The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-29
American Economic Association
Discusses international Trade
and Economic Theories and
Other Live Topics of the Day
MASSACHUSETTS, MEN
AMONG THE SPEAKERS
Brooks Adams Enters Plea Of
Justification For Commercial
and Even Military Warfare
to Maintain Our Commercial
SUPREMACY

Washington, Dec. 2S.-The American
Economic Association devoted its
morning session today to a discussion
of international trade and the after
noon session to economic theories.
Brooks Adams of Quincy, Mass. in in
terpreting the recent expansion of the
foreign trade of the United States, en-
tered a plea of justification for COM
mercial and even military warfare to
maintain the commercial supremacy of
country. He reviewed the economic
conditions of the United States and sur
veyed the rise and fall of governments
in the past.
Worthington C. Ford, chief of the
department of statistics in the Boston
Public Library, gave succinct review
of the commercial policy of Europe, in
which he contended that free trade
would be the outcome Of a threatened
breakdown of the "superstructure of
the general tariff conditions" of Eu-
Erope The greatest question today, &C
cOrding to his view, was food supply.
All European countries, he said, were
DESTROYS of being self-sufficient, which
he pictured as an impossibility. IN the
tariff policies of Europe, he said, the
most favored nation clause had been
practically eliminated.
Professor H. C. Emery of Yale also
discussed this subject Charles A. Tut
tie of Charlottesville Ind, described
the workman's position in the light Of
economic progress and cOntended that
trades unionism and collective barg2A l.
ing profit sharing and industrial arbi-I
tration all signified that the workman
has a quasi property right in the busi-
ness in which he is employ
At the afternoon session pc" byI
Thomas n. Carvery of Ha. nd Uni
versitv. discussed Some Theoretical
Possibilities of a Protective Tariff, a."
and sought to show that a tariff duty
is not necessarily paid by the home
consumer; also that a protective tariff
may be so framed as to raise wages as
well as to attract labor and capital
from the less productive into the more
productive industries, judged from the
standpoint of the community rather
than from that of the individual bust
ness man.
The third session of the day was held
this evening and two papers. THE
Negro in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta,
by Alfred H Stone of Greenvilfe. Miss
and Cancellation and Arbitration
Among Miners" by Herman JUST.
commissioner of the Illinois Coal
Operators Association, We're listened to
trayed the condition of negro labor In
the northwestern part of Mississippi,
where the blacks represent some 81 per
cent of the population. Here more than
elsewhere, he said, the methods and
! traditions of the old plantation system
are preserved. Race troubles and con-
| f1icts are unknown, and this was not
| due. he contended, to a sedentary popu-
Ilation. but rather to the preponderance
of the blacks, which draws a sharp line
! between the laboring classes and the
| directive classes. The absence Of the
white laborer keeps alive the instructive
respect for the white man, which
makes harmonious relations possible.
! In conclusion. the speaker related his
personal experience as plantation
manager with a system of operation
which was designed to overcome some
| of the weak points in customary con-
tracts and insure a greater measure OF
! independence for the laborers.
Mr.. JUST described the methods pur-
sued with respect to the coal mining
! industry Of Illinois in the settlement Of
disputes and the prevention of strikes
| by friendly council where self-contrOl
| is the governing factor. His expert
ence had shown the importance of
promptness where differences or dis
putes had arisen, because the longer
! the most trifling differences are allowed
to remain unadjusted, the more serious
| they became and the more difficult Of
settlement. He did not hold, he said,
that the conditions in Illinois are ideal,
! but no one could deny their marked
| Improvement and the hopeful outlook.
| With respect to the standing of labor
| organizations before the law, he could
not agree with the contention advanced
by many persons, that the remedy for
abuses practiced by employers and en-
ployes is to be found in legislation,
which would only work injury to labor
and increase the difficulties of the en-
ployer.
He closed by saying that the strong,
exacting. enlightened public opinion of
a free people is better than law courts
or restrictive laws.