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The Conservative. 5
Exchange of
, RECIPROCITY A commoditi o s , or
HUMBUG. other services ,
< spring from natur
al economic impulse and conditions.
Legalized interference with this
natural impulse to exchange services
that is with free trade called pro
tective tariffs , inevitably develops into
a system of international reprisal ,
differing little from piracy. Inten
sive protective tariffs have produced a
state of commercial war between the
several countries of continental Europe
and in which the United States is also
involved. Each of these countries
lias issued letters of marque and re
prisal in the shape of increasingly re
strictive tariffs in the commerce of
the other. This condition and temper
of commercial warfare is similar to
the condition 'and temper of warfare in
what we call barbarous times , when
no quarter was given to combatants ,
or when prisoners were held for ran
som. A more enlightened public
opinion and spirit brought about a
material amelioration of the barbar
ities of common warfare. A like spirit
of rebellion against the barbarities of
protectionist commercial warfare is
now fondly looking for amelioration
in reciprocity. But unlike the rule
for the speedy exchange of prisoners ,
and the suppression of other excesses
and irregularities of ordinary warfare ,
which are humane and equable , af
fecting all the belligerent parties
alike , reciprocity is simply a dis
criminating agreement in favor of a
single industrial interest or a limited
number of industrial interests , in
each of two countries at the expense
of all the rest ; and so , like the false
and burdensome system of protection ,
whose intolerable injuries it is put
. forth to relieve , it is a humbug. It is
easy to illustrate the delusion of reci
procity by reference to the amounts of
our products which various countries
bought during the year ending with
last June :
Great Britain $681,266,268
1 Germany 191,072,252
1 Canada 107,789,288
Netherlands 84,852,470
France 78,923,914
Belgium 49,890,259
Great Britain takes , free of duty ,
more than half the products wo ex
port , and about three-quarters of all
our agricultural exports. Without her
free patronage we should feel very
much like shutting up shop in our ag
ricultural districts , at least. Sup
posing , furthermore , that under the
humbug of reciprocity we undertake
to buy a free market in the ports of
' sbhio"corivpafatiVely 'petty' customer ,
like France , or oven Germany , which
places a very high tariff on the same
important products we are allowed to
sell in England free ? Iii the very
nature of business this complication
would arise and England would find a
way to retaliate against our inequity
and injustice. In short , to put in
practice the humbug of reciprocity is
bo set about , with malice afore
thought , to kill the goose that lays
our golden egg. A few years ago free
traders were told that they could not
point to England as an example of
superior commercial and manufactur
ing growth under free trade , because
England was an independent capital
istic country , while we were de
pendent borrowers. Now we boast of
our superior riches and of our manu
facturing ascendency. In the present
intense industrial struggle it is easy
to see that free-trade England is bet
ter off than her competitors , Franco
and Germany , who are harassed in the
vain attempt to equalize tariffs and to
make the delusive promise of the hum
bug reciprocity come true. The
United States is uo\v a world power
in commerce and manufactures. Does
the commercial policy of England or
that of Germany and France seem the
most promising for us ?
Again'Canada is thethird , largest
buyer from the United States , and of
the grand total of her imports from
us 73 per cent are let in free of duty.
Her tariff duties are only half as high
as ours. Canada buys three times as
much from us as we buy from her ,
leaving out of account the precious
metals. The agricultural west par
ticularly needs her lumber , coal and
fish. Her main imports from us are
manufactures of iron and steel. We
are now so strong , as manufacturers and
agricultural producers , that Canada
could not possibly injure either of
these interests under free tnide , while
free trade would tend to greatly in
crease her purchases from us. It will
be practically impossible for us to
favor certain importations from
France and Germany under reciproc
ity , without offending our great
Canadian customer and driving her. to
retaliation. Reciprocity is an attempt
to patch up a truce with a dozen war
ring nations , while the underlying
cause of war , the protective system ,
remains in force. This is why it is a
humbug.
The editor of
MUZZLE NOT The Conservative
THE OX. has been quite
severely criticised ,
in certain quarters , because he has ad
vertised for men to cut cordwood , at
Arbor Lodge. By the same rule of
reasoning , it will be seen that the
man who feeds the cow intelligently ,
for the purpose of increasing her flow
of , milk , is theji barred from consum
ing any of the lacteal bounty which
his wisdom and care caused to flow in
abundance ; likewise it is perfectly
plain that he who plants and tends the
golden grain , should be the last person
to expect profit from the harvest.
Ex-Senator Allen ,
MODEST. in the Madison ,
( Nebr. ) Mail , has
shattered an idol , by declaring that
Thomas Jefferson assumed credit tor the
work of others ; that he was really a
very common-place individual , and did
not write the Declaration of Independ
ence. Very well ; what populist did
then ? The Fremont ( Nebr. ) Tribune
opines that it was either Jerry Simpson
or Anna Diggs , but The Conservative
is of the opinion that it surely must
have been a certain rotund statesmanette
who once spoke fourteen hours and
some odd minutes , in a successful at
tempt to break the world's gabbing
record , but whoso innate modesty pre
vents his claiming Jefferson's halo , un
til after he shall have planted his own
burly frame on the soft , yielding
cushions of the presidential chair.
Of late several
THE WRONG cases of alleged
SYSTEM. brutality on the
part of school
teachers have been aired in the
courts , and in each the jury has al
lowed mercy to temper , if not to de
feat , justice ; one teacher being re
leased upon the ground that bruised
portions of a boy's anatomy do not
turn black within less than twelve
hours after an injury is inflicted. As
a matter of fact , any man , who as a
boy felt the full force of some sturdy
youngster's fist , during the recess ,
well remembers that the point of con
tact was as black as a state treasurer's
record when ho faced his mother
across the evening board. This was a
mere subterfuge.
Inflicting deserved punishment is
one thing ; venting your spite by com
mitting mayhem , another ; which re
minds us that there once was an old-
fashioned pedagogue who with his
hickory rod and stern-faced command
to "take off that jacket" is gratefully
remembered as a much safer person in
whose hands to place the .custody of
a child's moral and physical being ,
than is the modern feminine pepper-
pot who seems prone to punish for re
venge rather than for the good of the
pupil.
Any young rapscallion who cannot
be reduced to a state of subjection
without being maimed or disfigured
should be promptly expelled from the
school , as his attendance is ofno
benefit to himself and is a menace to
the morals of his school-fellows. On
the other hand , a preceptress who
cannot curb young America without
vivisecting him , may as well lay
aside the raw-hide , and seek employ
ment in some abattoir , where the de
sire to mangle may bo more satisfac
torily and remuneratively gratified.
In cases where punishment is de
served , it should be administered , and
no sensible parent will object ; but
there is a place for everything , and
bruises and welts on a boy's face are
decidedly out of place.