The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-11
Mr.. Chamberlain Programme In
Detail.

Mr.. Chamberlain's Programme In
Detail.
We have seen that Premier BALFouR,
in his speech at Sheffield, was unable or
unwilling to say how he would use the
power which he asked the British cleo
torate to give him-the power, namely,
Of levying customs duties on the prod
ucts Of foreign countries. All that he
would or could say was that he should
use the lever placed at his disposal
for the purpose Of negotiating reci-
procity treaties, or, il such treaties
should be unobtainable, Of exer-
cising retaliation. In other words, he
asked his fellow countrymen to renounce
the free trade policy to which they have
attributed their prosperity for more
than fifty years, in blind reliance on his
ability to improve their actual and pro-
spective condition. Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN,
in his speech at Glasgow, makes no such
draft on the confidence or the oredul-
ity of the British voters. He tells them
precisely what he wants to do, his motive
for doing it, and how he hopes to do it
without increasing the cost Of living.
Let US look at Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN
programme, now that it has been explic-
lily defined, first glanoing, however, at
the motive which. as he says, impels him
to advocate change in the traditional
fiscal system. He shows that during the
last thirty years the total export trade
of the United Kingdom has increased at
40 slow a rate that, as compared with
the contemporaneous export trade OF
Germany or the United States, it may be
said to have remained stationary. The
diminishing factor in that total has been
the exports to protected foreign coun-
tries; the only encouraging factor has
been the exports to Great Brtain's trans
marine dependencies, and to those coun-
| tries where the British manufacturer
could meet his German or American rival
on equal terms
There is no reason to expect any i'm
provement in the demand for British
manufactures in protected foreign coun-
tries; on the contrary, that demand
seems likely to 60 on diminishing For
obvious reasons, it is unsafe to rely on the
retention of free access to all OF the ex-
istinp neutral markets-to the markets
of China, for example Neither can the
British manufacturer count upon keep
ing his present hold upon the colonial
markets, if things are allowed to drift as
for some decades they have been drift
ing. Thirty or forty years ago, had a
preference then been offered to the food
products and raw materials of Canada
and Australia it might have been
possible for Great Britain to monopo-
lie the market of those great DEEPEN
denotes for manufactured articles. In
der such circumstances they would not
have been tempted to foster by pro-
lection manufactures of their own. Even
now there are certain kinds of manufact-
ures which Canada or Australia does not
produce The demand for such articles
British manufacturers can supply ex-
clusively, if they will consent to give a
preference in the British market to colo
NAL food products and raw materials.
Moreover the colonial demand for many
articles OF British manufacture may be
expected to increase in proportion to the
augmented ability of the Colonies to pay.
That augmented ability to pay will be
due to the expanded output of food
products and raw materials caused by
the preference conceded in the British
market.
This is the gist Of Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN 8
argument, so far as it ia addressed to the
individual interests of the British manu-
facturer and the British workman. We
pass over the appeal to their national
interests, based on the assumption,
probably we'll founded, that the British
Empire cannot be long held together by
ties of sentiment alone. The objection
to Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN main argument
is that the British workman ia invited to
submit to an immediate increase in the
price of bread for the sake of future
and hypothetical expansion Of his ex-
port trade. We say hypothetical, be-
cause IL is by no means certain that an
increased colonial demand for British
manufactures will not be more than
offset by diminished demand for such
articles on the part Of those foreign
countries whose food products and raw
materials are subjected to adverse dis
elimination in the British market Ir
other words, the British workman II
invited to accept distant and dubious
benefit in exchange for an immediate
and indubitabe injury, the increased
cost Of loaf Of bread
This objection, also, Mr. CHAMBERLAIN