New-York tribune., 1903-07-17
MR.. CHAMBERLAIN's POLICY.
How Prosperity Is Produced by Free Trade
Source of England's Wealth.
To the Editor of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir; 1 notice my proposition that IF protection
were wealth giving panacea China and Morocco
would now be the most prosperous countries in the
world" qualified a far fetched comparison
Wishing to make my sense clearer. should like
TO add some observations TO my previous utter
ances-that protection is only a feeble reed on
which to lean, economically speaking and that the
principles Of free trade cannot be and are not
really effaced by tariff; that they actually are
acting now in this very community. impossible as
1t may appear, in spite OF trammels and tariffs.
How this comes to be, how, when and by whom
the tariffs paid. all questions easily an
swered by practising a simple analysis on any
given object or commodity bought or sold within
the area covered by any given protective policy
which shows that the public indirectly suosidlzes
protected industries.
1t may be said that the public can and is willing
70 pay the subsidy have the pleasure of using
American goods as much possible. or because 1t
believes it TO be 4 wise sacrifice looking to the
future. Quite so, but thing is certain and that
is that the public would not make the sacrifice II II
could not afford 1t, and practice shows II can az
ford it because it is prosperous public. And that II
is prosperous is due to the tariffs which we see
are an extra burden but to the development OF It's
natural resources the production of wheat and cot
ton in sufficient quantities TO supply it's needs, and
to place abroad enormous credit to its favor
with which it imports what 1t wants and the rest
buys at home dearer than It need do
The day that IT be proved that the tariffs have
had one atom of influence the agricultural de-
velopment OF this country. or on the inventing Of
such ingenious agricultural machinery as 1t pos
sesses, that day it will be proved that protection
has made or contributed to make this country what
1t is And If natural resources are the foundation
of such prosperity and wealth see, these an
swer to the great principles of free trade. which
are in full activity apart from the incident of lower
or higher tariffs, which affect only the imports If
the exports are the of her wealth. then she
owes the latter to free trade.
This has been aided by the better education which
has enabled its inhabitants to give good account
of its natural resources with the significant and re-
arkable circumstance that these exports precisely
and mainly go to a free trade country, England.
Therefore American prosperity finds its basis in the
full liberty TO export here. and the full liberty to
import there that is doubly indebted 70 free trade
England in way is the loser. On the contrary,
she gets from abroad what she requires cheaply,
with artificial charge. and exports in spite of
tariffs and trammels her natural resources: that is
cheap coal For what are her manufactured goods
but coal-cheap coal. cheap steam. cheap power
derived from COAL which she discovered and eX-
tracted from the bowels of the earth eighty years
before anybody else thought of it? Other coun-
tries are now mining COAL and they compete with
her IN the measure OF the comparative cheapness
dearness, quantity or quality Of what they ex-
tract and also in the degree of intelligence with
which it is put to use.
If We now 20 back England 1t would be impor-
tent to know which is her greatest industry, her
greatest source of wealth, and it would be no less
than revelation to know that she owes it, not TO
her own efforts much to the aid OF others, her
enemies in trade It is her shipping trade. Being
the carrier of the world is what England prides
herself on most and the means whereby she has
principally enriched herself. Can such an industry
be anything but free trade?
What London. Liverpool, Glasgow but huge
stores to supply each country of the world with
what she lacks and another produces? What is the
London merchant but commission agent accurnu-
IatiRg millions through simple percentage on this
gigantic transaction?
The best authorities in England deny any shrink
age in the bulk of her trade, and If some Of her
industries suffering at the hands of competitors
she will yet hold the monopoly of the greatest in
dustry of all as long Mr.. Chamberlain does not
succeed in destroying it Cwhat he proposes is only
the beginning). and long as the countries favor
II IN the most effective by laying obstacles
and trammels in the way of their own commerce
much say, Il will have none Of that lucra-
tive industry. the greatest in the world probably,
and let help England to keep it to herself and
to her advantage only
MARQUIS TORRE HERMOsA.
NeWpnrt r l. July 1S 1903.