Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-08-23
rolled up. In the aggregate exports and
imnnrtS of merchandise the s.. OOO. OOO.- |

rolled up. In the aggregate exports ana
imports of merchandise the S3,0OO,OOO,-
600 mark has been almost reached. In
the fiscal year 1906 the exports aggre-
gated S1,744,0OO,O 100000 and the i'm
ports 81, 226,000,000. In each item the
highest figures of the past were left far
behond. We sold to the outside world
double as much merchandise in the
Roosevelt year just ended as we did in
Clevelands year just ten years earlier
The balance of trade in our favor,
which was S104,000,OO0 in 1896, was
uuintupled in 1906, when it reached
s51S000,000. If we count silver as mer-
chandise, as we ought to do, although
the governments boOkkeepers persist
in putting it in a class by itself, the
S3,OOO,O00000 mark in the aggrega, -.
merchandise exports and imports would
be left far behind, and the balance in
our favor on the trade account with the
outside world would be S557 100000.
Chairman Sherman's spellbinders
must be instructed to present those fig
ures with a good deal of prominence
during the campaign. Leader Sherman
must also impress upon them the even
more significant fact that the exports
Of manufactures have increased faster
than those Of any other class of goods
which we sent out While the exports
Of agriculture have increased 4S per
cent in the past ten years, the exports
Of manufactures have increased 1876 per
cent In the fiscal year 1906 we sold
over S600,0OO,O00 in manufactures to
the rest of the world. Here is the real
test of the strength of our industrial
system as created by the tariff. At the
outbreak of the rebellion the United
States was still virtually an agricul-
tural country. Under the operation of
the Republican tariff system the United
States made such advances in the f
twenty years of Republican power t..
we gained the first place among the
countries of the world in the extent of
our manufactures by 1890 beating the
United Kingdom in that year, and our
lead has been steadily lengthening ever
since. The tariff has been the principal
cause of our pre-eminence in this field.
BY the protection which it has given
the home producer, the tariff has in
cted discovery and invention, con-
structed labor-saving appliances. devel-
oped the capabilities of our people and
diversified their activities, caused do
nestle competition, and, while defend
ing the producer against concerted for
eign attacks, has reduced the cost and
improved the quality of all sorts of
commodities to the American consumer.
These advances have enabled US to
reach out farther and farther for for
become inadequate, and thus Europe
has encountered what it calls the
American commercial INVASION" The
tariff can claim a large share of the
credit for these conquests at home and
abroad. Manifestly, a system which
has revoiutionized the whole industrial
scheme Of the United States, which
has given US greater prosperity than
was ever known before in any part Of
the world, and which has placed our
country so far IN the lead in wealth
that it is ahead Of its two nearest riv-
ais combined, will have something to
say for itself In the canvass of 1906
The Republican party, as the creator
and the defender of the tariff, will have
sAne powerful arguments re6dy to its