The midland journal., 1900-05-04
The Foreign Commerce Of the United
States.


For the nine mouths ending March 81,
1900, the total exports were, expressed in
their value, $I,o53, $40, $50. The marvel
Gus years in exports were, 1897, $Lo32,-
oo7, cog; 1893, $I,2Io. 29s9IS and 1899.
81, ao3. 93r, ,222. The year 1898 was the
record breaker, and during the nine
months of that year ending March 81 the
total exports amounted TO $o25, COS, 356,
and for the corresponding period OF 1899
the exports were $e47, ,ee2, ,e95.
These figures are pointed to by super
fetal economists as proving unsurpassed
prosperity and marvellous increase in
wealth of this country Marvellous accunl-
ulations of wealth these figures undoubt-
edly show, but do they prove general
prosperity? To the trading, commercial
class they may. To the producing, the
wealth creating class they do not.
The commercial or exporting class
stands between producer and consumer,
and exacts tribute or profit from both.
They buy at the lowest figure possible
from producer and sell at the highest they
can exact from the consumer. The lower
the price they can secure the products Of
this country, the more of them they can
sell abroad. For this object farm pro-
ducts have been beaten down below the
cost of production in order to be able to
sell the greatest quantity in foreign mar
kets, and the farmers of the United States
suffer in consequence.
The manufacturers have combined into
trusts or formed tnonopolies, which have
enabled them to produce at the least cost
prohibitiye tariff that shuts out foreign
competition, enables them to sell in the
home market for every cent the consumer
is able to pay. By this arrangement the
exporter buys cheap aud sells dear. The
commercial class purchase from the
farmer and sell to the foreigner, but ths
manufacturing trust is able to sell through
lis own agent to the foreign user or con
sumer, reap all the profit in both domestic
and foreign trade, and buy foreign raw
material, which the trust must use, at the
lowest figure abroad, saving eli com
missions.
Thus it is plain the great producing
class, the wealth creating class, the agri
cultural class, is robbed by this SHARP
practice on every hand, and under such {
system must inevitably steadily grow
poorer, perhaps slowly but steadily like
the turning of screw. And this is wha
our false economists call prosperity and
great wealth accumulation which rival!
Great Britain and promises to shift the
center of wealth and clearing house o
the world from London to New York.
Under this system of commercialisn
wealth accumulates in few hands il
great masses, while ineager supply il
distributed among the masses, which
grow poorer generation by generation
like steps of a stairway, every step leading
downward
This is the history of England now th,
leading commercial nation of the world
And this is the history of every CONNER
cial nation of the world, past or present
The rural population grow poorer, th,
commercial class richer. The policy tha
ships the products of industry of coun
try to foreign lands, converts them into
money and places their value in th,
pockets of commercial class, does no
enrich country or make it prosperous
1t slowly empoverisbes the wealth pro
ducer and enriches the ron-prodncers
constituting very small per cent of thu
population.
The financial system of country con
tributes to this abnormal condition O
trade more than all other influences com
bined The trader needs scarcely any
money TO conduct his line of business
He purchases with bank credit, aud a
the lowest figures possible. He sells a
an advance in foreign or home market
and meets his short time bank obligation
with his credit in another bank. The
producer cannot do this. 1t has cost hin
cash 10 create the wealth he has to ex
change, and If cash in circulntion il
scarce the price he must sell for is inev
itably low. The financial system which
is represented by small amount of cast
and an abnormal volume of credit means
poverty to the producer unless protected
by ''trust,' and large volume of spec
ulative trade.
This financial system is known in mod
ern parlance as the>"gold basis" or 'sgole
standard system. In the United State
the system comprises in the neighbor
hood Of sixteen hundred millions of cash
although its advocates claim four or fiv,
hundred millions more. Last year ninety
three thousand millions of business passed
through the clearing houses of this coun
try. Probably as much more was cleared
or balanced that did not 60 through
clearing houses. Say one hundred anC
eighty thousand millions of credit bus
iness was transacted on sixteen hundred
millions of cash, or more than ten dollars
of credit to one dollar of cash. Every
dollar of that enormous volume of credi
drew interest from the wealth produced
by industry.
A careful study of the statistics and