FAIR TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1910, 2 October 1884, Page 4

FAIR TRADE.

How Protection Affects America. Tiik following letter on this subject is addressed to Sir Enrdly Wilmot, the leader of the " Fair Trade " movement in England, by Mr C W. Bonynge, of Saa Francisco. It appeared in the Morning Post :— lt would be impossible for me to pass from a country of hij?h tariff to one without any tariff, and not to be forcibly reminded of the question of fiee trade versus protection. I therefore take a warm interest in the subject. At present the real basis of English manufacturing supremacy is and must be the low cost of production. Anything which tends to enhance this cost impairs the supremacy. For a long time England had the monopoly of the knowledge of the manufacturing arts. That state of things has passed away ; she no longer possesses it. Other nations have learnt it, and it has been learnt by countries which now not only possess the knowledge but produce the raw material. Take any of the Southern States— Georgia, for instance. Before the civil war she confined her production to cotton alone ; now she produces iron, coal and cotton. At pie-.ent she manufactuies iron with her own coal, makes her own machineiy, and spin? and weaves her own cotton. Those changes are and must continue in an increasing degree to depres3 English manufactures To meet this altered condition of thing* the wisest counsels aie imperatively demanded. Would it improve matters to to impose a tariff which would add to the cost of food and thereby to the cost of manufacturing? One third of all iron exported from England goes to the United States. Would increasing the cost of producing this iron enable the manufacturer to better compete with the iron produced in America ? Assuredly not But it is claimed that manufactured goods do not buy so much food as formeily. Ihis is true lint recollect one is the product of the soil, the other of manufactrues. The product of one is limited, of the other unlimited, and could a tari(T alter this ever-increasing tendency ? The great trouble is the ovoi -production of goods — the markets of the wot Id are glutted. Would adding to the cost of production enable the English manufacturer to obtain a higher pi ice in the ' markets of the world ? I think not Now, in fair tiade theie is much to examine ; but after all it is not a principle, but a war of icprisals. Say to America, if you tax o'ir iion we will tax your wheat ; and in doing so encourage the production in our own dependencies — India, Australia, Canada. But can this tariff be practically cnfoiced' Will not American wheat Hnd its way into our ports by being shipped to India fiom California, and to Canada from the Western States? • Sclf-piesei vation is the first law of nature,' and I see no reason why nations should nut protect themselves as well as individuals kissing to the question in America. It is evident the advocites of free trade arc making considerable progress, but the demand for a lower tanfl is much stronger and more likely to attain important results. But we must romembei that climate and soil have lendered her practically independent of the outside world. Hertemroiy extends fiom the tropics to the fro/en noitli She pro duces in abundance coal, ii on, wood, wool, cotton, &n<Mr, wine, meat, rico. wheat, fiuits ; also her own metallic basis, gold, bilver, copper, quicksilver, etc. When she buys of outside nations, it is mainly ai tides of lu\ui\, moie highly finished goods or the attractive wines of France. Under such ciicum stances it is difficult to convince her peoplo of the benefits of free trade They think as she possesses the basis there is no icason why she should not foster hei own industiies till they aio sufficiently developed to stand alone. I therefore find my wishes and my judgment at war, and I cannot see much hope for fiee trade in the immediate future. Nor can I see the expected advantages alluded to by Mi Mann from the giowth of population in Mich countiie" as, say, Australia, for my expeiipnee of the gio.vth of population in new colonies is that it is accompanied by in - cieased mauufactuiing facilities, which in time de\clop a stiong tendency to exclude tlic goods of e\en the mother country, as we find in the casp of Canada Summing up I may say that while being a fiee-tiader, 1 also believe in fan trade. Free trade I think the bestifeveiy one else practices it. Your last paper ni lived yesteiday, and I carefully irad the arguments opposing free trade. I found it much moie instructive in following the remarks of Mi Porter, who bases the- whole of Ameiica's unprecedented development in the action of the tar ill laws. His assertions do not use to the dignity of an argument. I cannot sec how it is possible to driw an instinctive con trait between the two countiic«. one of which is ovei -populated and compelled to impoit moiu than one thitd of the food necessary to feed her people, whilthe other country is \eiy much undeipopulated, and posse^c all vaiietics of climate an 1 soi', and pioducca in girat ■variety not only «ullkk nt for hei own wants, but an immense sin plus, which she exports to teed the people of othei lands. Mi Toi tei paic.des these gifts of Providence, as though it was the wotk of fiscal regulations. He also cites the doubling in number of the farms during the last twenty years, as though the tariff had cioatcd the vacant land. Finally, his asset tion that the purchasing pow cr of a doller is as great in Air erica as in England is woi se than a pieveision. America has grown gi eat from immigration, attracted by a vast unoccupied soil, tiavcised by mighty liveis ; liom gieat wealth in minerals and various unclaini' r -d res ources, as well as variety in climate. Mr Porter has not been able to point out a single interest developed by the tariff, the raw material of which has nut been the natural product of her own country, and he lias ignored the potent fact that the taiiff has dnven the American Navy off the seas, and that amongst the immense stream marine now engaged in the tiath'c across the Atlantic, you may seaich in vain for a single American .steamer flying the Ameiican flag. Not a word, either, about the great cost of living in a country that produces all the necessaries of life in such abundance, and that still retains so many unoccupied spaces. It is a common remark that a shilling in England goes as far as a dollar irr America. As an instance, in my last trip to New York I paid .$9 for cab fare for family and trunks from steamer to Fifth-Avenuo Hotel ; a similar service in London, Euston to Grand Hotel, would be amply satisfied by 5s ; and I paid no more than unavoidable. You can live better on £10,000 a year in London than £25,000 in New York? A carnage costing £150 in London would cost f 300 in New York. A friend of mine lately paid £36,000 for a house and lot on Fifth Avenue — a veiy small house, the lot being but nineteen feet wide. Houses that would rent fiom £600 to £800 a year in London would command from £I,GOO to £2000 a year in New York. BeVieve me a tariff is not t\esira\ue if it can be avoided. lam convinced that it can suit onecountry and not another, and the country that it suits best is that which produces the greatest amount and variety of the raw material. Thetanff has not prevented the closing of so many great manufactories as we now find idle in Ameiica ; nor would it have avuiled the decline in the value of the wool crop of Great Bntain from £17,500,000 in ISGS to £6,000.000 in 1883. 1 much ugiet to say it, but it stiikes me Rutland has a blue H't'e ahead. I have ofttn leinaiked thnt England, comparatively, was ;it her gi(mfe3t~ub»i)t 1870 to 1572 : up to that time, tn c;u;inon with oth< r countries, her prosperity a-Kaneed rapidly. The United Stnt<s was her fir^t and best customer. The North, flushed with \ic tory from ths civil siar, and inflated with their iiMiguwy wealth of Government Ituuds and local securities! ware living

liotously, and under high pressure commercially, when the panic of 1873 swip 1 , over the country, and the greateat part of this mass of wealth disappeared a8 if touched with the wand of disenchantment. Years of still greater depression followed, its effect being communicated to England nnd other commercial countries. In America during this period ocononiy became the order of the day, wages declined, the income value of money reached a very low poii t Manufaclming establishments weie forced to close or run at cost, and tle surplus productions were pushed out into the markets of the world to compete with Manchester aud Birmingham, while across the Atlantic stieuned a continuous line of American products, which the steamers, driven by the stress of comtueicial stagnation, were glad to carry at nominal rates. In relation to London, Illinois and Kansas almost assumed the position of York and Devon, and from the distant waters of the Columbia poured in even canned s.ilmon to compete with the waters of the Tweed. In time commerce resumed its normal condition, but England found that the markets she had foinuMly monopolized w«rc either largely supplied by local manufactures or by competition from new sources ; and I am aftaul she will year by year encounter this st.ite of things in an increasing de«iee. Can legislation alter this state of affairs ? lam afraid not.

Thk latest novel idea amongst the fetauw (loin in Paris is "nail portraits." A miniature likeness of the beloved one i& photographed on the thumb nail, so that the devoted swain may always have her image before him. Thk tea-plant has lately been introduced near SouUgoum Kaleh, on the Black Sea, and the Russians are confident, it seems, that they will soon be able to do without either Chinese or Indian tens. They are naturally iiritated at the thought tli.it, after all their efforts at direct importation by the vessels of the volunteer fleet, London can still supply Russia with tea moie quickly and cheaply than can the Russian merchants, though next door neighbours to the Flowery Lane'. A very curious fifteenth century MS. volume was sold in a London auction room last week for £980. It consists of 257 folio leaves of vjllum, and contains mi'iiatuics of extiaoulinary beauty, illustiatmg the eaily history of Normandy and early English hibtoiy. The first of the senes repiesents the arrivel of Duke Rollo at Rouen, and among others are the death of Edward the Confessor, the coionation of Harold, the landing of William the Conqueror, the battle of Hastings, burial of Harold's body at Waltliam Abbey, the funeral of William, the coronation of Rufus, and the death of Richard C<our dc Lion at Chain/, all executed in the hi»hest style of Burgundian art, and with the minutest detail of architecture, costume and armour, Mi.vr.AKhs will Haitian. — The boy who was caught laughing after his teacher had trashed him because the master h.ul licked the wrong boy had bott"i- send his congratulations to Charles Godfrey, of Middleton, New Voik, whose daughtLi ofthnteen years was recently mat tied by her mother, contrary to her fathei's wish, to a man much older than herself. Godfrey lined two burly negioes to thrash the venerable bridegioom, he himself mounting a flight of stairs where the new husband's rooms weie situated, whence he intended to throw him down to the coloured men below. But instead of meeting his son-in-law he met his own wife, Mrs Godfiey, who pushed him downstairs in the daik. The coloured men, supposing that he was the man whom they had been hired to thrash, proceeded to earn their o oney so honestly as to leave their employer half dead in the hallway. — .Petioit Fi ee I'ress.