New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-09-08
THE LEAKY TARIFF DAM.

Governor Wilson continues 10 lament
the way In which American energy is
restricted and American industry is
damned M and shut in by ian exag-
gerated protective tariff" in adopting
which We chose TO be provincial and
| ito have as little TO do with the rest OF
| "the world as possible: and TO pity
American business men, manufacturers,
| merchants and fnanciers for not reallz-
! ing their wretched and desperate state
| and following him out into the true
! light But the rest of the world with
singular persistence and unanimity de-
clines to accept his view and insists on
regarding our commercial intercourse
with the other nations as particularly
extensive. We showed the other day
| how vast was this Country's export
| trade in all three general departments
| of foodstuffs, raw materials and man
| ufactured goods. There now comes ~
hand from an expert rival striking teS-
| timony TO our gigantic ascendancy In
the special and highly important class
| of machinery.
"Of all the competitors which this
country TGreat Britain has TO meet,
alike in the machinery markets Of the
British dominions and In the neutral
machinery markets Of the world.
says "The London Times" "the United
States is by far the most formidable.
." The United States, If not quite
"the best equipped country In tie world
"for an international trade in m1chin.
"ery, Is surpassed only by the United
Kingdom 1t goes on TO say that our
chief and perhaps our only diSadvan-
tages are the high cost of raw mate
rails and the high cost Of labor These,
however. will impress Americans as
| disadvantages not without Compensa-
| ton. We can afford to nave our eX-
port trade stand rs low as second in
the world so long "a our producers get
| higher prices and our wOrlingmen
/ higher wages than those oe any Other
! land.
| Turning to concrete statistics. The
| Times" says that the figures Of the last
| fifteen years indicate that America is
seriously threatening the supremacy IN
| the machinery market which Great
Britain has long enjoyed in the five
years 1002-'06 the American export
trade in machinery increased more
/ than two and half times as fast as
| that Of Great Britain. and In the FIVE
| years since the former has continued
10 increase more rapidly than the lat
4 ter, though not at so great ratio as
before In the last year, 1911. our
! exports of agricultural machinery and
! implements were more than three
| times, Of typewriting machines nearly
| eighty times, and Of metal working ma
chinery and machine tools neacly shree
| times as great as Great Britain's. while
| III a majority Of other classes we ex-
| ceeded her; and in the grand total Of
machinery and tools Of all kinds the
States by only per cent, the figures
being, respectively, S157 .s9321J and
| S146S16,735.
It is not surprising that. IN view Of
these figures, "The London Times
! concludes that if Great Britain, with
all the advantages Of free trade wants
TO keep ahead OF the United States,
shut In behind the awful tariff dan OF
Governor Wilson'S dreams, there can
'be no relaxation Of effort on the part
"of the machinery builders Of That
country. One Of our contemporaries.
now strongly supporting Governor VIII
son. used 10 lament the vast volume Of
water which leaked over Croton Dam :.
enough to supply the needs Of this city,
it said. There seems to be enough ey-
port trade from this country leaking
over the tariff dam" TO threaten TO
submerge that Of the only great free
trade country I'm the world.
|