West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1907-01-17
ylcAluous nESsyoLENcg
Depends ON Who Appeals TO Congress
10 Get Relief.

much OF the fruit 10 sell aC home
and he wished to ship the surplus to
Chicago. Suppose finally that the
railroad charges were so high that
he could not ship to Chicago with
out losing money. What would
that farmer naturally dor He
would go to congress, would he not,
and ask for a subsidy. He would
ask our benevolent carmakers to
give him a bonus on each box of
fruit large enough to enable him to
pay the freight and sell it at a profit
in the Chicago market. Such is
the habit of farmers, is it not7 And
when they ask for such a subsidy
they always get it. Or are we
dreaming1 Is it the farmers who
ask for subsidies to help pay the
shipping expenses of their crops, or
is II the millionaire trust magnates.
And is it the farmers who get the
subsidies and tariff bounties, or is
it the great monopolist masters of
congress1
1t is a dream indeed. One farmer,
or one thousand farmers, NAV see
their crops rot on the ground be-
cause Of high freight charges and
the serenity of congress and Mr..
Root and Mr.. Shaw is not dis
turbed in the least; but when GER
tain merchants have goods which
they wish to ship to South America
and which they can not ship with a
profit because the freight is too
high, then there is a hustling and
busting. Then the tongues of
statesmen begin to gag. Then
political philosophy bubbles forth
in bounteous abundance and we
hear of building up a magnificent
international trade. There is moth
ing quite so lovely in the world as a
merchant marine when a trust of
shipbuilders wants to make a grab
from the national treasury. Moth
ing In the heavens above or the
waters beneath is so altogether
beautiful as foreign commerce when
the plutocratic exporters wish the
American taxpayer to pay their
freight bills for them. But when
the ak swings round to the tariff,
then Mr.. Shaw turns pale and rends
his garments at the very thought of
foreign trade. Nothing is so bad
for the county as international
commerce when it threatens the di.
vine tariff; nothing so good as
foreign trade when it opens the way
to a grab for the millionaire ship
owners.
Inc domestic trade of this coun-
Try has made it great and prosper
ous. 1t is worth in dollars many
times over what our foreign trade
comes to or ever can. Our marine
upon the great lakes has hourlshed
and developed to imperial magni-
tude without subsidies, and so
would our ocean marine were the
barbarous laws which check and
blight it repealed. In regard to our
ocean marine we are like the half
witted farmer who set the brake on
his wagon and then wondered why
the horses could not pull the load.
He whipped and swore and tine
team tugged; but the wagon never
budged. His wife came out to look
on. "Wife, said he, az shall have
to buy another horse. This load is
too heavy for one pair to haul. "
"Before you buy another horse, my
dear, why don't You try the effect
of taking the brake Off" The man
stared in amazement at her lack of
craftsmanship. "That is just like
the folly of a woman" he replied,
contemptuously.
Despite the overwhelming impor.
lance of our domestic trade, laws to
facilitate it are wrenched from a re.
l%uctant government only after in
finite strivings. Such laws are un-
constitutional; they are direful pa
ternalismj they are hostile TO capi-
tall they are socialisuc. Congress
SHES al them the courts annul them
when they can. But nothing can
exceed the philosophical excellence
and the entire propriety Of laws
making donations TO foreign trade.
We are like the man who had a
gold mine that would have made
him rich, but he spent all it pro-
duced trying to raise cocoanuts in
Labrador. The gold mine is our
domestic trade. The cocoanuts are
the unproductive trade with foreign
countries which so excites the i'm
agination Of Mr.. Root and Mr..
Shaw.
Foreign trade is a good thing in
Us natural sphere, just as cocoanuts