Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-10-21
CONSUL SMITH TELLS OF THE LOSS
OF TRADE IN ENGLAND.
BRITISH FACTORIES SUFFER.
CONTRASTS OF RESULTS UNDER DIF'-
FERENT TARIFF BILLS.
Manufacturers Already on the Look
out for New Mnrkets-FiSht for
Supremacy In the South
American States-,JOy
in Washington.

Washington, Oct. 20.-There is joy at the
White House over IL consular report just
received from England, which seems to
show that manufacturers in Great Britain
have already been hard hit by the Dingley
bill and are looking for other fields to make
up for the loss of trade with this country.
The report is from William II. Smith, of
st. Louis, who was Blanes agent sem
to Huddersfield. England. to explain the
Mckinley bill to the British manufacturers.
He was recently appointed consul to Hull
to continue the same line of work with the
Dingley bill. his position being more that
of confidential agent that as merely a
consul.
He says: 1.-THE industrial conditions
which prevailed in Great Britain during
the fall of 1890, when the pinch of hard
times was felt from one end of the country
TO the other, are here again with a ven
geance. The causes are the same-some-
what aggravated this year by strikes and
general discomfort among the laboring
classes. The change of administration in
the United States and the application OF
new forces. through the inauguration of
n more vigorous policy of protection, are
exercising wonderful influence on Eu-
ropean trade. England. however. feels the
effect most keenly. Those in the indus
trial centers who have been anNously wait
Bradford consulate have been shocked by
the disastrous slump which has occurred
in the exports from that district during
August and September.
'The fall of 1897 recalls the fall of 1880.
VIXEN the Mckinley bill put its first crinlp
in English competition. / remember the
staggering blow it received when the bill
Rad chance to reach out with a fuii
swing, and what a loud and terrific shout
went up from all parts of the kingdom for
retaliation and Zollvereins and things, in-
Guiding colonial federation, and visionary
with Canada and Newfoundland.
But if the Mckinley bill foored English
industries in 1880 and held them in sublec-
ton for three years. While our manutac-
turing interests at home were permitted TO
enjoy brief period of prosperity. the Will
son bill brought them to their feet again
| u blessing to English labor and might be
justly styled AN act for the revival of
British trade It lit up the fires under
many a boiler in Yorkshire and set in mo-
tion many a thousand looms that had lain
locked in disuse for years. 1t made TIE
United States the dumping ground for for
American labor by lessening demand that
| sustained it, and diminishing the oppor-
tunities that advanced it.
another interesting phase of the situa-
ton here to-day brings us back to 1890
When the clamor for retaliation against the
United States had subsidized and the press
possession of the sober second thought ali
eyes We're suddenly turned to South Ameri-
ca as the future market for English prod
uctS. general movement was soon start
ed among all the commercial bodies of En-
gland to prepare the way for the new de-
parture in that direction and to head off at
| once the policy of the late Secretary Blaine,
who was then mOlding into shape the great
commercial union of all the South American
republics with the greater republic of the
leading papers that the Mckinley bill. hav-
ing shut the door to their products in the
United States, South America offered a
new field where English trade would in due
| time be face to face with opportunities that
would yield abundance to compensate for
| the loss of markets in the world. Commits
sioners went out to South America and all
the industrial cities in Great Britain were
| full of hope at the prospect. But the South
American bubble was soon allowed to blow
! off and collapse at its leisure. when the re-
| suit of the presidential election in 1892 was
announced in England.
1t was only yesterday the Hull chamber
| of commerce. following the example of kim
very subject of the South American field
under discussion. Every town in England
| Is full of the idea once more, and each
town wants a commissioner dispatched at
once to locate markets and find out Just
what the Spanish Americans want. The
papers, with remarkable unanimity. point
| to the rehabilitation of the Blaine idea OF
reciprocity by President Mckinley and the
evident determination on the part of his
administration to renew the struggle on the
| South America. They warn their country
| men that more vigorous policy is already
| in force. To the English mind there is un-
m,stakable EVIDENCE that the American,
| a sturdy champion in the present president
| OF the United States.