The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1897-10-02
OUR EXPORT TRADE.

For pure demagogy and unblushing
Misrepresentation the American
Economist has no equal. IL is one of
the so-called prot .ctionisJ journals
that has the aifrontery to attribute
present high prices OF wheat and in
creased expectations of breadstuff to
the enactment of the Dingley law.
1t says:
Farmer sare once more brought face
| to face with old free trade falsehood-
namely, that If we do not buy we can
| not sell. The free-traders claim, in
| fact it is one of their stock in trade
arguments, that we cannot sell our
| farm products or our manufactured
| oods to foreigners unless we buy pro-
| portionately from them in return.
| Our statistics of commerce carry no
weight with a free trader. We prefer,
however, to accept their figures as a
refutation of the old argument of the
| free-trade orators of the past and
present that If we do not buy we can
| not SELL"
The Economist then gives table
| showing the value of the exports OF
| breadstuffs for the month of Augu-t,
1895, was s9.664 ,629: 1895, S14,4ll ,407;
1897, S25, SOP ,532. 1t proceeds to COM
ment as follows:
The WilsonGorman free trade
tariff had been in full force for one
year by August, 1885,. and for two years
by August. 1896. During those two
months we exported s., 1854. 629 and Sl4,-
All .407 worth of American grown
breadstuffs respectively. But last
month. August, 1897. our exports of
precisely similar products aggregated
So. 500, ,532, being SlG,000,000 worth
more than in August, 1895, and S1l,-
00G, 900 worth more than in August of
1885,"
1t fails, however. to comment upon
the fact that there were abundant
crops throughout the world in 1875
and '96, and that there is shortage
this year in nearly all the grain pro-
ducing countries that has Ncaused the
price of breadstuffs to double in the
foreign markets. Neither does the
economist take into account that
England. the nation to which the bulk
OF cur breadstuffs go, is this year
forced to ccme 10 America for its sup
ply, not being able to fill its garners
from the storehouses of nations Offer
ing freer facilities of exchange.
If the passage of the Dingley tariff
is far reaching enough to have caused
the shortage of crops throughout the
world, then protection has been q
lasting benefit to the farmers, and
would refute the argument Of the al |
legged free-traders "that we cannot sell |
where we do not buy" though there !
are few papers in the country except .
the Economist that claims this much ;
for the new tariff law. However, !
should there be a good crop raised
abroad next year, American farmers
will be brought face to face with con-
dition different from the one that con- j
fronts them today. England will buy !
her breadstuffs where she can sell pro- !
ducts, and instead of coming TO America
and Offering us one dollar Il bushel for
our wheat, she will go to Argentina and
India, where she can exchange her
products for what she needs to eat, for
there will be less fine imposed for in
introducing English products.
Further. if our foreign export trade
in breadstuffs has been stimulated and
prices increased by the enactment of a
high protective policy, how is it that
on receipt of encouraging crop reports
from Argentina and Russia the price
of Amer can wheat has dropped five
cents within the past week? If we can
lock our ports to the products Of the
rest of the world and still force our
farm products upon consumers abroad,
wheat should still keep up to dollar,
of conditions of crops any
where. If the Dingley law is the
cause of the increased exports during
the month of August, the wheat market
should keep up now just the same as it
was before advices from Russia and
were received.
The Economist is firm advocate of
reciprocity, yet bellies that principle
when it insists that there is no neces-
sity for us to buy abroad in order that
we may sell. II this is true then re-
ciprocity is an utter failure, and the
world will come and buy our products
whether it needs them or not, just be-
cause it likes us. Facts, however, do
not bear the statements of the Eeono-
mist out. Statistics show that, taken
oy periods of years, we have exported
most when we have imported the most.
rhe world buys of us in proportion to !
low we buy of the world. During the ,
Tear 1896 we exported morei in quantity
If all products than during any other
'ear except 1892, and during 1892 and
S92 we imported more than in ~
my other year in our history. Except /
'hen we produce something that can
lot be had elsewhere, we cannot hope l
D find market for our surplus in
ountries where we do not buy. It is [
natural result in foreign as we'll as
omestic trade that people trade with /
hose who trade with them. Il
OREGON WOOLEN MILLS.
Every wooden mill in tho state of :.
,regon is running full time. on orders, .
nd severai-of them ara rnnpipr 6.1