Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-04-04
OUR FOREIGN TRADE
WORLD MARKETS COMPARED
WITH THE DOMESTIC MARKET.
Before We Can Greatly Increase Our
Nearly $4,000, 100000 of Exports
We Shall Be Obliged to Reduce
Wages in Order to Lower the Cost
of Production.

quotes the Omaha Bee as warning the
interests that are clamorous for ship
subsidy that "big foreign trade and
highly protected domestic trade are
inconsistent and cannot long exist to-
gether." The Post adds:
Foreign trade means exchange of
products, and it means nothing else
Before it can prosper, the duties on
such products in the tariff schedules
must be enormously decreased.
so it is reduced to this: We must
let the foreign trade slide or abandon
tariff for protection only, with Incl
dental revenue"
Neither the Bee nor the Post seems
to have kept in mind the fact that
rather big foreign trade and very
big protected domestic trade are 60
| ing so well together that in little
! less than ten years of unbroken pro-
lection our foreign trade has prac-
tically doubled. Under a protective
tariff we buy of foreign countries
goods of the value of $1,000, 100000
year, and of these imports more than
! S700,000,000 worth are competitive
Under a protective tariff we sell to
the outside world of our products
more than $1,000, 100000 worth year.
This makes our total exchange of
products amount to considerably more
than SO 900 900. 900 If we should enor-
mously decrease our duties on COM
petitive products and abandon our tar
iff for protection with incidental rev.
enue for a tariff for revenue with
practically no protection, we should
be paying a heavy price for such in
crease-if any-of foreign trade as
might result from such a lapse back
ward to free trade. Could we afford
to pay the price? Could we maintain
our present purchasing power alike
for foreign and domestic products
after we had reduced the American
standard of wage earning through the
necessity of competing with the prod
ucts of foreign payrolls averaging one
half the American payroll? Most GER
tainly not. In such a condition we
should doubtless by heavy wage re
ductions continue to supply our own
necessities of the cheaper grades, but
our purchases of foreign luXuries
would fall off enormously as conse
quence OF vastly diminished volume
of wage payments.
We are inclined to agree with the
Omaha Bee that "big" foreign trade
a trade swelled to twice or thrice the
current $3,200,000,000 dimensions by
means of heavy increases in our ex
ports of manufactures, will never
come while protection remains tt
guard a domestic market worth $50,
600 100000 To put it another way
our country will never be able to mo
nopolize the manufacturing of The
world while our wage rate is kept a
a figure more than double the wage
rate of the rest of the world. If thi
; is what the Bee means by big
, foreign trade we are Of the sam'
) opinion.
In order to quickly or greatly in
crease our exports of manufacture
-. we should be compelled to lower on
production cost; that is, our labo
cost Even then the desired resul
might not be realized. A genera
reduction of labor cost in the Unite
: States would inevitably be followe
4 by a corresponding reduction OF labo
: cost in every competing country. Il
+ consequence we should have a un
versal reduction of wages and stanC
, ards of living, a universal decrease G
.. purchasing and consuming power
while the fight for both domestic an
foreign markets would continue III
abated. The only difference would
i that the contest would be conducte
n on a lower basis of labor cost. BY S
S much the whole world would be tn
i poorer. Nothing gained; much lost
e We do not think the American pet
y pie will soon decide to purchase
S big" foreign trade at such frightfl
cost. 1t is far more likely that W
shall-with occasional lapses int
tariff reform" folly, such as the laps
II of 1892, and the threatened lapse {
e 190S-continue to keep our wae
I. standard and our standard of buyin
p and consuming up to the protectio
s level, while at the same time steadi
u increasing the bulk of our dealing
with other nations because of a grea
er ability to crafty our tastes and d
sires for articles of foreign produ
ticn. Is not that a more desirable +
v suit than to struggle for big fo
o eign trade that we cannot and ougl
e not to get-for foreign labor as we
d as our own labor has right to
n employed-a trade that would co
far more than it was worth? There
not much doubt as to the reply of Il
=, voters to such a question.
w Never Knew the Difference.
- IL the tariff is reduced and fOreii