Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1901-05-23
LESSON OF THE AGE.
TAUGHT BY ENGLAND'S RECENT
FISCAL CONDITION.
The Leading Free-Trade Country of
the World Finds Itself Getting Deep
err Into Debt at the Rate OF Over Half
a Billion Dollars the Past Two Years.

100000 for the two years 19O0-O1, 1901
OF, with its accompanying causes and
effects, teaches one Of the most import
ant economic lessons of the age. In
spite of the abandonment of protection
in 1916, England seemed to prosper for
nearly thirty years, condition due to
the impetus Of her 400 years of protec
ton, just as ball propelled by force
will roll up an incline till overcome by
the law Of grayitation. About 1874
England reached the point where she
could no longer resist the inevitable
law Of commercial gravity, and, first
coming to a standstill, slowly began
rolling backward with increasing rapid
ity. Her enormous deficit has increas
ed her debt to nearly $780, 900, 600,
and with the anticipated new loans, 1t
will soon approximate $4,000, 900, 600,
or $40 per CAPITA as compared with $14
per capita in the United States. Here
alone is not only a continued interest
burden, but legacy to the next gen
Grafton 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 passing
from creditor to 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 Sc
curities, 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
plight in which England now finds her
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 Eu-
rOpean countries.
Could 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 $5O,0O0,OOO and more an
nually. We have not only added to
our material wealth, but we have ac-
quired credit of $2,00O,00O,0 on the
worlds ledger, and a large part of it
can be found in our account with Great
Britain. And when we stop that little
ocean freight bill of 5000, 100000 a year
we shall be still better off. 1t is now
admitted that England was never in
worse plight and that she is drifting to
financial ruin. Sir William Harcourt
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 has
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 the compari-
son with the finances of the United
States. We are to-day 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 national
debt, we are loaning money to other ma
tons, and, best Of all, we are main
tanning 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 a reiteration of our
condition. But the lesson to be drawn
from comparison Of our national and
individual condition now and then and
from a comparison with England's pit
liable plight is only too full of meaning
and moral
We do not have to reason from IN
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
in time become bankrupt. Borrowing
and bonds do not pay the bill. Anoth-
er truth is that an individual or nation
| who is idle and does not produce an
equivalent of what is consumed will
soon be ruined These two economic
laws are the great lessons of the age,
proved beyond question by actual re
suits 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 teaching will suffice
for ALL And it is the more important
that we give heed to these great les