The Paducah sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1898-1906, 1902-12-08
sTATECRAFT AND TRADE.
saturday Evening Post. }

will be, among business men and all
interested in public affairs, great deal
Of talk about "tradewsrs" and ICON.
mercial supremacy" and defending
home markets" and "conquering and
holding foreign markets" What do
these phrases meanS
Go into shop-it matters not
whether 1t is in Philadelphia or Pc
king, whether the merchant is for
eigner or native. You talk AMIGA
bly, With the merchant, not about poll
tics or geography or history, but about
the quality and price OF the article
you wish to buy. And II quality and
price are satisfactory, you pay your
money and take the article, and you
and the merchant part, each with a
contented mind, each in possession Of
that which he wished to obtain.
Again, you go to market to sell
goods you have grown or manufsc.
tured-it matters not whether the mar.
ket is in New York or Newton's
Crossroads or No Mans Land. You
find there, in an adjoining booth, .
merchant VINO has the same kind Of
goods as yours, but superior in quality
or price, or in both. Along comes q
customer. Naturally he buys Of your
neighbor. You say to yourself: my
goods are not mp to the standard. l
must go home and overhaul my pro-
cesses Of production so that | may
bring my goods up to the standard set
by this merchant; for what he can do,
l can do. And IL 1 can't am evil
IDENTIFY not competent to this line Of
production and should lose no time in
leaving 1t for some line at which am
competent.
Thus, whether we look at trade and
markets from the standpoint Of con-
sumner or producer, buyer or seller, we
find in them no suggestion Of violence,
NO call for guns, no point at which a
bsyonet could be wisely or proftsbly
introduced.
Do these belligerent phrases mean
that when you 20 selling you must
go with q revolver in either hand, so
that, 1t you meet IN the market mer-
chant with goods better and cheaper
than yours, you may point one reyol-
yer at his head and the other revolver
at the head Of the customer who was
about 10 prefer his goods to yours
II so, will you not presumably find
yourself in . fight with that merchant
which. whoever is victor, will eat up
all your profits, past and prospeotivel
Folly supplsnts wisdom in human
Affairs when men fail TO appreciate
two great, simple truths:
First, that human nature is bound
ID only by the circumference Of the
ssrth.
Second, that the laws of trade are
'ounded in human nature and govern |
like all transaction, large and small, |
oreign and domestic.
being formerly astonished," says .
lat the greatness Of some
fair, have been made acquainted
With their motives and address by
hose who had performed IT, and /
ave found nothing in il out very or
mary counsels. And the most com.
non and usual oounsels are indeed,
erhaps, the most sure for practice-if
ot for show"
"lf not for show"-aye, there's the
ub.
To treat trade as a mere matter of
eaceful exchange between two sensi-
10 men Of peaoe-there's NO show
bout that. To treat it AS matter for
he oogitation of interfering states
len, for the marshaling Of armies and
svies, for slAughterng customers in
tead of satisfying them-there' pro-
undity, there's ststeoraft. But 1t isn't
rade. And it isn't broad common
ense or progress. Nor is 1t profit.
mental, moral or material.
And all the palaver Of politicians
nd of predatory monopolists can't