The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-27

and enlightened policy" said President
Mckinley at Buffalo, twill keep what We
have. No other policy viii get more"
1--WE must also remember, in dealing with
other nations" said President Roosevelt
(then Vice PresidenD at Minneapolis. Sept
2, that benefits must be given where ben
efts are sought" In other words. tri-
umphant as has been the progress Of Amer
lean industry in foreign lands. IL IS mere
arrogance to assume that IL will be per-
mitted to continue unimpeded at the ex-
pense of other nations, now that they have
realized its one-sided character, and the
grave danger it threatens to many of their
long-established industries, upon which
they were accustomed to depend for the
general prosperity of their people and the
maintenance Of their export trade That
President Mckinley had reached clear
realization of the adverse influences we
have thus set in motion is shown by an
other pungent sentence in his Buffalo
speech. 'In these times of marvellous en-
ergy and gain" said he, ''we ought to be
looking to the future, strengthening the
weak places in our industrial and CONNER
cial systems, that we may be ready for any
storm or strait"
SIGNIFICANT ACTION.
In the meantime, while we are debating
the question of reciprocity with increasing
heat, some of our great manufacturing in
terests have struck out boldly for them
selves in a wholly unlooked-for effort to
obtain the benefits of lower tariffs in for
eign countries, without awaiting the slow
and uncertain process of legislation by Con-
gress. The Westinghouse Company and
the manufacturers of our linotype machine,
we are told, are building plants in England,
so that they may export their products to
countries which impose their minimum tar
ifs upon English-made goods, and their
maximum tariffs upon American. To-
gether, these concerns, it is estimated, will
employ from 5000 to 5000 Englishmen in
place of as many Americans. If this move
ment becomes general, the injury to Amer
lean labor and to American industry gen.
orally is obvious. The New York Evening
Post of Oct 1 notes the recent purchase
of an English firm by the American To-
bacco Company, with the evident intention
CT conducting a branch OF its business on
English soil, and the acquisition by the
American glass trust of large, if not con-
trolling, interest in the Belgian glass fac
tories at Charleroi.
1t would, indeed, be a curious turn for
expansion to take it, after having built up
a great export trade at the expense of
European industry, it should suddenly set
to work to pull down the edifice 1T has
reared and to erect in its place a mightier
fabric for the benefit Of the very coun-
tries which have most dreaded spoliation
at its hands. 1t would still be expansion,
of course, for the American capitalists
engaged in these enterprises, for their
profits would be swollen by reduction of
freight charges and of customs duties, but
1t would be contraction of the direst kind
for American industry and trade in the
transfer of large part of the activity
of our workshops and factories to other
shores. Our exports of manufactures, in
stead of continuing to increase, would di-
minish, and that, too, not by reason of
hostile action on the part of foreigners,
but because our manufacturers find our
tariff relations with various countries
barrier to profits they naturally desire to
reap.
The obvious remedy would seem to be the
removal of the temptation to establish
American plants abroad. If we concluded
reciprocal agreements with the countries
now enforcing their higher tariff against
Us. the inequality would cease to exist. II
might still be advantageous, in some in
stances, for American capital to invest in
foreign enterprises, but there would no
longer be the inducement of lower tariff
rates, and the draft to foreign countries
would hardly become very serious. At pres
ent the movement is but in it's incipiency.
and its success or failure from the capt.
talistic point of view, is still a matter Of
speculation, but it cannot be doubted that
its possibilities are of grave import to our
future expansion. Added TO the other ele-
ments Of danger which have been described,
it emphasizes the pressing need of scien-
tific treatment of the subject, which is no
longer a mere factional or party question
but an issue of overshadowing Importance
to our national prosperity and power.
Washington, d. c.