FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION.
♦ ■ (TO THB EDITOB OF THE TIMES.) Sib, — In a recent number of your paper, your correspondent; " Index " gives us some interesting and instructive extracts from an Australian paper on " Protection," showing that " it destroys the interests it professes to foster." As a feather to indicate which way the wind is blowing, and to prove to some of the correspondents of your contemporary that America does not " mean protection," perhaps you will kindly insert the enclosed extract, showing that America w getting alive to the blighting effects of these laws. — Yours, &c, Speed the Plough. i Eiverton, July 27th, 1870.
PROattfcSS OP FBEE TRA.DE PEIJTCIPLES US THE UNITED STATES. , (From the Staley 'Bridge Reporter?) } The agent stated that an interesting I communication had been received from !Mr Mahlon Sands, secretary to the American Free-Trade League, along with numerous papers and documents, showing the progress of free-trade principles in the United States. The recent war had greatly interfered to retard the movement of the free traders, but in 1569 a new effort was commenced, which has resulted in the establishment of ten central branches of the league, in different States. 30,000 dollars wefe contributed, and 62 public meetings were held last year, besides many thousand of tracts, &c, being distributed. . The report of Mr Wells, the special commissioner for 1859, has greatly aided the movement, and his inquiry respecting trade, industry, commerce, &0., prepared for the government; proves him to be on the verge of conversion to the free trade party. He reports that the number of laborers employed in the great protected industries of woollens, cotton, and iron, is only 2£ per cent of the whole number of producers in the country, and shows how ruinous the j protection afforded to this petty minority is to the prosperity of the nation. Mr Wells also states that while? the advance in wages since 1860 has been but 58 per cent, the advance on the cost of the prime necessaries of life has been 80 per cent. A common gaiter boot, which cost before the war 60 cents, now costs 1.05 dollar. The tax on blanket shawls is over 100 per cent, and on a lace pocket handkerchief but 35 per cent. The tax on common carpeting is increased by the Schenck bill to 90 per cent ; while the tax on Aubisson and Axminister. carpets, is 50 per cent. A stout suit of clothes which can be bought in England for £1, costs here 25 dollars ; and the tax on blankets is '930 per cent. I Among the meetings" recently held, a I very influential gathering took place in I New York, in the middle of the day, called together by a memorial signed, by over 1,300 of the chief business houses of that city ; and this was responded to by another vast meeting held at Chicago, at the beginning of the present month. Erom the information furnished by the able secretary of the League, it is clear that the Americans are in earnest in_ the_ work they have undertaken, and that the country is rapidly becoming converted to free trade.; ; Mr Sands concludes his letter as follows : — This League is daily becoming stronger, and, if the contest with the protectionists be prolonged, its future power and influence may perhaps bear comparison with that of the Anti-Corn Law League. Last year we collected some 30,000 dollars, this year - our subscriptions will amount to 50,000 dollars. Ifc is impossible within the limits of a letter to give you a clear notion of the present proportions of the free-trade movement in this country. I can only refer you to the columns of the Free Trader ; but I would say that within the last six months our progress has been gratifying beyond all expectations. The question is now fairly before the people, and the tariff is now being debated in Congress with more spirit and with more intelligence than at any previous time for years. I can mention no more significant fact than that there is no newspaper in the Western States, with a circulation entitling it to a position of a leader of opinion, which advocates a high tariff. There are many political leaders and proprietors of newspapers who hesitate, as yet, to call themselves free traders ; they prefer the name of revenue reformers. But the whole tendency of their teaching is towards free trade, and against protection. At the present time the attitude of our .political parties with reference to free trade is a strange one. The Republican party, which administers the Government, is divided. Its members j from the Westare with us, while those from the East are mostly against us. The ~3?emocratic, or opposition party, in moro_ nearly unanimous in its advocacy of free trade ; the members from Pennsylvania alone being waverers. One of the objects of this League is to arouse public opinion, and to force this question, by all legitimate methods of agitation, into our politics. Weaavesucceededalreadyin doing this, and our province now is to educate opinion. It is impossible as yet to foresee how political parties will be affected by this new issue, but the Republican party, which possesses an overwhelming preponderance of power, will be forced to abandon its protectionist doctrines, and to adopt free trade, or the free traders now in its ranks will go over to the opposition. A new Congress will be elected next autumn, and the indications are unmistakeable that the Protectionists will be beaten. ' t The sitting Congress was elected without reference to this issue, and from the present contest about the tariff little is to be hoped this session.
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Southland Times, Issue 1288, 2 August 1870, Page 3
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941FREE TRADE V. PROTECTION. Southland Times, Issue 1288, 2 August 1870, Page 3
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