The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-04-25

protective tariff Is continued Particu-
lar attention is paid to the effect OF
| slavery on the well-being of the coun-
try, and the probable outcome of the
threats of secession being made by the
south at the time this was written.
CONVERSATION VII-Continued.
The grand error of the political
; economists said Winslow. lis in Law.
/ ing down free trade as the true policy
| of all nations and at all times. Free
| trade is undoubtedly the true policy OF
England at present for her territory
/ is small and her greatness depends on
/ trade and industry. She does not and
cannot produce from her own land the
materials which are needed to supply
, her manufactures and her foreign
trade. The chief value of her exports
consists in the labor applied to raw
materials imported from abroad. Her
exports are chiefly products of her
industry not Of her agriculture. She
imports the raw material and exports
the manufactured article. and her
trade adds more to her land than it
takes from it; that is, by it more of the
products of the soil, which by return
ing enriches it, are consumed at home.
than she exports. Ireland however,
by the same system, is relatively i'm
poverished, for her manufactures are
comparatively few, her trade is Aim
tied and the mass of her populat ton
are employed in agriculture. a large
portion of the products of which is
consumed, not at home, hut export Il
and consumed out of the kingdom.
Hence the stern necessity which forces
so large proportion of her sons and
daughters to emigrate. although see
could, under a different system, easily
support a population twice as large
as the highest number to which her
population has as yet ever risen. This
emigration weakens Irel md regarded
as separate kingdom, put it enrichas
the empire, because the labor of those
who emigrate is employed. directly or
Indirectly, in cultivating the yet I'M
exhausted lands of the Union or of the
British colonies, and more advantage
ously to British trade than It would or
could be in Ireland
But in country like yours" re-
sumed De Bonneville, free trade is
the worst policy possible, especially
since you have reached that state in
which you can, with a little effort,
make your industry suffice for your
selves. 1t keeps you dependent on for
eign nations for the products of skilled
labor, exhausts your capital to pay Tor
foreign 'luxuries, which do and can
y
yo' of the profits of industrial labor.
You have little occasion to import the
raw material, for you produce or may
produce it for yourselves, and, there
fore, may save yourselves the profits of
both industry and agriculture. Under
free trade you apply your labor to ag-
riculture not to obtain the means of
sustaining a larger population, but to
obtain the means of carrying on a
larger trade. The products of your ag-
riculture go not to feed your people,
and to increase your capital, but to
support your commerce and to pur-
chase the products of foreign industry,
which add nothing to your national
wealth or strength, but really lessen
both
Trade enriches a nation concluded
De Bonneville, when it's exports de-
rive their chief value from labor and
skill; it impoverishes a nation when
they derive their chief value from the
land, for then it eXhausts the land, en-
hances the price of living, and the
country is able to sustain relatively
only smaller population. The gold
taken from the mines of California and
exported to England or France to pay
for luXuries consumed is simply so
much extracted from the capital of the
nation, and, under the economical point
Of view, thrown. away. The exchange
of the produce of the land for foreign
Injuries necessarily diminishes instead
Of adding to the national capital. You
should, therefore, aim to supply your
own markets with the manufactured
article, and to restrict your foreign
trade to the products of your indus
try, and the importation of such ar
ticles needed for your industry, as you
10 not or cannot produce at home.
That is, you should study to support
your foreign exchanges with the prod
IctS of industry, not as now, with the |
products the chief value of which is
derived from the land for then, in |
relation to foreign nations, you will |
i've within your income and not draw
IN your capital. In this. way you will |
make your own industry profitable, add |
o your national capital and have the |
means of sustaining a population OF
where now you can sustain |
)nly thousands, as may be seen, even
lnder the disadvantages of the present |
system of trade, by contrasting your !
rec states with your slaveholding |
states. You do not seem as yet to have
'eally escaped from your colonial de- !
,endence on the mother country: you /
'ollow her as a flock of sheep follow /
he bell-wether. When she adopted the
policy, you adopted the pro-
ective policy; when she adopts free
rade, you adopt free trade, and in
ther case without stopping a moment
o inquire whether the same policy OPP
rates alike in the two countries. or
whether the policy beneficial to the
me may not be ruinous to the other.
'he mercantile interest and that of
he owners of slave labor are no doubt
IDENTICAL with the interest of England
nd demand free trade, but they are
t war with the true interest and glory
f the American people as an indie
endent nation and first-class civil
zed power. The mercantile interest
epends more on the slaveholding in
crest than on any other one interest
n the country, and the slaveholding
interest is dependent almost entirely
n free trade, especially with Great
Britain. Here is your grand difficulty.
he antagonism between these inter
SITS on the one hand and those of the
.merican nation, regarded as a whole,
n the other, is so deep, so radical, that
see not how you can easily reconcile
:. 1t seems to me the United States
lust either fail to take their proper
lnk in the scale of nations, and grad
ally lapse into a semi-barbaric state,
= else the slave interest must be grad
ally suppressed and finally extin-
uished. 1 see no other alternative,
Mess the slaveholding states secede
: be driven from the Union. and form
slaveholding and planting republic
Y themselves, and such is the conclu-
on to which your ablest and most
larp sighted statesmen, especially of
lie south, are rapidly coming This
uch is evident, the slave interest, as
ng as it exists, must dictate the
olicy of the Union or be ruined 1t
ust govern, or be not at all, and the
states will not sub