The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-24
PROTECTION AND EXPORTS.

PROTECTION AND EXPORTS.
Lincoln Illustrated some point he was
making by describing one CT The early
steamboats, on the Mississippi with
boiler 50 small and a whistle so big
that when the whistle was blown the
engine stopped. Our good Republican
editors and their party find themselves,
ton and customs revenue, in the pre-
dicament of Lineoln's boat; when the
whistle of protection blows the engine
of revenue has to stop. When the en-
thusiastic editor. apotheosizes protec-
ton and points with glow of pride tc
the diminishing imports, he uncon-
sciously paints in as vivid colors the
failure of his policy to provide reve-
nue.. When he, on another occasion,
feels it incumbent on himself, as the
warder of his party, to defend the rev.
enue features of the policy and excuses
the ugly deficits that are it's monthly
attendants, promising a surplus as
soon as the forestalled markets are
emptied, he quite as unconsciously de-
MES the virtue of his policy as an ex-
cluder of imports.
1t was while he was on the dimin-
ishing- imports tack that the editor of
the Pioneer Press blew the whistle
Of protection and made the revenue
engine stop. He obtained his insp1-
ration from an editorial in the Evening
Post, of New York, which took for Il
text the preliminary statement of the
bureau of statistics of the treasury
for August with it's showing of in
creased exports and decreased imports.
The preliminary statement does not
separate our exports into the classes
that appear in the regular monthly
statement Of our commerce, but the
Post arrives at the inference that our
exports for August, other than bread
stuffs, are 81, 10000 greater than for
August, 1891. Whereupon the. Pioneer
Press comments: THAT means that
under the protective system, so much
condemned by the Post, our exports OF
manufactured goods have increased
$11 900, 900 for single month"
With his eye occupied solely with
our exports of manufactured goods, the
editor lost sight Of the imports, which,
for August, amounted to $39,876, $40, of
which but $1S,645O4S were dutiable.
S., 900, 600 less than for July and $10.-
100000 less than for August, 1896. AS
our neighbour with those of his way
of thinking, contended that one of the
main causes of the financial depres-
sion, and an active force in causing
bond issues to replenish gold redemp-
lions, was a deficiency of revenue, and,
consequently, that the first duty was tc
of the statement could not well be
mentioned in an editorial treating of
the benefits of protection as a stinu-
liant to exports of manufactures. But
the two cannot be separated and
should not be lost sight Of, because
they demonstrate the immitigable hos
tility of protection and revenue The
object of protection being to dimin-
ish imports, it necessarily follows that
revenue derived from imports dimin-
ishes as imports fall off
But there is a presumption in claim
ing the increase of exports last month
as a sequence of the Dingley act that
| is charming only in its audacity. The
claim that the increase in past years
was due to the protective policy thai
prevailed is equally cheeky" The sta
tistics of the treasury fairly howl
down the contumacious claim. The
! Statistical Abstract for 1896 contains,
on page 149 a table of our exports for
each year from 1860 to 1896, classified
as to origin in agriculture and other
products than manufactures, with the
products of the latter. During all
these years, except 1860, the protective
policy has prevailed, the only varia-
ton having been made by the Wilson
act that put some raw materials of
manufacture on the free list and de-
creased the protection to others. 1t is
under this variation that the increase
of exports of manufactures took place,
the momentum Of which survives the
! enactment of the Dingley bill and ac-
counts for whatever proportion they
! bore in August to the whole export
value. The table referred to shows
a steady but slow increase in the value
of these exports after the war reaching
! s151 1o2, 376 in 1890 The increase to
! s16S, 1921, 315 in 1891 fell off to s15S,00ooO0
in 1892 and 1898, rising to S1S5, o000 900
in each of the two following years;
and when, in 1896, the full effect of the
raw material policy was felt, springing
to $22S, ST., 17S, and in 1897 to $276,357, SCI.
If any conclusion is to be drawn from
these figures of exports alone, If no
! effect is to be given to the inventions