Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-05-25
ECONOMIC ASPECT.
RECIPROCITY CONSIDERED
FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW.
The Forcing Oo5 Process OF Extending
Foreign Trade Has InvariAoly BASH
Attended with Serious Depression of
Domestic Industries.

Such IS the suggestive title OF lee
ture delivered before the students of
the College of Commerce in the Univer-
sity of California, on the evening of
April 4, by Mr.. John P. Young, of the
San Francisco Chronicle" Mr.
Young is the author of Protection and
Progress a work of great strength
and Importance, which made its ap-
pearance last year and attracted very
wide attention Ranking, as he does.
among the ablest economic writer's of
the day. Mr.. Young's views regarding
THE Economic Aspects of Reciprocity"
are sure to command respectful con-
sideration Inquiricx into the causes
of the rise and fall of nations, Mr..
Young makes the terse comment that
the cause of decay in most instances
was due to the failure of the defunct
to mind their own business" There is
pertinent sense in the remark that in
almost every case nations which en-
gagged in the work of empire building
pursued the economic course of neg
lecting the development of their home
resources" Economic backing is es
sential to permanency of government,
and solidarity is best promoted by de-
veIoping domestic industry. Advocates
of reciprocity ignore or fail to compre-
bend the wastefulness of trade artt-
ficially promoted. They see a chance
to sell larger quantities of machinery
to Russia by taking Russia's sugar on
terms more advantageous than those
granted to other countries; but they
do not see that sound economics re-
Quire that Russia shall make her own
machinery; that we shall produce all
the sugar we need, and that hauling
machinery and sugar back and forth is,
therefore, an unnecessary waste. They
fall into the Cobdenite error of think
ing that present cheapness is the only
thing to be considered and that the
people of today owe nothing to the
generations to come.
The wane of Egypt's power and pres
tige is traced by Mr.. Young directly to
the mistaken policy of Ramses Ill. In
opening up reciprocal trade relations
with Phoenicia and Syria Egypt fell
a prey to her more vigorous rivals, and
became a heterogeneous population
without national aspiration, "a con-
dition which inevitably ensues when
the solidarity of interests which a pros
porous domestic industry promotes Is
impaired by exchanging commercial
independence for a state of depend
ence upon foreigners" The manufac-
turers of Egypt and of Rome, says Mr..
Young, were constantly trying to push
their surplus wares on other peoples,
and, like some moderns who are clam
oring for an "open door," they over
looked the, fact that when a door is
opened it permits egress as well as in
gress. In short, they suffered the ex-
perience through which Great Britain
is now passing. the destruction of do
nestle industry through the flood of
rival products that followed the fore
ing open of the trade doors of foreign
ers. The interests of individuals will
always prompt them to adopt methods
which consider their own advance
ment at the expense of the community.
1t should be the aim of statesmen to
restrain and not promote this tenden-
cy. 1t is a powerful enough factor
when unaided, and influences the des-
TIMES of men sufficiently without the
direct help of lawmakers.
In conclusion Mr.. Young says it may
be urged that a national policy such
as here outlined is narrow and selfish,
but reflection will convince any I'M
biased person that in the long run its
operation will prove universally bene-
fetal. Certainly it is no great eco
nomic achievement for a nation to
flourish in brilliancy for a short pc
riod and then decay. But that is the
fate which has overtaken many COM
mercial nations. and it seems to be
the destiny of Great Britain to share
1t. When writer like Mallock ceolly
tells his countrymen that they must
consider the propriety of emigrating as
soon as their coal mines are worked
out, he indictS the system he extols,
for he virtually advises a reversion to
nomadic conditions. That is what the
forcing-out process tends to. Through
out the ages it has resulted in the
shifting about of commercial centers,
and is responsible for the attendant
evils 1t has made industrial people
campers by the side of raw materials.
Today they are exerting themaelves to
get rid of the bounties of nature as
speedily as possible; at some future
day they will be compelled to abandon
the field of their operations because it
is worked out, and resort to other
countries, perhaps the very ones upon
which they lavished the surplus they
should have conserved. This is not
intelligent. nor is it economic. There
ought to be a more rational scheme,
but it will not develop until economists
begin to teach that synchronous uni
versal development promises better re-
suits than those attained by pursuing a
course which operates to prevent the
advancement of backward peoples. II
the world were created for the enjoy
ment of the existing generation, the
fcrcin nrncaSS might haro c1u,o