Reviews words, which English
men will have to reckon with in the near
future. 1t is the fashion among the
shallow thinking free traders of Canada
| to say that such statements as these in
conservative journal or by conserva-
tive public man constitute disloyalty.
No sensible man and no business man
need be moved by such twaddle. The
question is one of cause and effect, of the
application of certain principles to pub
lie matters where definite object is in
view. 1t is not necessary because protec-
tion is good for an American country
that it should be good for, Great Britain.
AS a matter of fact, protection would
not be good for Great Britain. But no
one who conscientiously studies the case
of the United States, and applies the les
sons learned there to the conditions in
Canada, can hold that fiscal protection
has never helpedthat country's develop
lnent, or that 1t is not calculated to help
Canada. And what helps Canada helps
| the empire of which it is part.