Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1903-05-06


E4zGazz55kSESSc9 That our exports and imports are
always equal in value; that any apparent excess Of
axpOrts can always be accounted for in imports Of
an invisible character; that the amount of countrys
foreign trade does not depend upon its power to
undersell other countries nor upon the worlds ca
pacity to absorb its goods but upon the capacity of
its people to consume the goods which other cOun-
tries have to sell.
In demonstrating his propositions Professor
johnson declares that all money spent abroad by
travelling Americans, all money paid to foreign
ships for carrying our produce, all interest
paid abroad on foreign Investments must be reckon
ed as imports Just as truly though the sums
were expended for foreign goods. This is correct,
for anything which offsets our balance OF trade may
properly be considered as an import But it is next
to silly to assume In the face Of financial facts well
known to everyone that the amounts so expended
In foreign countries equal the of exports
over both visible and invisible imports cannot 90
on for generation after geneTatiOn-up to the point
indeed, where the accumulated wealth OF all the
rest Of the world has become exhausted in paying
for it.
We may fatty contradict the statement "that ex-
ports and imports are always equal in value; that
any apparent excess Of exports can always be ac-
counted for in invisible Imports" Since 1896 the
excess OF our exports has been a round $1,000 O00,
600. We have sold goods at profit in foreign
countries which we would not have sold at home.
We have expended much of his profit it is true
in travel and other foreign expenditures but never
theess the bulk OF it has been added TO the saved
wealth of our country, and taken from the
saved wealth of other countries as surely as two
and two make four. We are quite aware, OF course,
that the pentitude of capital in the United States
ts not due wholly, or even in great part, to our
hOurishing trade. But the fact remains that when
our exports began to exceed our imports we began
to pay of debts which owed in foreign countries
we'll to make large investments the seas
Recently, in tracing the matter of settling huge
balances of trade an expert OF the treasury depart
ment showed that great sums had been used in buy
ing back American securities held abroad. Other
huge sums were accounted for ia investments made
by Americans in European enterprises. And
knowing that the most of the manufactures and
other articles sold abroad we're surplus products
which could not have been consumed at home, we
are warranted in claiming that every dollar of our
export trade in excess Of our import trade a
dollar added to the commercial and industrial
wealth Of our country.
Professor johnson pretty nearly proves the con-
verse OF his own proposition in the course of his
article. He notes that If nation would preserve
itself from exhaustion, it must export as much as it
imports in some form. England for example, i'm
ports in visible produce twice much she ex-
ports. But England earns huge sums with her car
rying trade, from her interest foreign Investments
from her enterprises in other countries, and these
should be credited the export side just surely
as we charge our own expenditures abroad to the
import side of the ledger But if it is true that
country can be exhausted by not exporting as much
as Bne imports, Gnen IL must De equay true bnab q
country which exports s taking something from the
other party to the tradeis prOiting by her excess
Of Imports In short that which is one country's
loss must be another cOuntrys gain, and, when
Professor Johnson coniesses thata country may be
exhausted and ruined by the bad condition of its
foreign irade he must admit the error Of his prima
ry statement that there can be such thing a
balance of trade for or against a nation.
It is Just plain common sense that if we employ
the industrial forces Of the land in producing things
which find profitable market, whether at home or
abroad, we add to our national wealth in proper
ton to the extensiveness of the trade. In q large
degree our exports represent productions which
could have been by no possibility consumed at
home It follows that the more we can sell abroad
the better able we to realize on resources.
The idea that nation abroad cannot or will not
buy of us more than we buy Of them is simply fatu.
ous We know that in private life one individual
may expend to the profit Of another all Of his
accumulated savings. The laws governing nations
are not different from the laws governing individ-
uals Professor johnson might raise the moral
question of whether OF not we are justified in ex-
bausting other nations, but he cannot sustain the
proposition that such an exhaustiOnds impossible
or that we do not profit nationally By our expand
ing ioreige trade.
The political pot is merely simmering around the
"a H~sH