The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-03-11


For some years past it has been
patent that the British advocacy of
free trade had lost somewhat of its
sonorousness and insolent self-suffi-
cheney. There has been decidedly
noticeable undertone, which rose at
times to distinctly discordant note,
and when its source was sought it
has been found to grow stronger as
one turned an ear towards the indus
trial and agricultural portions of the
British islands. The cause for this
change in British sentiment is not so
hard TO discover, the secret being al
ready in the possession of this coun-
try.
When England enjoyed a monop-
oily of the worlds manufactures and
commerce, free trade was the natural
and necessary corollary of such a
condition; and so long as those con-
ditions existed, the advocacy of a
protection policy was unpopular.
But there has been change, and
those circumstances do not now OBJ
tain. Improved machinery, mechan-
ical invention and the consequent
stimulation of competitive industries
in other countries have forced Eng
land to point where she finds it ex-
ceedingly difficult, if not impossible,
to maintain the balance between her
interests at home and those abroad.
The British working classes have be-
gun to feel that the brunt of the sys-
TEN was resting upon their shoulders,
and they have finally declined to
longer receive, as their share of COM
pensation for labor, the glittering
but specious boast of commercial
supremacy claim which no longer
exists.
The following statistics, quoted
from the New York Mail and Ex
press, state that "the aggregate man
ufactured product of Great Britain
in 1898 were valued at S4,200,000,-
600, while those of the United States
during the same period were valued
at $S,1O0,000,000. And that was an
exceedingly bad year for our manu-
facturers on account of the uncer-
tainty produced by the threat of dem
ocratic tariff. The industrial devel-
opment in other rival countries,
while not so great as that of the
United States, has been sufficient to
open the eyes of the English people
to the stern fact that free trade is, in
the language of Lord Salisbury at
Hastings, beautiful in theory, but
unbusinesslike. And now we re-
ceive the news that the British agrl-
culturists are uniting with the indus
trials in demanding an abandonment
of free trade and the adoption of the
protective system. This simply &C
centuates the tendency which we
have seen rapidly setting in, and
steadily gaining ground against the
old bulwarks of British tradition and
prejudice"
That this protection trend in Eng
lish popular sentiment has attracted
the attention of the present British
administration is shown by the fact
the minister Of agriculture has start
led the free traders out of their boots
by introducing bill which was de-
scribed by the foreign dispatches as
"a measure for amending the diseases
of animals act of 1884," 1t was de-
fined by the dispatches as follows:
What the bill really proposes to do
is absolutely and permanently to pro-
hibit the importation of live animals
from any part of the world, the Brit
ish colonies included. 1t will be
interesting to see how Canada, in par
ticular, will like this scheme. Every
since the dominion was scheduled as
a diseased country and its profitable
trade in store cattle was ruined the
Scottish farmers have been agitating,
in conjunction with the Canadian
authorities, to have the embargo re-
moved; and everybody has supposed
that early success would crown their
efforts. Now the Scotchmen are
told that they will have to buy what
store cattle they want from English
breeders, which means at monop-
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