WHAT TARIFF REFORM MEANS TO ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 346, 23 March 1910, Page 7

WHAT TARIFF REFORM MEANS TO ENGLAND.

To the Editor. Sir, —The Loudon Corn Circular published recently a very interesting and informative speech, bv ,\lr. Sydney Leatham, a prominent miller of York, to the employees of iiis iirm, a few extracts from which appear to me to be •f interest here and which I therefore hope you will be able to reproduce. Mo said:—"During the first 20 years of Free Trade Cobden's prediction was fulfilled, and our agriculturalists had plenty of protection in the high price of ocean freights. Food was cheaper in the eighties owing to larger steamships and increased foreign and colonial wheat growing aieas. The main idea which Cobden had in originating Free Trade was that the rest of the world should supply cheap food and cheap raw material, and take our manufactures in exchange. As 1 have told you, during the first 20 years the world was content to do this, and we were a wealthy, powerfil nation. America, France and Germany were the first to awake. America tried to run an iron industry. For years that iron industry struggled against English competition and was ut. terly unable to make any headway. America adopted a tariff to keep out our competition, and we all know the result of that tariff was that the American iron trade increased by leaps and bounds. Every other nation in the world has adopted Protection, and wo are the only country in the world who allows the foreign nations the free use of its markets. Free Trade means unrestricted competition to British workers of every land, and with white and colored aliens. . . . Bismarck next thought that Free Trade was the source of England's greatness, and from 1873 to 1878 inclusive Germany had F;-ee Trade. Sis years of Free Trade were enough for Germany, and they then adopted Tariff Reform. During these six years of Free Trade Germany suffered severely from British competition. We nearly ruined the German iron trade. The workers in the iron trade decreased during- the period referred to by 47,001 men. Germany then adopted Tariff Reform. During the subsequent six years the workers in the iron trade increased bv 49,088 men, and their wages increased 6d per day. Germany then envied England and its naval supremacy, and thi«, as I have stated, is being test'd. Tariff Reform is not Protection. Protection tends to decrease imports; Tariff Reform , tends to change the character of those imports. I say that our imports may be classed under two headings—•beneficial imports and injurious imports. It <roes without savins; that raw materials may be classified as beneficial imports, and manufactured goods as injurious imports. Everv manufactured article brought into the country undoubtedly displaces British labor.' You can take as an illustration our local glass works, which used to employ a large number of hands, lmt I believe I am right in saying employ verv few hands now. Then there is'the potter---trade. The curious feature Mbout the •pottery trade is that British dnr is the best clay in the world, and whilst our exports of manufactured goods have decreased during the five vea's emlin" IflOfi fomnareil with the five v ft nrs ending 1886, to the extent of £130.000. fit* export of potterv clay has increased during the same period by 320.000 tons. The clay has largely been exported to Germany, which has manufactured the pottery and sent a large portion of it hack to England to compete with our own manufactures. Wages for the skilled labor are being paid to Germans, and we have only received the laborers' Traces for digging and loading the ciav into trucks. Take the motor car indu-'-try. Cars to the value of £3,000,000 and £4,000,000 were imported into this country last year. It is estimated that ( ;j per cent, of the cost of a motor is la'ior. and this amount of wages was lost to this country, whilst our mechanics wore unemployed. Last year we imported 10,000 pianos from Hamburg, and we exported back to Hamburg a i:alt,rv 2(5 pianos. This is a startling fact. Pianos are not a necessary article, but may be considered as a luxury. I now come to the vital question of cheap food. This is a fact that interests me personally. I am against any change in our fiscal policy that would make our food dearer. As I have told you before, Germany has adopted Protection regarding every article of food entering that country, and Tariff Reform in other cases; and under a system, of Tariff Reform in our country the foreigner wonld be taxed a probable 2s per quarter on all wheat imported. whilst our colonies and India are allowed to supply us free, as at present. As we require 25,000,009qrs of imported wheat to supply our needs, and the surplus this year from Canada is 8,000,000qr5., from India 4,000,000qr5., we should only require 8.000,OOOqrs! from the foreigner. This, roughly speaking, is about 25 per cent., and' coming into competition with the 75 per cent, of wheat entering our country duty free, the probability is that the foreigner would pay a large proportion, if not all,-of this duty. The ultimate effect of this concession to our colonies would be that a larger acreage of wheat land would be sown, and in a very short period there would be an increased surplus from our colonies, which would fully supply our needs without our being in anv way dependent upon the foreigner, and in this one particular instance the dream of Free Trade -within the Empire would be realised." As to the price of bread, Mr. Chamberlain's pertinent question obtrudes itself, What matters whether the loaf is 4d or 5d to the m::n with no money in his pocket? Wallace in his "Wonderful Century" points out how non-employment increases despite the constant swelling of imports and exports and asks what difference the price of bread makes to tho millions una.ble to buy a loaf. Which is best, a cheap loaf and scarcity of mono- and employment, or higher prices and everybody in work?—l am, etc., B. ENROTH.