The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1898-12-24
ABOUT FOREIGN BALANCES.
American Devotees Of Alien Industry:
Are Hard te Piease-The Treas
ury Dencit.

ury Dencit.
To-day and every day there are as
sertions that the republican policy thus
far has produced nothing but q treas
ury deficit and an extravagant advance
of prices to the disadvantage of con-
sumers. These are assertions hard to
answer within the Limit Of profitable
discussion. The treasury shows .
deficit only because the war makes a
difference, and there has been no adj
vance In prices of protected or other
manufactured goods, rs men commonly
assert. To put the thing plainly. both
statements are made by men who tell
pntruths or take great pains not 20 u.s.
certain the truth.
The daily treasury reports are pub
lished with regularity, and while they
show smaller receipts for customs In
October than usual, for reasons not
hard TO find, IL Is easy 10 understand
that the undecided condition OF trade
and OF the industries has curtailed re-
ceipts without reference to the present
tariff. The assertion as 10 the effect
Of the existing tariff upon prices has
nothing whatever 10 support IL. The
level of prices reached after the col
lapse of the Letter speculation has been
lower because of the exceptional and
disappointing influence on the market
for wheat and also of all grain. The
range for all other than farm products
is, on the whole, lower since last May.
the season considered, than II has been
In any previous year.
Sometimes one is discouraged in the
attempt TO submit facts In response to-
such bald truths. Any statement of
prices in general or in detail Is COM
fortably ignored by the people whose
theories II does not fit, and their false
hoods go on all the same. But IL Is the
fact that the general average Of all nom
farm prices is lower than IL was at any
other time since any economist has sup
posed that prices were at a fair level.
and lower than at any time when the
industries of the country were fairly
prosperous.
The depression In the cotton industry,
due 10 a production materially in ex-
cess OF demand, has made IL beyond the
power of anybody to discuss intelli-
gently the situation in that branch. The
iron industry is not only producing
more than at any previous time in the
history of the country, but according to-
the latest returns is actually,consuming
in manufacture more than ever before,
and there are also export demands, in
GLIDING 10000 tons of steel rails for
northern Europe and 100000 tons OF
steel plates for foreign ports, besides
many orders for all sorts of finished
products, including $500 tons of billets
from Pittsburgh.
What are the DIRECTORS principally
troubled about? II they know anything
they know that this country rs sending
nearly 1000 tons OF It's products
abroad in the iron and steel industry
alone, In spite OF all foreign competi-
ton. The country does not do so well In
its exports OF products OF some other In
dustries, and yet has gained so greatly
In manufactured products compared
with Great Britain, our chief COMPETE
tor In the foreign markets, that it's
latest stateIIsant indicates condition of
things in the last degree discouraging
10 British manufacturers. One has
only TO read the statements of the lead
ing men at the last meeting of manu-
facturers in that country to realize how
distressing the American competition
has become What il TO be done to
satisfy the iDcurable devotees of for
eign industry here? Are we to let every
thing foreign come into this country
without regard for American produc-
ton? No one of them dares 10 ask this
openly, and yet what can we do better
than to pile up an indebtedness OF
s50,0O0,000 n month against foreign
countries, in excess Of merchandise ex-
ports over imports, upon which we can
draw at pleasure Pm. Y. Tribune.