Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-04-08

POSITION IN WHICH FREE TRADE
PUTS THIS COUNTRY.
Destroyer Of Commerce and Manufactures
Puts Premium on the Expatriation of
American Capital and Labor and the
Expectation of It's Best MACHINERY.

American Capital and Labor and tho
Expectation of It's Best Machinery,
There is a reason for everything, ap-
parently, except the existence of Amer
lean free traders. Every approach which
the United States has made toward free
trade has been followed by untold in
jury, evidenced by the general idleness
Of mills and men, falling wages, in
creasing poverty and crime, and every
imaginable form of national dead rot.
For this the following reasons are sug-
gested:
First In free trade struggle the
United States does not face some single
country, but the entire world outside.
This is large undertaking. There is a
worldwide distribution Of capital, me
chanical skill and machinery. No coun-
try any longer monopolizes either Of
these things. Capital seeks areas of
cheapest production and takes along its
labor and machinery Because Of this
free trade law puts premium upon the
expatriation Of American capital and
labor and the expectation of Its best ma
States is the highest in the world. Free
trade makes capital drop it like hot
potato. The area of the United States is
something like 5000, 600 of square
miles; the area Of the combined coUn-
tries outside is at least 40, 600, 900. Free
trade makes the surplus of the small
area struggle in the market against the
surplus Of the large one, without any
advantage whatever in the direction Of
labor, skill, machinery, capital or nat
ural resources, and with the great diSad-
vantage Of labor cost averaging ten
times as great as that of the larger area
4 simple calculation proves this state
ment as to labor cost. The United
States contains about one-twentieth of
the population of the earth; it consumes
ten-tweutieths of the worlds products
To consume ten times its share it must
pay for it in the wages Of its people
Therefore its peoples wages must aver
age ten times as much as the average in
the rest Of the world, Now, it is we'll
known that manufacturers dispose OF
their surplus products abroad at lower
prices than they get at home. They
would rather sell small invoices at less
than cost to foreign customers, who take
but comparatively small proportion of
their product, than break the home price
TO any extent for nearly all Of their
product, Would not the surplus of 40,
GOO, 600 Of square miles, TO be thus dis
posed Of at nearly cost, fiat cost or less,
be- great enough 20 fill the whole Amer
lean market, with its lessened free trade
demand, and SO mako manufacturing
impossible in the United States, and
this even though wages finally fell to
the foreign level?
Second. Here is another reason:
Heat is the source Of all life It's pro-
ductiOn is at the root of commercial
cost which is simply the cost Of main
tanning the people engaged IN produc
ton. This cost diminishes from the
poles toward the equator because of the
increase Of solar heat or free fuel which
makes the maintenance of life less and
less costly. Although a comparison of
small areas may show IA lower mean
temperature in some area nearer to the
equator than another comparison Of
large areas shows that their average
mean temperatures vary regularly with
average latitude.
Again, though a comparison of small
areas may show an advantage for this
or that one in the direction of natural
gifts, such asmines forests, soils, water
supplies, etc, a comparison OF large
areas shows I'm average in these things
practically equal in all. Therefore the
only real advantage which any large
area has over another in the cost of pro
ductiuu Is IN its lower average latitude,
and this rule may be laid down, Cost
of production varies directly with lati-
tudo There is an area Of the earth S
land surface containing 5000, 900
square miles, every foot of which is in
"a lower latitude and so in a region of
naturally lower cost than the lowest lat
itude of the United States When free
traders can make the average latitude Of
the United states as low us the lowest,
they can propose free trade for this couu-
try without deserving confinement in u
luuatic asylum, hutnot till then. --Ros
we'll A. Benedict in American Ecouo
mist
The Last word to 'Ie."