Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-06-08
LESSON OF THE AGE.
TAUGHT BY ENCLAND'S PRES
EMIT FISCAL POSITION.
Tho Leading Free-Trade Country In the
World Finds ITSELF Sinking Deeper Into
Debt at the Rate of over Half q
Billion Dollars In the Past Two Years


200 for the two years 1900-'O1, 1901
'c2, with it's accompanying causes and
effects, teaches one of the most i'm
portant economic lessons of the age.
In spite OF the abandonment of pro-
lection in 1886, England seemed to
prosper for nearly thirty years, con-
dition due to the impetus of her 400
years of protection, just as a ball pro-
PEELED by force will roll up an incline
till overcome by the law of gravita-
ton. About 1874 England reached the
point where she could no longer resist
the inevitable law of commercial grav-
1ty, and, first coming to a standstill,
slowly began rolling backward with
increasing rapidity. Her enormous de-
felt has increased her debt to nearly
$500. O0O, 600, and with the anticipated
new loans, it will soon approximate
$4,000, 000, 900, or 800 per capita, as
compared with s14 per capita in the
United States. Here alone is not only
a continued interest burden, but
legacy to the next generation that will
hardly be. welcome.
But this is not all. England is no
longer loaning money to the world;
she is borrowing abroad. She is pass
ing from a creditor to a debtor nation.
She is reaping in earnest the fruits of
free trade and an adverse volume OF
trade. For the last few years she has
been selling back millions of American
securities, and her annual dividends
and interest charges are decreasing.
She has gone backward in everything
but her shipping, and that is the only
thing she protects
And it is needless to say that this
Srr1,% ,s>lz
self is due to the South African war.
That might temporarily increase ex-
penditures and add to the national
debt. But within the last three years
the United States has conquered a
much mightier nation and has over
come an instruction. Yet we have a
surplus in the treasury, and our finan-
ciers are lending money not only to
England but to Germany and other
European countries.
Gould We have done it in 1895? No.
We had to borrow money then for or
binary expenses. Why could we do it
a few years later? Because we substi-
tuted protection for free-trade. Be-
cause we began again to manufacture
for ourselves. Because we employed
our own people at American wages.
Because an adverse balance of trade
became a favorable balance to the
amount of $500, 900 900 and more an
nually. We have not only added to our
material wealth, but we h. re acquired
credit of 50 ,0OO, 00O. 900 on the worlds
ledger, and large part of it can be
found in our account with Great Brit
ain. And when we stop that little
ocean freight bill of $20O, 100000 year
we shall be still better off. 1t is now
admitted that England was never in
a worse plight and that she is drifting
to financial ruin. Sir William Har-
court says she is worse off than at the
close of the French war and that the
recent statement of Sir Michael Hicks
Beach, chancellor of the excheQuer, was
the most disastrous that the exchequer
had ever made.
We need not concern ourselves over
the outcome; it is not our funeral. Let
British economists and British parlia-
mentarIans find and apply the remedy
if one is to be had. But the lesson
should be needed and studied. 1t is
the more apparent because of Lie com
parison with the finances of the United
States. We are today enjoying the
greatest prosperity ever known by our
own or any other people. We are
more fully employed, we are producing
and consuming more, we are selling
more abroad, we are increasing our
foreign credit, we are reducing our ma
tional debt. we are loaning money to
other nations, end, best of all, we are
maintaining and increasing the
highest wage rate known to
mankind.
And yet only five years ago all these
conditions were reversed. The time is
too recent to need reiteration of our
condition. But the lesson to be drawn
from a comparison of our national
and individual condition now and then
and from comparison with England s
pitiable plight is only too full of
meaning and moral.
We do not have to reason from I'M
solved problems or guess at riddles.
There are certain economic truths es-
tablished beyond question. One is that
If We buy more than we sell we shall
A time become bankrupt. Borrowing
and bonds do not pay the bill. An
other truth is that an individual or ma
ton who is idle and does not produce
an equivalent of what is consumed will
soon become ruined. These two eco
nomic laws are the great lessons of
the age, proved beyond question by
actual results both at home and
abroad. There is no need to study
Adam Smith or John Stuart Mill to-
day Study the existing conditions OF
the past decade and the practical