St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-26
HOW DOES 1T HAPPEN,


this country, to characterize a thing as
British" is to stamp it with the deep
est opprobrium. We hear OF British
free trade" and English gold bugs"
as If the application Of these epithets
were final and decisive. No good thing,
we are assured, can come out of the
little island across the seas. For any
policy on any subject to be adopted by
Great Britain is sufficient argument
why Americans should agree to the
opposite extreme. All of this, when it
is applied to questions within the do
main Of economics, Is extravagantIy
silly. There are great many things,
a big majority of things, indeed, in
which no American wants to ape the
Englishman. But men Of all nations
are subject to the same natural laws.
Water does not run up hill in the
United States because 1t runs down
hill In England. Bankruptcy Is not
desirable for the United States or any
citizen within it because another man
across the ocean prefers to be solvent
And so, in matters of business and
trade, it is the height of folly for us
to refuse to consider policies which
which, in the field Of business and
trade, has achieved a pre-eminent sue
sess.
The speech of the British chancellor
of tha pxcheol1er on tho 6pono;oJ ~
sition Of the imperial treasury contains
statements which it Is worth our while
to ponder. His review covers a year
Of unfavorable trade conditions; a year
which, in most parts Of the world
was one of scarcely less than business
disaster. The British chancellor says
however, that although the expendi-
ture Of the treasury in the last fiscal
year was larger than that Of any year
since the last great war, the surplus
in the treasury was the largest in it's
history, and the country's credit at
the highest point. Statistics show that
the deposits in savings and other banks
throughout Great Britain have passed
in every direction. Imports and ex-
ports and railway earnings have in
creased The revenue for the fiscal
year was nearly $3O,OOO,OOO in excess
of the estimates.
Now, it is certainly worth consider
ing that these results, which the most
inveterate Anglophobist would not de-
spise, have been reached in a country
which has now, and has for years, pur-
sued certain settled lines of economic
policy. For more than half a CEN
tury Great Britain has enjoyed free
trade. For nearly twice that length
OF time her currency has been fixed
beyond thought Of disturbance on the
the progenitors of all disaster, as GER
tain theorists in our own country pro-
claim, then 1t is a singular and unpar-
alleled occurrence that a nation in
which they have ruled for so many
years should be advancing industrially
to the highest plane of prosperity. Lit
tie as we may care to be like England
In other respects, those. who hate her
most would be glad to see our treasury
replete as is hers with revenue, and
our manufactures and commerce ris-
ing steadily like a flowing tide It is
inconceivable, 1t is a denial of judg-
ment and reason, that economic poll
cies which affect men and nations
alike should bring success in one geo.
face, while in another they produce
havoc and decay.
If one farmer finds that a certain
grain yields him a bonntiful and re-
muneratiye crop. another farmer. culti-