FREE TRADE VERSUS PROTECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2049, 25 August 1885, Page 4

FREE TRADE VERSUS PROTECTION.

10 THK KDITOIt. Sir,— After answeiing Messrs Johns and Foi rest s letters in detail, [ wish with yotu kind pei mission to place before your readers a few figures an 4 statements by a prominent American Treasury Secretuiy, and Commissioner, bearing upon the prosperity and geueial comfort and happiness of their people, and also extracts from reports presented to the French Pailiuinent. Mr M'Culloch, the Secrctaiy of the United States Ti eo-sui y, in a recent report, states "that the existing iron, cotton and vroollui nulls, if employed at their full capacity, would meet in mx months, the home demand for the year. It is certain therefoie that unless the markets now piactically closed against uk a-ie opened, unless we shaie m the trade which is monopolised by European nations, the "depiesMon," now so severe, will continue and may become more disastrous." Another report states that bankruptcies in 18b4 were '37, a more m the amount of the liabilities than in 1883, when they were very heavy. In England theie has been a remarkable diminution in bmkrnptcie*. " Brad-street's Journal," a leading coinmeuial economical papei, gives tiie following hguim about Ameiici :— Wages have been reduced 2.*> per cent. Reduction in the number of hands employed \aries from 13 per cent, to M per cent. Another 10 per cent to 15 per cent, are not employed full tune. Thrie aie 31M,000 operatives out of work, and a huge number on shoit tune. Ameucni protection has swept her mercantile marine Mom oil the ocean, and completely extin gmslied the ship building tiade, and, as fa i ;.s outride in ukets arc concerned, hei boot, woollen, cotton and clock tiade. In the woollen trade since 1«S82, the number employed in the manufacture has decreased by .44,000, and wages fallen fioin 2.~> per cent, to 30 per cent. And her exports of wooll-n goods amount to the large sum of £28,000. This is protection with a vengeance ' Piofessor Sunnier, of Yale College, l/.5., states that the people of Ainenca would .save £70,000,000 steilmg in a, \cat if they were to piy all the labourers in" the piotjcted mdiistiios for standing still, besides 10 pet u nt. per annum on tlie capital employed, and weie to go into ,i " fiee mtikit ' tv purchase the aiticles icqiiued. Well dune Piotection ! when a countty can affoid to pay all yom woikmen and capital foi st uiding still, and then gain enormously by it Hmiah for " Robber)'. ' Mr D. A. Wells, L.L.D., before mentioned, tells Us '"that pio^iess in trade, commeiceand mdu.stiy wa.sgie.itei between IMU to 18(50 (when tli>' lowest tariff ever adopted was experienced) than for any cotresponding period either before or Rince m the history of the nation. And, furthei, that the result of protection has proved not only to the nation at laige, but in n great degree to the piotocted interests, "most disastrous.' So much so, nidwd, tlii't n. > higher testimony nt thj gieat jiatmal icsouic's of the couutiy and the indomitable energy of its people c»uld be presented tlu<i the fact that they have been eii'bled to euduie such a sy.sluui, .md still maintain an existence. He says that I'iotection is a libel and an offence against fieedom and civilisation, and at wai with the best interests of humanity. The whole animus of our modern civilisation is to ob tain more with less, to get a larger pioduct withasmallei effoit, to secure c jual results with less laboui. Protection seeks to pioinoU 1 indiistiy at the expense of nidustiy. Look nt Anienca under Piotection. The tools and instruments made Use of by the people m the work of piodnction, as agricultural implements, machines for spinning, weaving, rolling and hamineiiug, pumping and blowing, drilling, planing, etc. Their iron, steel, nnlroads, and loco, motives cost moio than m any other civilised nation, and as whatcvei meiea<-es the co«t of tools and machinery, mcicanes the co^t of all that the tools and niachinoi v make, there icsults the heaviest tax upon the industry and development of the country which the mind of man could cvei conceive ami make operative. And all these disastions " facts" and statements in the face of Mr Fouesf's figures about Amenta increasing her bullion, etc , by t'5 1,000, 000 in two yeais, ,md that Piotection not only hnds foorl and clothing foi the people, but puts money into their pockets to buy them with. I might also quote laigely fioin a report by Mr J. L. Hell, M.P. KK.S., v\ho compares Amciicau and English wages in detail in thengiicultut.il, mining, eo|lieiy, uon, -teel, ami allied trades. Only Mi Editor, it would indeed be. tiespassing upon )"iu good n.it in 11.I 1 . The >.iini and substance of th« lepoit 1-. tint English ..nd Ameiican wages vi comp.nison with the co*t of living aie about erpnl. Thniigh Mi Wellr. alliim-i that the Ameiican iworse off, and quotes hgnies to s|)n\\ the adiancj in wages in Aim-nci to bo le.sH than the advance in co-t of In ing. And fuithei, to show how Piotectionists fear to have the m ittei of Free Tiade brought befoie the public, [ quote the lollowing fact.— Mi H. C. Caiey, one of the leading and in nt talented American Piotectiomst", said his country ought to be gi ateful for the death of Mr Colxlcn, and when a-sked the ieasm foi such anatioci'xis utteiance, he answered because he understood it was tho intention of Mr Cobden, if he lived, to haveagaiu visited America, and that in c.uso he had done so, he would undoubtedly have taken advantage of the gieat respect and esteem with which he was regarded by the whole people to h ive addiessed them upon the subject of " Free Tiade"; and that as the masses would have everywhere crowded to listen to him, gieat detriment might have theieby lesulted to the canes of Protection. And now for France. She has a duty uijon coin, and upon every othei aKTieultuial product, yet from a report pie ented to the Fiench Chamber, we have the following facts :~ -Th.it in one single depaitmcnt them aie 810 fauns unlet, and in one smglp airondisseiient theie aie L'o,ooo acies ljing fallow ; these are only tjpes of many otlieis. Meanwhile aiable land hah fallen .">o{ in value, and ients have diminished 13 n to33 0 . And this, when hei land is divided into small tenements, and thousands of these fauns owned by the tillers of the land, and in spite of 'being protected, we hnd out what the state of affairs i«. Her trade is even in a woi»e condition, as fioin another report from the Chamber, wo find in the basin of the Loire, one of the loading imnuf.icfctu ing districts in France, wheie silk, velvet, mining and metal industries of all classes «iie earned on, in every bianch the greatest possible destitution prevails, and the population of one town (t, iking an example of many), th.it of St. Etienne has fallen off 2"i,000 in two years ; of Od.OOO who lemain only (JOOO aie in full work. Theie arc 10,000 out of wot k, and 50,000 on short time ; and wages have so fallen that they aro no longer able to provide sustenance for their families, and there are now 30,000 people dependent upon public and pnvute elKuity, and again I say, all this under the blessing of Protection, which give* work and wages. Fac ts and figures are the things to take the fallacies out of our minds, foi theie is no getting over them. To .sum up, we must ask ourseßes whether America and France under protection are the most prosperous and happy, taking "all" things into con•lderation, or England with her flee trade. And from nil the nifoimation I can get from very varied quarteis I cannot but say that England in all ways is m the best position, and this not in any slight degree. America and France cannot compete with England, though they mo natiually far richer countiien. They cut then own throats by protection, and stuve to do England all the harm they can, and >ucceed in some degree, but not in ptopoitton to the injury they do to themsoHes. I am quite at one with Mr Fouest in his desire to get people to think out this and all questions for themselves. Foi my own part I like to heir speeches, or <.cc lettei s by the advocates of protection, for they c mtribiite to louse the public from then torpor, they stimulate it to inquiry, and unwillingly help to unveil the fallacies which they intended to justify. Foi people will not always be blind to their own m-t'le'-ts. Fin-illy T can only recommend Me«srs Johns and Forrest to further consider tins matter, and try all in their power to find and digest facts and figures from all souices, and on both sides of the question, and not think nnd write from the stand ground of generalities and scraps of news appearing now nnd again. If they do this I feel convinced they will again array themselves on the side of free trade.— I am, Yours Tiuly. " Nil Drspkh.wijuh. Pkrsk\ kkando VINCJKS." Auckland, August 13th, KiB."».

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