The Press. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1885.

Press, Volume XLII, Issue 6304, 2 December 1885, Page 4

The Press. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1885.

Ths battle, if it ever eoxnee to be f ought oat in the colony, over the question of freetrade and protection, will be for the support of the agricultural eommnnity. To begin with, it may be taken for granted that the great majority of the prefacing classes are seriously alarmed at the prospect of an era of high tariffs and rniiious charges upon the great indnstrieeof the country. What protectionists have to prove is that their policy will torn oat to be advantageous not only to the capitalist mannfactnrer, bnt to the straggling agriculturalist. Hitherto they have found the task by mo mesne an easy one. There is plenty of assertion, no doubt, bnt very little argument, and mere assertion, ws venture to affirm, will not convince any very large number of reasonable people. It is asserted—bnt not proved —that protection would give ths fanners • local market for their produce, and it is •iked, Is it not better that they should have a market on the spot than that they should have to look for one at the other side of the world P Thmeounds plausible on the face of it, bnt* unfortunately, no attempt is made to prove that each would be the result of protection. No one has attempted to show what population would

be needed to consume the present produce of our land, to say nothing of the increased production which must follow ihe gradual occupation of the country by settlers. Under the most prohibitive system of protection the development of local industries must necessarily be gradoaL and even if it could be shewn that in tiie long run protection would benefit the fanner, what is going to happen in the meantime to the agricultural community P While we are establishing the local industries that are to benefit, we are told, the whole country, the farmers, are to bs mined. The small additional population whioh would be attracted here at first would not be sufficient to consume a tithe of the staple products" of the country. Their price for maty years to come would still he regulated fe what could be obtained for them in wj markets of the world. In the meanthvun the farmers would be called upon to bag their share of the heavy burdens won an excessive tariff bad-imposed upon JE country, without deriving a single *& pence of benefit out of the system. Jja other words, the protectionists call up the fanners and the producers genersSy to sacrifice themselves for an imaginw advantage at an undefined future tiny, when tiie working population shall hapjj been increased by so many people. 1 Bu\ assuming that the farmers ana the population generally are willing to sacrifice themselves in the manner we have described, it would still remain to be proved that they would be doing a patriotic and public spirited act. Let as admit, tor the sake of argument, thatjj under a system of protection, we are able to build ap a number of protected! industries that would give employment to a sufficient number of people to consume and convert into a manufactured form all the products of the run and farm, what ia to happen then ? If we do not export raw produce we must, we imagine, send away in place of it the manufactured article. We cannot be self • contained, if for no other; reason, because we are, and our rulers say must continue to be, a largo borrowing community. We must pay the interest on our loans, and everyone who is acquainted with even the rudiments of political science knows that that payment mnst be made in exports. In other words, our manufaofacturers must enter into competition with the " slave " labor, aa it is called, of other countries. What does that mean P If our manufacturers are able to produce at a profit they mnst be placed on the same footing as their competitors. They, too, mnst employ "slave" labor. In other words, protection would result in a lowering of wages to the starvation point Thb is no mere theoretical conclusion, but ia abundantly proved by the condition of the labour market in the great manufacturing districts of that paradise of the protectionists-—America. In Massachusetts, a recent authority tells us "that among the wage laborers the " earnings (exclusive of tiie earnings of " minors) are less than the cost of living; <* that in the majority of eases working " men do not support their families on " their individual earnings alone, and " that fathers are forced to depend upon " their children for from one-quarter "to one-third of the family earnings, «'children under, fifteen supplying ••from one-eighth to one-sixth of the | "total earnings." In Canada, where a I protective policy has been adopted,-it | waa shown recently that "children under " thirteen were kept at work in the nulls " from six in the evening to six in tiie "morning, a man on duty with a strap ",to keep them awake." Other equally | striking illustrations could be given of the misery and wretchedness which prevails in many parts of the manufacturing districts of America. But, aide by aide with all that poverty, there is no donbt ' immense wealth. The wealth, however, ia being poured into the pockets of the monopolists, who more and more, to crush out competition, and therefore to leave to themselves tbe undisputed control of the labor market. From " The Statesman's Year Book " we learn that in ten years from 1870 to 1880 the number of manufacturing establishments in tbe United' States had only increased from 252,148 to 253,852, while the - capital employed in these industries, the value of material used, and tbe value of tbe products, had nearly doubled, showing the concentration of manufactures in large, establishments, end the increased use of machinery. In the mining regions of Pennsylvania the great Corporations that control the mines have imported such a quantity of labour from the poor countries of continental Europe that "terrible distress and pitiful poverty prevail" all through that region. " Low wages, half-time, and the tyranny j of the Companies' store are starving the miners, and compelling them to bring up thsir families without education. .Id a few years the region will be black not only with coal-dust, bat with the ignorance and the crimes which spring from, ignorance."

.We began this article with affirming that protectionists will have to prove to the satisfaction of the farmers that their system will be ultimately for the benefit of the producers of the conntry, and that it is worth the while of the present nee of settlers to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of unborn generations. Bot the prospects, we imagine, are not sufficiently encouraging to make tiie disagreeable venture. Neither » it likely that the working men of onr cities will be per. suadsd into the belief that protection is beneficial even for them. It will enable a number of rnanuiaeturers, no doubt, to accumulate vast wealth- by following in the footsteps of their American brethren; bat the inevitable result would be a repetition of the state of things which now prevails in many of the manufacturing districts of that great conntry.