Charlevoix county herald., 1907-03-30
OUR FOREIGN TRADE
WORLD MARKETS COMPARED
WITH THE DOMESTIC MARKET.
Before We Can Greatly Increase Our
Nearly s2,ooo,ooo,o 900 of Exports
We Shall Be Obliged to Reduce
Wages in Order to Lower the Cost
of Production.

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.
80 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 a
rather big foreign trade and very
big protected domestic trade are go
ing so well together that in little
less than ten years of unbroken pro-
lection our foreign trade has prac-
tically doubled. Under protective
tariff we buy of foreign countries
goods of the value OF $1,300,000, 900 a
year, and Of these imports more than
500, 100000 worth are competitive
Under protective tariff we sell to
the outside world of our products
more than 81 800, 900, 900 worth year.
This makes our total exchange of
products amount to considerably more
than $3,000,0O0, 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 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-
auctions continue to supply our own
necessities of the cheaper grades. but
our purchases OF foreign Injuries
would fall off enormously as conse-
quence Of a vastly diminished volume
of wage payments.
We are inclined to agree with the
Omaha Bee that big foreign trade,
trade swelled to twice or thrice the
current S3.20O,OO0,O00 dimensions by
means of heavy increases in our ex-
ports of manufactures. will never
come while protection remains to
guard domestic market worth $780,
000, 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 at
figure more than double the wage
rate of the rest of the world. If this
is what the Bee means by a big
foreign trade we are of the same
opinion.
In order to quickly or greatly in
crease our exports of manufactures
we should be compelled to lower our
production cost; that is, our labor
cost. Even then the desired result
might not be realized. A general
reduction of labor cost in the United
States would inevitably be followed
by a corresponding reduction of labor
cost in every competing country In
consequence we should have a uni
versal reduction of wages and stand
ards of living, a universal decrease of
purchasing and consuming power,
while the fight for both domestic and
foreign markets would continue I'm
abated. The only difference would be
that the contest would be conducted
on lower basis of labor cost BY so
much the whole world would be the
poorer. Nothing gained; much lost.
We do not think the American peo-
pie will soon decide to purchase a
big" foreign trade at such frightful
cost. 1t is far more likely that we
shall-with occasional lapses into
tariff reform" folly, such as the lapse
of 1892. and the threatened lapse of
190S-continue TO keep our wage
standard and our standard of buying
and consuming up to the protection
level, while at the same time steadily
increasing the bulk of our dealings
with other nations because of great
er ability to crafty our tastes and de-
sires for articles of foreign produc.
ton Is not that more desirable re.
suit than to struggle for big" for
eign trade that we cannot and ought
not to get-for foreign labor as well
as our own labor has a right to be
employed trade that would cost
far more than it was worth? There is
not much doubt as to the reply of the