The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-10
TRADE BALANCES.

our favor in our foreign trade may be continued as permanent thing, for the entire purpose of the dominant school of economists in this country is to obtain favorable balance, and the vast amounts of food bought by Flu rope in this country, together with our growing independence of Europe In | manufactured goods, Is calculated to create the impression that we may sell a great deal more than we buy and keep this up indefinitely.
 Europe's need of our food has given us long series of favorable balances, and at the present time our increase of manufactured exports has added to that. But the past fifty-two years is divisible into two nearly equal parts, In the first of which our imports near ly always exceeded our exports, and in the latter of which the reverse was the fact. From 1S45 to 1878 our ex- ports exceeded our imports in only three years. From 1874 to 1898 the inn ports were in excess in only four years. The last balance against us was $1S,- 000000 in 1893. Since then the balances in our favor have ranged from $75,000,- 900 to $579,0OO0O0, and have aggregated about $1275, 900. A good part of this is offset by interest dividends, travellers credits, freight money, etc., constituting an annual obligation on our part aggregating somewhere around $S00O 900 for the five years. A continuance of favorable balances is not unlikely, but continuance of very heavy favorable balances, after allow ances are made for our various pay ments to Europe, outside the import account, is not likely, for it is incon- ceiyable that all the gold in the world should eventually accumulate in this country in the settlement of the indebt- 1 edness of the rest of the world to us, l or that the rest of the world should be able to buy indefinitely of us if we are going to displace their factory hands as well as their farm laborers. India presents an example of a coun- ! try that secures a constant favorable 1 balance in it's trade with the rest of i the world but while many of our l statesmen regard the favorable balance as the evidence, and the only evidence, i of profit in foreign commerce, the fact is that India has from time immemo- 1 rial been addicted to the uneconomical hoarding of gold and silver, instead of l it's investment. India would be more prosperous to-day if it had spent its ] gold and silver more freely instead of turning so much of it's wealth into a form favorable for preservation and l then burying that where it could pro- duce nothing.
 The foreign commerce of Cuba and Brazil is by no means so one-sided as ! we Americans are apt to suppose. The common impression among us is that these countries buy little abroad while they sell enormous quantities. This is only true of their commence with the United States. The usual course of their trade has been for their sugar, tobacco and coffee to come to this country, against the proceeds of which 1 manufactured goods are bought in Eu- rope, and there is usually no great dis rarity between the aggregate of their imports and exports. Their vast pro duction of three staple articles, howev- CT, and the very simple habits of their laboring populations, make their sales exceed their purchases. The United States has but one great crop--cotton- which is especially ours, as coffee is the crop Of Brazil and sugar and to- bacco are the crops of Cuba. The needs imposed upon our people by the climate they live in and the desires de- i veloped in them by their stage of intel I ligence and taste make it certain that they will always earn as much as they can and will spend their money freely. ] While the United States was export ing little but articles of food and raw materials, Europe found it easy and advantageous to cultivate our export business and to adapt it's own econom- ic arrangements to ours. Our -Agri- cultural development was simultaneous with the manufacturing development abroad England, and in less degree
 the Continent, were not unwilling to drop agriculture for the more lucrative forms of industry, and the arrange ment seemed to be mutually satisfac- tory that we should feed the workers of Europe who should produce the fab rics, tools and luxuries of the world But the United States has more intel ligent and enterprising workers than any other part of the world, it has led all other countries in invention and in reducing the cost of transportation
 and capital has accumulated here more rapidly than elsewhere. Hence we have developed a manufacturing sys- tenn of our own, which in most staple lines is sufficient for ourselves and af- lords considerable surplus for export Hence, Europe is beginning to legislate against our manufactured goods, and the farmers, who have been suffering of late more than ever from our agri- cultural competition, are from time tc time securing more radical protection against us.
 The so-called flair traders" of En- gland who desired to impose protective duties upon American grain and meat have never made much impression up on public sentiment or the government because they directly antagonized the factory interests and population. But the mill hands of England are begin ming to show alarm at our competition and the fair traders are showing signs of hopefulness that they may be able tc secure industrial allies for the agricul- tural interests. The zollverein agita- ton and the continued discussion o1 governmental stocks of wheat as a pre- caution against war are indications of