The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1888.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 8385, 21 January 1888, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 21, 1888.

The main question raised'for Australasian wool growers by the American President’s message is what will be the result? This includes the two questions of will there be a struggle of Parties, and what will the struggle bo about P That a struggle cannot be averted is clear from the pledges of the representative men of both the great Parties in the States. A congested treasury and depleted money market is the not pleasant combination which has been the occasion of these pledges. Year by year the money has been accumulating in the Treasury, and year by year the difficulty of restoring it to circulation has been growing, until at last all the resources are exhausted. Next year the money market will be in a state of famine, while the Treasury will be unwillingly hoarding not less than one hundred and forty millions of dollars. The difficulty will be twofold—to get rid of that hoard and to prevent the accumulation of another. This state of things so pithily described by President Cleveland in that masterly document of his, has been foreseen, and its pressure already felt. Hence the constituencies have exacted from their representatives on both sides promises of remedial policy. These promises the President is taking care they shall all redeem. In this Mr Cleveland only represents the pressure of circumstances. “ We have,” he says, “ to face a condition, not a theory.” The condition is such that the fiscal question must be settled. To prevent disaster, widespread and terrible, there must be a great struggle of Parties at once. To avoid a famine in the money market while enormous sums are locked up in the Treasury vaults, the politicians must have a trial of strength without further 'delay. Will the question turn on the Tariff ? There are several other ways of settling it without disturbing the Tariff in any way. The Treasury may lend money on deposit to the various Banks; it may buy up the bonds of the National Debt; it may launch a great scheme of public works ; it may build a navy. The President evidently thinks it very unadvisable that tbe State should | become the universal money-lenderj and the American knowledge of the! ways of money probably makes the* great majority of the nation off the President’s opinion. The extinc-3 tion of the national debt at a pace| faster than originally fixed, ia nowl impossible, except at ruinous pre-: miums, which holders of bonds may,; in a country of “ rings,” be-oonsideredl perfectly certain to exact by cofnbina-j tion—behaviour the President, who' knows his countrymen, delicately, but firmly, hints to be more than pro-, bable. For the Navy of the United States, it is one of the weakest afloat. Indeed, it is not many years since it was generally said—daring the little difficulty with Chili—that Uncle Sam might have been driven off the sea by a squadron from Valparaiso. Since then the navy of the United States has been increased. It is not the navy of a first-class maritime Power by any means. But as the States are out of the hurly-burly of European complication, the American people are not likely to approve of a great navy any more than they are ready to sanction the raising of a vast land force. A scheme of public works has much to recommend it. Indeed, if the American people were as familiar with the public works question as New Zealanders and Australians are, they would probably not hesitate to restore their surplus to circulation by building railways, making roads, and distributing bridges over the country. They might even grasp the idea of a loan large enough to buy up all the railways in the States, the surplus revenue going back every year into circulation by paying the interest. Thoughtful men, moreover, in the States have come to the conclusion that it was a great mistake to leave the railways of the nation to private enterprise. It is a conclusion supported by the conduct of the railway rings, which arrange freights for the development of particular districts in which they have property, to the destruction of the trade of others in which they are not interested. Not many years ago, indeed, there were indications of a policy of State opposition to the private railways. But the public mind of America is averse at present to the principle. The brief treatment which the President accords to the alternative of public works is suggestive enough. As the money cannot be spent in any of these ways, as it cannot be any longer got rid of by tbe old expedients, and as it cannot be kept out of circulation, the only course is to prevent accumulation. The only method is by a reduction of the duties. That duties must be reduced, the President has proved beyond a doubt. All Parties are agreed that the accumulations of revenue are bad. All are agreed that the money cannot be spent. It follows that all must agree that the quantity of money raised must be reduced. The question is of what duties. The internal duties are out of the question, as they affect the luxuries of drink and tobacco. The fight must be over the Customs list. The President’s propositions are—(l) to add to the free list all articles not manufactured in the States; (2) to reduce, if not extinguish, the duty on raw materials ; and (3) to reduce the duties generally. The annual accumulations are so large that the combination of all three reductions is necessary. The President’s arguments are that Protection for the first class is unnecessary; that Protection for the second does harm by shutting manufacturers out of foreign markets

which admit raw materials free, and does no good to the producer; that in many lines of manufacture Protection has proved too powerful, and that the measure of it can, therefore, be much reduced without in any degree affecting the balance between native and imported manufactures. The difficulties of this course are very great. But as no other course is open, the course must be adopted. There is only one remedy for the national evil, and that is the threefold remedy the President advises. What particular manufactures will submit to a reduction it is impossible to say, and it is immaterial for the fight is going to be one not of principle but of degree. Under the circumstances, the articles not manufactured in the country (being articles of necessity) are sure to be without friends, and their addition to the free list is certain. The same may be said of the raw materials. The manufacturing interest and all other interests being against them, their cause is hopeless. The reduction of the American wool duties may be now considered as only a matter of time.