The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-04-03
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.

and administration is being denounced
on every occasion because it will not
adopt policy which, to use a favorlte
expression, will deliver us from the
| tyranny of the money sharks of LON
bard street, the said Lombard street
being popularly supposed to be the
abiding place of the head officers of the
great European money trust.
All this foolish talk of the demn-
| gogues is sufficiently absurd at any
time. but it is particularly so under
present conditions. For, while the
Democratic party has been yelling for
financial independence the Republican
party has been quietly at work estab-
fishing financial independence, making
this country Independent of foreign
control in money matters and even
turning the balance the other way SO
that the European countries, instead of
coming to us as creditors demanding
the payment of interest due them, now
appear as borrowers willing to pay
literally for our financial assistance.
The first step towards this highly
desirable condition was made when
the Dingley bill was substituted for
the vicious and Inconsistent Wilson
| tariff law. Undoubtedly Il large part
of the disaster attending the Cleveland
administration was due to the tariff
law that threw open the American
markets to foreign competition and
deluged our people with cheap and in
ferior goods while our own factories
We're idle and our workmen unem
| ployed. The passage of the Dingley
bill not only checked these importe-
tions and gave employment TO our
workmen, but it also turned the bal
ance of trade once more in our favor
and made it necessary for the nations
of Europe to send us large amounts of
cash every year in settlement of the
trade balances instead of calling ON
us for immense sums of gold, as was
the case under the Democratic Wilson
bill.
The facts bearing upon this import
ant matter are .conciscly set forth in
recent speech by Congressman Will
lam Alden Smith of Michigan, recently
| delivered at Grand Rapids, in the
course of which he said:
THE month of February. 1900, has
made the most remarkable record of
any February in the history of our for
eign commerce. The exports during
that month have averaged S5,00o,OO0
for every business day in the month.
and the total exports for the month of
February alone amount to S119, 1885,
| 1862, or more than twenty-five per cent.
| greater than that of any preceding
February since the government of the
United States was born.
Not only are the exports larger than
those of any preceding February, but
the excess of exports over imports is
also much larger than in any preceding
February, surprising those of 1898
by nearly twenty-five per cent. and
being more than nifty per cent. in ex-
cess of any earlier year.
February is the month of heavy i'm
portations, and it frequently happens
that the imports exceed the exports,
so that an excess of $50, ,99l .6l2 in ex-
ports over imports in February makes
the record for the month "A remarkable
one.
Despite the fact that the importa-
tlons, which amounted to SGS, IA, $50,
We're slightly larger than those of any
preceding year, except 1893, the rela-
tive importance of the February of
1900 record Will be more clearly seen
when it is stated that the average
February exports during the last ten
years We're ST6,O00,00O per month,
while the total exports. of February
this year, as already stated, were
$119, ,762
"On the other hand the average
February imports of the preceding de
cade We're SCI 100000, making the
average February excess of exports
over imports during that time $4,000
600; while that of February, 1900. is
S50,991, ,612. This makes the total ex-
portations of the eight months ending
with February about S75,0O0,OOO
greater than that of the corresponding
months of the fiscal year 1899 and
makes 1t apparent that our total ex-
ports in the fiscal year ending June
Both will exceed those of any preced-
ing year by probably S1000000O0 and
carry the total commerce of the year
considerably beyond the S2,O0O,OO0,OOO
line
| The second great step towards iinan-
cial independence was made when this
| country. under the Ientlnrshin of thn