New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-06

"Ni@H the frotectionists have been advocating
without success The British farmer has not
oeen able to obtain any adequate measure OF
rehef from Parliament during the half century
OF agricultural depression which has followed the
abolition OF the corn laws. Wheat and meat
nave been cheapened one decade after another
and their production in England has been rem
dered more and more Improbable; hop-raisng
and oarley-growing have steadily declined under
pressure OF foreign competition: market garden
ing and Poultry-farmine have languished under
exorbtant railway charges and importations
from the Continent and the land has every
wnere been going out of tage because the re-
turns for the labor Of cutivating ii have been
inadequate. But when delegations have gone
10 the Treasury to ask for legislation on behalf
or ruined agricultural industries they have been
dismissed as importunate applicants and have
been bluntly told that protective duties on food
products were not to be considered Yet Mr.
Chamberlain, an Imperialist, proposes to give
the agricultural classes what they have been
clamoring for. and to do It, moreover under
cover Of developing the material interests OF the
colonies. The discriminating duty against wheat
and meat from the United States. Russia and
the Argentine would be even more helpful to the
British farmer than to the Canadian producer.
1t would be essentially a protective duty, al
q
Indeed. the whole system Of trade within the
Empire. and revenue duties against foreign coun-
tries. is a travesty upon everything for which
Golden and Bright stood during their agitation
for the repeal of the corn laws. 1t is not even
fair trade, that principle expounded by
Mr. Ecroyd a decade ago. What was then advo-
Gated was a horizontal import duty OF 10 per cent
imposed all foreign manufactures and food
products as a measure OF self-protection for the
United Kingdom and its dependencies The aim
Of the Fair Traders twofoli: First. to en-
able the Government to force foreign countries
and especially France and the United States. into
negotiating reciprocity conventions; and. Sec
ondy to transfer the production Of British food
supplies from countries which would not take
English manufactures to countries that would do
so. 1t a system Of reciprocity which would
arm the United Kingdom with the power of dis
eliminating between the friends and foes Of its
economic system. and at the same time set pre-
MUM upon food-production In the British En-
pire Mr.. Chamberlain Is not a Fair Trader
What he advocates Is a scheme for making the
British Empire a close corporation with free
trade between the colonies and the mother coun-
try and tariff barrier against foreign products
with incidental protection for the English
farmer.
PROTECTION IN MASQUERADE
It Is the bodest and most ingenious attempt
which has yet been made 10 introduce protection
In masquerade. and hardly a week passes without
some clumsy demonstration Of this kind. one
day it will be a bill compelling butchers and
grocers to mark and label their Australian and
American meats and cheese. 80 that the con-
sumner can have q reasonable assurance of getting
the genuine English article whenever he chooses
TO paw a higher price for II. Another day II
will be diseases for animals measure. designed
TO give large advantage to English breeders u
stock at the expense of consumers and feeders or
store cattle. One week protection Is disguised as
a question Of commercial morality for hamperng
the sale of foreign food supplies, and another
week II is tricked out a sanitary measure Tor
the prevention of the importation OF diseased cat
tie Mr. Chamberlain is more adroit in his pro-
lection polemics He speaks az convinced Free
Trader and enlarges upon the advantage 81 cre-
ating a free trade empire In place Of England
"ln splendid isolation and encOmpassed with
hostile tariffs in her own colonies. lie also
stands as an ImperialiEt who Is no; ashamed OF
dreaming about federation and the establish
ment Of an economic Empire. united for business
interests and for self-defence agains: the world
Yet his free trade Imperial Zollverein, as he him
self portrays It, will be Protection League and
will not differ essentially from the American
Unions with free trade among the States and
protection outside. /. y. +.