Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-04-09
HOW GET FOREIGN MARKETS,
Situation Shows Failure Of Republican
Policy Of Protection.

The New York Journal of Commerce,
the only financial and business paper
that is independent of Wall street
and trust influences, thinks that Amer
lean mills should seek foreign mar.
kets. 1t quotes the opinion Of q man
connected in an executive and prac
teal way with one of the largest in
dustries in this country, who said that
only by entering into the competitive
business abroad could it be hoped to
prevent one of the most trying, cruel
and disastrous periods that labor has
experienced. THE public have not
yet begun to appreciate the severity
of the labor outlook" he continued.
They hear of the hundreds of thou
sands of workmen of all kinds being
out of work in the great cities, but
they do not begin to realize the stu
alton and the prospects at the wooden
manufacturing c%enters, for instance,
throughout New England. What Is
needed are foreign markets to act as
a regulator or insurance for the home
market"
But how Is the American manafac-
turer to overcome the high tariff rates
that foreign countries impose on Amer
lean products in retaliation for our
high tariff duties imposed on their
products? Virtually only the English
markets are open to our wares, and
ever the British colonies, such as
Canada and Australia, now impose
tariff protection to protect their own
manufacturers. Every country but
England has a tariff wall around 1t and
the United States has the highest tar
iff wall of all, with the possible excep-
ton Of Russia.
To seek foreign markets for our
surplus products under such conditions
is a thankless task, for our manufac-
turers would have to offer their goods
for a price that with the tariff rates
of other countries added would be less
than the price the manufacturers Of
foreign countries sell for. We can
not compete with England, for her
manufacturers have free raw materials
and lower cost of living for her work.
men, and thus lower wages and cheap
er cost of production than the manu-
lecturer of the United States has.
The sad state of affairs that the
Republican policy of protection has
produced, both for the manufacturer
and the workmen, cannot be much bet
tered by the trusts and tariff-protected
industries selling cheaper abroad than
here, because after all but little in
ternational trade can be accomplished
between those who want to sell and
refuse to buy. If we want to sell to
foreigners, we must buy of them as
a general proposition. No country
can afford long to pay gold for foreign
products, except for raw materials
which it resells as finished products.
The protected interests here must
abide the conditions they have created,
and nothing but reforming our own
tariff with free raw materials and
other reductions that will allow our
~workingmen to live cheaper will force
open foreign markets for our surplus
products.
AS long as the business boom was
on everything was lovely for awhile,
but now the breakdown has come we
are helpless under the inelastic work
ings of the Republican policy Of tariff
protection.
The Republicans now propose a tar
iff commission to investigate the tar
if abomination, but as that farseeing
statesman, former Governor Douglas
of Massachusetts, has lately said:
while this commission will be slow.
ly prosecuting it's investigation the
tariff trusts will continue to plumber
the helpless consumers and will raise
a campaign fund that will almost in
sure the reelection of stand-patters
and defeat the revisionists. Instead
of this program Of delay, I would have
a president who would call an extra
session Of congress to revise the tar
If Immediately and radically.
"Tne proper time to get rid of some
thing bad is right now. Nor do I be-
lieve in compromising with an evil
and in agreeing to abolish it piece
meal-say ten per cent. a year-when
it is possible to get rid of it at once.
If I have an liberated tooth that
should be extracted, | do not want
it pulled by installments, so that the
process will last several hours or
several days; I want the agony of the
separation to be as short as possible.
l also want to get relief from the bad
tooth as soon as possible"