8 T3be Conservative *
ticod , while higher prices stimulated
new ventures in every direction. The
easy conditions upon which corpora
tions can bo created increased this
tendency. Corporations without cap
ital , or with watered capital , without
limit as to number and amount -svero
formed. In order to prevent competi
tion and to control the homo market ,
corporations in distinct lines of bxisi-
ness , have combined and reorganized
w.ith other corporations in the same
lines , and have thus made it impossible
to realize the benefits of competition
and lower prices at home. The air
has been redolent of promoters. They
have been supreme in all branches of
business ; and under their reign , all
the old maxims of thrift , honesty and
safety have boon forgotten. The
writer does not intend to condemn
combinations merely as such. They
are as old as competition , and have
sometimes greatly advanced the in
terests of society , as , for instance , our
churches , colleges and charitable in
stitutions. They must be judged by
their purpose and effects. It will not
be. presumed , however , that a great
corporation which can manufacture
and transport rails to Europe , and soil
them for $10 per ton , while it actual
ly sells them in this country for $26
per Jon , is entirely controlled by
benevolent impulses ; nor that under
the designation "community of inter
est" railroad companies which have
purchased the controllinc interest in
many thousand miles _ of competing
lines , and , while they watered the
stock , at the same time obtained a
monopoly and advanced the rates of
transportation , were compelled by
philanthropy to take such action. Yet
in both these cases , the consequences
arc increased cost of production in
other lines of industry.
Economists have long recognized
that general rates of wages depend on
two primary conditions , produc-
.tive power , and the just dis
tribution of the product. Laborers ,
however , in tno protected industries ,
which include those engaged in near
ly every branch of business except
those engaged in transportation , mer
chandise and the professions , have so
long been educated in the belief that
high wages depend upon "protec
tion , " that they have no proper con
ception of the first of the above named
principles , but fully apprehend the
value of the second. They have
therefore boon induced or driven into
membership in unions , whoso princi
pal object has been to extort what
they conceived to bo their fair share
of the product of their hands. Di
rectly or indirectly they have suc
ceeded in their efforts ; although
when wo consider the unnecessary
burdens imposed upon industry wo
may hope for still greater improve-
- - - , .
incuts in their conditions , especially ,
when they shall realize that protect
ive duties , by adding to the cost of
production , impair productive power.
But accepting facts and conditions as
they exist , through the stimulating
influences heretofore mentioned ,
wages iu this country are higher than
over known before , and have largely
contributed in raising the cost of
production.
We have now reached a stage of our
inquiry which gives us the key to ,
and enables us to predict the future
economic situation. The stimulat
ing forces resulting from over con
fidence in credit , the operations of
war , the increase of currency and the
lugh tariff on imports , have all lost
their momentum. The wars have be
come a drag , and the taxes imposed
to carry them on are a heavy burden
upon industry. The bonds upon
which the now issue of bank notes
were based have reached so high a
price that the banks are soiling the
bonds and retiring their notes to such
an extent that for some time past the
circulating medium has decreased at
the rate of $3,000,000 per mouth ; and
the western farmers are complaining
of the burdens and restrictions im
posed upon their industries by the
high tariffs. While these stimulants
have lost their effect , on the other
hand they have left the general cost
of production at a higher level than
will permit competition in the gen
eral markets of the world. There are
several clear indications of this ten
dency. Gold has commenced to flow
from instead of into the country. The
disproportion between imports and
exports is decreasing. Imports are
becoming larger , exports smaller in
amount. Wo may therefore look for
a lower level of prices and long continued - '
tinued depression in business. Amid
the shrinkage of prices credit will bo
impaired and panics are likely to en
sue. In the manufacturing and min
ing industries , strikes and lock-outs
may again become prevalent ; capital
and labor each contesting for a larger
share of the common product than
the conditions will ppruiit. The sit
uation will bo aggravated by the
multitude of mushroom men and
mushroom enterprises which over-
stimulated prosperity has developed
and which at the first adverse wind ,
will crumble into ruin. Napoleons
of Finance will disappear from the
public view , and watered stock will
either vanish or cease to pay divi
dends ; and as wo can never escape
the human elements of passion , prej
udice and ignorance we may expect
bitter strife , hysterics and convulsions
among the masses of the people , in
which the walking delegate and the
demagogue will bo the moving spirits.
The situation will bo still furthei
aggravated and continued by our
'protective" tariffs. Those tariffs
mvo been largely the result of a com
bination of interests which expected
; o receive benefits from their enact
ment. Many of the same interests will
struggle to maintain them in force.
They do not seem able to appreciate
the truth of the trite maxim , that
you cannot forever go on selling with
out buying ; that international com
merce consists of the simple exchange
of commodities , and that a rapacity
which prevents the imports , of
foreign commodities , both impairs
the ability of the foreigner to take
our commodities and 1 'ads to aots of
retaliation which may eventuate iu
the ruin of those employed in our own
industries. Of the latter effect we
have already sufficient evidence in the
attitude of foreign countries. Franco
lias already built a tariff wall nearly
equal to our own. The autocrat of
Russia has practically prohibited the
import of several commodities from
this country. In her new tariff law
Germany has adopted a clause under
which the same duties are charged
upon imports from different countries
as are charged in those countries upon
similar commodities ; and thus our
farmers , the producers of our largest
volume of exports , exports which fix
the price of the product at homo , for
the sake of a mere shadow of benefit
derived from our own tariff , cut them
selves off from a great foreign market.
The duty on grain in Germany will
be $0.25 per bushel and upon pork and
bacon $0.05 per pound.
The feast of Barmicedes to which
we have boon thus invited does not
furnish an exhilarating prospect ; but
those who are disposed to look at the
situation with too gloomy anticipa
tions , should remember that under
natural conditions the laws of trade
are automatic in their action , and
deviations are quickly adjusted and
corrected ; and that the superior pro
ductive power of the country and
energy of the people might be expect
ed soon to bring about a higher and
more substantial prosperity than wo
have over before enjoyed. The
trouble is that we are not under na
tural conditions. By our tariffs aided
by corporate aggressions , wo have
perverted the natural laws of trade.
Wo are tied hand and foot ; and while
our great natural productive capacity
should enable us to roach all the mar
kets of the world wo are so fettered
by this system of jobbery and corrup
tion , that wo are likely to bo limited
to homo markets and by increased
cost of production to lese many even
of them.
Seine of the wiser and more practi
cal statesmen who have advocated
"protection" have foreseen the ca-
lamitiesSliable to result from the logi-
" "
T"
