Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-21
PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.


PROTECTION AND PROSPERITY.
The bureau of statistics at Washington
has not yet completed its report of the ex-
port business of the United States during
1897, but advance sheets Indicate that the
total will be in the neighborhood Of Sl,15O.-
100000. We mean the year ending Decem-
her 81. and not the fiscal year ending June
30. This is by far the largest export trade
ever done in the history of the country,
the nearest approach to it being in the
year 1892, when we sent abroad goods TO
the value of sl.O32, coo. Go. Between 1882 and
1897. the highest years were 1894 and 1896.
when the exports stood practically the
same, at $50, coo, 600 From 1873 until 1892
our exports averaged about $500. 600, 900 an
nually.
We have. however, the completed reports
for the eleven months ending November
80. 1897. and it will be interesting TO COM
pare this period with the corresponding
period in 1896, as follows:
Exported products of eleven months in
IsS6-Agriculture, s5IS. go. O1S; manufacture
ing. sos. 81. Us; mining. sl9.63s, 2lS: forestry,
S33. l42, 1875; fishery, s5,9I5,0O7: miscellaneous.
1888 Sc: total. $50, 742. 1923. Products of ag-
riculture, per cent of the whole, &c. 46; prod
ucts of manufacture, per cent of the
whole, 26.4
Exported products of eleven months in
lSg7-Agriculture. s6s5. 80. 4S9: manufactur-
ing, s256. 256, Sl2; mining. SIS, 2Ss.sss; forestry,
sS7. s6S, 46S; fishery, 1929. S3S; miscellaneous.
$780, 2S: total. $3.50, SIS. S74. Products of ag-
riculture, per cent of the whole. 66.4s; prod
ucts of manufacture. per cent of the whole.
26.7S.
1t will be observed than the gain in 1897
was. in round numbers. $50. 0JO, 600. of which
s57. $50, All came from increased exports of
the products of agriculture, and SIG, 341, 554
from the increased exports of the products
Of manufacture. Assuming that the per
cents have been figured properly. 1t will
be discovered that the per cents Of agricult-
ural products exported in these two years
were exactly the same. n this nno
fail in becoming astonishing to our Dem
ocratic friends. who have been asserting
that our increased foreign trade was solely
due to the famine in India and the conse-
quent high prices and demand for the
products of American farms. While the
agricultural exports increased in 1897, they
did not increase in proportion to the whole.
On the other hand, we find an increase in
the per cent as well as the total of export
ed manufactured products, and, while this
per cent is not great. it becomes very sig
nificant in view of the Democratic theory
that protection builds a Chinese wall
around the borders of the United States.
We are not compelled to rely upon the
statistics of one year to demonstrate the
fallacy of this Democratic belief. There
never has been a period of high protection
In the United States when our foreign
trade did not receive an impetus. and there
has never been a period of Democratic
semi-free trade when our exports did no,
| diminish. During the Garfield-Arthur ad
ministration our export trade averaged fol-
the four years. sSOl. co., 600 a year. During
the four years of the first administratio
of President Cleveland, it averaged blu
s694. 0Oe, 900 a year. Then Harrison went t.
the head of the government and raised the
exports to an average of $3.50. 600. 900 a year
which Cleveland lowered in his last foul
years to an average of $3.50. 900, 900. The line
spun theories of the free traders, the fan
tastic and illusory arguments of the Pop
ocrats, cannot stand in the clear light O
these statistics. which may be made ever
more convincing by displaying with then
the statistics of balances of trade. Durin,
the past twenty years there have been bu
three years when the balance of trad
was against us, and 1t is not a s,.?ple coin
cidence that each of these instances oc
CURED under a Democratic president in
period of so-called tariff REFORM