The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-28

have been sundry grumblings and mutt
terings among the others either In tnelr
legislative bodies, in the individual VI
terances OF their representatives nere
and elsewhere or in the public press. The
practical business question with regard
to these people and governments Is
whether they can AFFORD to take any re-
taliatory steps against n tariH which
makes no discrimination as between
countries or which does not discriminate
against any one OF them individually.
IL they were to attempt retaliation by
American prodrcts from their markets
or discriminate against our productions
in any way Il would be expected, and
very properly, that the United states
would return the compliment by exclud-
ing or discriminating against the prod
ucts of the country which had taken such
action. The practical business results OF
an occurrence of this kind would be that
nearly every one Of the countries In dues-
tion would suffer n greater loss IN the
sale of her products than would the
United States.
OF the fifteen countries included in the
above list, thirteen sell more goods to
the United States than they buy from
us ana the total sales OF the fifteen
countries in question, to the United states
are hundreds OF millions of dollars great
er than our sales to them. The results
would be that II they should undertake
to exclude our goods from their ports,
similar action on our part would cut OFF
n much larger market for their producers
than would their action affect the markets
of our producers. An attempt at retalla-
tion by the countries in question, with
possibly two exceptions, would therefore
be much more dsadvantageous to them
than to the United states. Hence the
impFobabiHty that the nations which
are Offering these protests have the
slightest expectation that their action Will
be anything mere than a mere dun or
be followed by any attempt at retalia-
tion by them in case their protests are
unheeded
A few examples of the commercial rela-
tions existing between some of the ma
tions in question and the United states
will be sufficient to show that there is
no proba biity that they are going to en-
danger their own business and the mar
kets for their own producers by any
steps which might possibly close the
ports of the United States against their
productions. In the statements which
follow a ten years period has been COW
cred in showing the commercial relations
between the United states and the coun-
tries in question, in order to give fair
average showing of the sales of those
countries to people of the United states
and the return sales of our products to
those countries. 1t will be observed In
the statements which follow that in prac-
tcally every case, the countries now sus-
gestng retaliation which would affect
commercial relations, have sold us very
much more of their productions than we
have sold to them. and therefore any ac-
tion on their part disturbing or closing
these rele tions would cut off larger
market for themselves than they would
destroy for us. Japan has sold to us in
the past decade $2l2 10000 worth of
goods and bought from us $5,O01 III worth
of our productions. China's sales to us
in the past ten years are $lS9,2i6,Si9 and
her purchases from us S54,219,7l0. Aus
tria-Hungary's sales to us in the past
ten years are $S3 301 ,4S1 and her purchases
from us so, ,993, ,224 The total sales to us
of the fifteen coutries which are report
ed as complaining. formally or other
wise, of our tariff, have been in the past
ten years AS43, 9i3,523 while their pur-
chases from us in the same length of time
have been only $3,O59, 22O7S2. Thus they
have sold us in the past decade $l,7S4, IT,
sil worth of goods in excess of what
they have bought from us or an average
of S17S, ,2Si per annum.
o.
The following table shows our pur-
chases from and sales to each of the
countries in question during the past de-
cade: