Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1903-05-09
MEANING OF FREE TRADE.
Professor Hewins Speaks About Free
Trade In Great Britain,

Trade In Great Britain.
London Times: Sir Robert Reid, K.
c., M. p, presided on Wednesday at
the forty-eighth dinner of the Political
and Economic Circle Of the National
Liberal club. Professor w. A. s. Hew-
ms delivered an address on Free
Trade: What 1t Is. What 1t Is Not" He
said that the subject suggested a
dehniteness which in reality 1t did not
possess. The significance attached to
the word free trade was constantly
changing, and they always had to in
terpret it In regard to the politics and
the industrial position of the period in
which it was used. The country might
pursue one of four policies. In the first
place, it might say that the scheme
Of commercial policy sketched by Cob
den n colleagues was a policy to ex-
list for all time. Secondly-and he
thought this vas an extreme hypothesis
the United Kingdom might revert
to the policy Of protection. He did not
think it would, but there were a great
many influential people who believed in
it. The third policy was that the
United Kingdom should gradually con-
solidate with the different colonies and
dependencies. That was that they
should break down all possible existing
tariffs so that there SHOULD be no more
differences between the United King
dom and New Zealand than there
were between the United Kingdom and
Yorkshire. The fourth possible policy
was that the country should deliberate
ly introduce the system of tariffs aimed
at consolidating the empire by giving
distinctive protective advantages to the
colonies.
The question of the future was real
ly a great constructive problem; 1t was
a question that was bound up with
politics and all kinds Of forces, social
and political. What they had to do was
to observe as much as possible the free
trade traditions of the past generations,
out at the same time they should keep
an open mind on the subject. They
must not blind themselves to the pres
ent position and necessarily try to
make out that the policy of forty years
ago was the policy Of today. The ques-
ton they had to face was that of i'm
perial consolidation.
In the discussion which followed,
many OF the speakers dissented from
the views expressed by Professor Hew-
ms, and supported the present system
of free trade as a matter of principle.
Mr.. Reeves (agent general for New
Zealand), however, urged that they
should not make q fetish Of any doc
trine or be led away by false historical
assumptions. The chairman expressed
the view that free trade was q branch
of human liberty, and that the less they
interfered with industry the better 1t
was for all. In other words, the more
money governments tried to take out
OF u pockets the less they would
leave for us, n the more restrictions
they sought to impose Upon our enter
prise the more they harassed our en-
terprise and interfered with what
probably they very imperfectly under
stood. Our relations with the colonies
should not be mixed up in business
discussions and business quarrels, with
Squabbles about tariffs and the taxa
ton of commodities. He could see
nothing but difficulty and danger in the
idea of an imperial zollverein between
this country n the colonies. Eco
nomic heresies should not be put for
ward with the idea that we should ben-
eft the colonies or ourselves. Votes
of thanks were passed to Professor
Hewins and the chairman, and the pro-
ceedings closed.