Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 128, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1903 — Political COMMENT. [ARTICLE]

Political COMMENT.

Significant Admission. We confqs® that we neyer expected to see the officials of Great Britain deliberately furnish the Republican party of this country with the most convincing arguments in favor of protection. The Cobden Club is knocked into a cocked hat, and the Anti-Cobden Club of the Nineteenth Ward—that patriotic band of intellectual political economists, should at their next meeting a minute of the subject Important g.s was the announcement of Premier Balfour, the official state-, ments of the Board of Trade, which is a government institution, are mfich more so. They announce that protection does protect; that in spite of the fact that wages in this country are more than double those in Great Britain, the amount of exports of manufactured goods to this country has greatly decreased, while our manufactured exports to that country are increasing rapidly. The same applies to all protected nations, so that Great Britain is declared to be in a disadvantageous position, especially as the United States can, so soon ns there is a lull in local demand, flood Great Britain with goods at much lower rates. The first duty of a nation Is to look after the welfare of Its own citizens.

That is what we have done. In establishing protection we have not only accomplished all that the Republican party ever claimed, but hnve confounded our opponents here and abroad. The British government officially announces that our policy has been a successful one and will be of great injury to its own people unless retaliatory measures are taken. Which is why we remark once more that we never expected in our day to see Great Britain, the apostle of free trade, acknowledge Its own defeat and our own success. What will the Democratfb party say to this in the next campaign? It seems cruel that they are deprived of their only stock argument, but facts are necessarily cruel things when opposed to fallacious theories.—Philadelphia Inquirer. 1,1 ■ ■ , Cobdcnism and thi 611 k Industry. England was once"the home of a flourishing silk manufacturing industry', which thrived^mtil protection was removed. Ever since thnt event It has been steadily declining, nnd now Its proportions are Insignificant. Meanwhile the importation of silk fabrics Into Great Britain has attained large proportions, their value reaching as high ns $70,000,000 In a single year. If there is any raw silk now Imported Into the United Kingdom the quantity Is too small to receive especial mention lit the table of Imports furnished by the Statesman’s Year Book. The avowed object of the Cobdenites in killing off the domestic silk industry of Great Britain was to make silk fabrics cheaper by opening the British markets to foreign competition, but the figures of consumption thnt this aim was not accomplished. There is more silk per capita worn to-day in the United States than in any other country on the globe. Its use is not confined to any class, the housemaid as well as her mistress arraying herself in silken fabrics. The development of the silk Industry in the United States under the circumstances may be set down as one of the greatest triumphs of the protective policy-—San Francisco Chronicle.

The Outcome of Protection. Soys Mr. Mosely, In summing up the Report of the Industrial Commission to this country from England: “My personal conclusion Is that the true-bora American la a better educated. bettor housed, better fed, batter clothed rod more energetic man than

his British brother, and infinitely more sober; and, as a natural consequence, he is more capable of using his brains as well as his hands.” And it is all due to American wages, the outcome' of protection which has built up and maintains our home market. Trade with Canada. Business is business. Canada’s Imports from the United States last year amounted to $123,472,410, and its exports to this country Were $54,660,410. Since 1897 Canada has allowed Great Britain and its colonies a preferential tariff. This concession, since July 1, 1900, has been 33 1-3 per cent, yet our trade with Canada grows steadily and is far in advance of that between Canada and Great Britain. Doctrinaires cannot change the natural tides of commerce. Canadian business men cannot afford to sit idle waiting for goods from the other side of the Atlantic. Canada is importing more than twice as many goods from the United States as it receives from Great Britain, with a tariff reduction of one-third on British merchandise. Practically speaking, this preferential an*angement is a failure. Much was expected of it, but it has not worked as Cana-

dian politicians calculated.—St. Louis Globe-Democfat.

Shall We Abolish A? Mr. Chamberlain is presenting some sad pictures of British industrial decline. In his speech at Greenock, Wednesday night, he said: “The sugar trade has gone, the Iron trade Is threatened, and the turn of the cotton trade is coming next.” Yet the Democratic party would make our protective tariff the paramount issue in 1004. “The wicked tariff, the tariff which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, which fosters trusts, which gives no real prosperity, let’s abolish it,”" they say. Yes, let’s abolish it. Let’s forget the experience of 1893. Let’S get a taste of this industrial decline which has opened the eyes of our British cousins to the fact thnt the protective nations have prospered amazingly, while Great Britain has gone backward. —Springfield Union. A Popular “Abomination.’' In-the eyes of Joseph Chamberlain the protective tariff of the United States Is an “abomination.” It does not seem to have occurred to this British statesman thnt our tariff system wns devised to please the (people of the United Stntofc- and no one else. The framers of the Dinglcy law had in view the interests of foreigners intent upon breaking into the biggest and best of all markets. The “abomination” has proved tremendously successful and popular with Americans—so successful indeed that Mr. Chamberlain is studying how to introduce something like it in Great Urituln. What It Gives. The year’s crops are now mM; housed and tfSe return to the farmer will equal If not exceed any other year In our history. The value of farm products are over $1,000,000,000 more than in 1800. That is what protection gives to the farmer In addition to nature’s own knuulficent gifts. .. Empty. “Free trade is an empty name,” says Premier Balfour, end, he might have added, brirga an empty stomach. Tha tTaf at Care. Mike—They does be afther tailin’ ms at the hospital that I has Insomnia, Biddy. Biddy—Thin why don't yes be afthei gala’ to bed an’ shlapla' It ass?