Widnes Examiner. — 1885-08-22 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

SHALL WE REPUDIATE FREE TRADE? BY H. Warrant.  Fair Traders need not be surprised because Free Traders refuse to accept appointments on the Royal Commission to inquire into trade depression. There are a thousand and one reasons why any attempt to tamper with the principles of Free Trade should not have the support of eminent political economists. The experience of • business men, and it is to these we must look, is that to the greater freedom of trade and to the still wider spread of Free Trade we must look for the possibilities of holding our own in the world's markets. A pamphlet, headed "The Revival of British Industries," is now being vigorously circulated amongst the people, written by "A Candidate." It sets forth the kind of legislation we are likely to have should the people be so far misgnided as to support Fair Traders. We are asked to put so , Der cent, on manufactured goods. The object evidently is to keep these goods out of our markets, but the writer goes on to say that we should gain the •1 amount of £7,500,000, entirely losing sight of the ' prohibitive tax. With this £7,500,000 that is to be i raised from goods that we should not import, the Fair I Trade candidate proposes 'that a subsidy of one ! pound per acre should be paid each year on all the , land in the United Kingdom which is sown with wheat." This is the kind of nonsense that is placed , before the people in order to induce them to support 1 Fair Trade. It should not take an extraordinary sharp man to say into whose pocket this one pound per acre would ultimately fall, nor out of whose pocket it must first come. It is but ' another trick to secure the lasdlord his rent. I think I have proveel, in previous letters, that we are to a great extent using a wrong term when we speak of elepressed trade; small profits would be a more accurate phrase. It must be understood that , the competitive system that now rules the whole of the manufacturing world is but the growth of the last twenty years. During the last ten years we have s. felt its effect, and we are now in this position, each manufacturer is bound to produce as much as possible from his machinery; he is also bound to have the , best machinery. He hopes 'by attending to these matters to reduce his expenses to the least possible point. The manufacturers of England, the Continent, America, Russia, and India, ell attending to these points, finally produce a glut in the market, that is, in the words of the President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, "If all manufacturers throughout the world would agree to reduce production, there might he some ,hopes of an improvement in trade." .As this is simply impossible, we must look to other sources for help. In the speech already referred to are these words, " It was perfectly clear that in point of trade the supremacy of Great Britain had really passed away, owing to the increased facilities of communisation atid the increased out-turn of the industries of other countries." I suggest that these are pregnant words, coming as they do from the President of the most important Chamber of Commerce in the kingdom. We speak of depressed trade, and yet the same speaker goes on to say that " In Oldham the spinners were really contending for a reduction in production," which anyone may see is simply suicide to the trade. It is clear from these arguments that to repudiate Free Trade would be to turn our back en our best friend, It must also be clear that with constantly improving machinery, followed by a constantly increasing output, we must pay greater attention to new markets It is mere childishness to look to our colonies; until it suits them to change their fiscal policy we must do the best we can. Evidence is not wanting that wherever Protection exists individuals become rich at the expense of the community. Can anyone look a,t Ireland and say that all that was possible has been done to encourage her trade? We have no need to go back to times when barbarous and most inhuman laws were passed for the sole purpoae of stamping out her trade. Things almost as bad are done now. For instance, the freight for coal from Belfast to Omagh (sixtynine miles) is 7s od, or more than double that from Wigan to Stafford (66 miles, 34 8d per ton). Coals can be carried from Ayrshire to Ireland at 25 per ton, while the rate of freight from the landing place in Ireland by rail for io miles is 25 411 per ton. The flax, woollen, and other industries may well suffer when it is cheaper to send certain classes of goods from Ireland to England and re-ship them to ports in Ireland. And yet the Tories sided with the railway interest in its opposition to Mr. Chamberlain's railway reforms, and expect working-men to give them their support. Mr. Parnell owns a granite quarry at Bellynaelnsh, and brings over Welsh quarrymen to teach Wicklow men how to square the stones, yet ever since Dublin streets were paved they have been laid with Welsh setts, and Dublin Custom House was built of Portland stone. In conclusion, I say, as one entirely dependent upon labour, that if working-men , support the Fair Traders they will be supporting what cannot possibly give them relief. No Royal Commission can tell manufacturers more than they know es to remedies and what can it tell working-men? Nothing. Wi:at I tell them is this ;at home, aiding a ruinous competition which must simply end in making their yoke mcre galling, they are competing with their fellow working-men abroad, which must continue this system. As workmen, their remedy is to unite in sinh a fashion that the Trades' Congress shall be truly representative of British skilled and unskilled labour. When this is done thoroughly they will then hemn a position to take steps for forming one grand International Parliament of capital creators, and may possibly see then that it is better to manufacture for use than for profit. As it is we have factories and shops full of goods, and the poor are starving in our streats.  JAMES E, illcuAtzno's, Custom House, New Orleans, on oath, says: " In 1570 scrofulous ulcers broke out on my body a . uld mereCnot w reck turn . until I was a mass of corruption. Everything known to the medical faculty was tried in vain. I became 13 At times could not lift my hands to my he in bed, was in constant pain, and looked upon lire as a curse. No relief or cure in ten years. In ISBO I heard of the OUTICUEA REMEDIES, used them, and was perfectly cured." sworn to before U.S. Commissioner J. D.