The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1901-02-21
EUROPE'S THREATS
IN NO WAY DISTURB THE PRO-
TECTIONISTS-
European Countries In No Position to
Combine Against the United States in
Retaliation Conspiracy-They Would
Soon BE Starved Into Their Senses.

The periodical free trade scare is
bobbing up again, and we are being
told by our always active, if misguided,
fellow-cftiZenS who don't believe in
laying any burdens on our foreign
competitors, not even to the extent of
making them pay price for share OF
the American market that, unless We
lower our tariff to accommodate those
dear friends across the sea, they will
retaliate by enacting prohibitory tar
IFS against US. In the first place this
warning against the danger OF retalia-
tory tariffs is getting good deal worn
and threadbare from long and constant
uses. It has been a part of the free
trade stock in trade from the begin
ming, and in all the years during which
it has been in use it has never once
justified its existence. No retaIiatory
protection of American interests. In
the second place, even If the long
prophesied but never fulfilled thing
should come to pass, the reta1iatory
tariffs should be imposed by other
countries. while such tariffs would
undoubtedly be disadvantage to
US, just as our protective tariff is now
a disadvantage to our foreign rivals,
it would be only disadvantage, while
the loss of the American market,
which would be the result OF the adop
ton of a policy of free trade, would
mean ruin and distress TO the WnOle
American people. If we should, by any
chance, be obliged to choose between a
partial loss of certain foreign markets
and the loss of our own home market,
the choice would be easy one to
make. The American market, as all the
world knows, is worth to the domestic
producer many times much as all
the markets of the world now open TO
us, and it is the market which the
American people intend, under all
circumstances, to keep for them
selves.
Moreover there is not single manu-
featuring nation in Europe which
could afford to adopt a retaliatory pol
icy. To do would be to provoke on
our part such system Of counter re-
taliation as would absolutely close the
American market against the products
OF such nation or nations For exam
pie, Germany, where the question Of a
reta1iatory tariff OF so marks a ton on
American grain is now under discus
sion. According to a cab1egram of
Jan z, Prince Herbert Bismarck is
quoted having declared definitely in
favor of a heavy increase of the tariff
on American fOodstuffs. Says the ca
blegram:
Some of the papers cast doubt upon
the authenticity of the interview. but
the sBerliner Tageblatt' sees in it
ments of Count Won K1inckowStroem,
the Agrarian leader. The 'Tageblatt
severely deprecates tariff war with
the United States, the cost of which, it
contends. would be borne by German
trade, Germany's fourishing ship
ping and German consumers generally.
the National Zeitung says: We can
not believe that a diplomatist like
Prince Herbert Bismarck would openly
advocate a policy favoring Russia at
the expense of the United States.
The semi-ofhcia1 journals, COM
menting upon the interview, declare
that nothing has been settled regard
ing the tariff
What is true of Germany is true of
every other European country which
buys food of and sells manufactured
products to the United States. All
would suffer seriously in two ways
through tariff retahation-by the in
creased cost of food to working classes
already too close to the starvation
| point, and by the loss of export trade
| with the United States.
PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE.