Protection v. Freetrade.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1789, 1 February 1886, Page 2

Protection v. Freetrade.

The following extract ie from a speech of Sir William Forwood, ex-president ef the Liverpool Board of Trade, to the working men at Liverpool“ Let me say a word to the working men I see here. Trade is bad, yon say, and foolish men are saying to yon that it is caused by freetrade, and will not be better till we adopt protection I have just landed from America ; trade is bad there, and they say it is caused by protection, and they are beginning to cry ont for freetrade as the only thing that will restore their prosperity. We must be qnite wrong here or they mast be qnite wrong in America. Let as see which it is. Trade is undoubtedly bad here. I find on enquiry that the weekly paysheets of our manufactories are about 30 per cent less than two or three years ago. This means lower wages and some men ont of work, but there are few works in the country closed, while in America in some districts there is absolutely no trade at all. There are many towns in New England in which every factory is closed, and 20,000 to 30,000 men are ont of work. The same is true of the iron and cool industries of Pennsylvania, in America. At the present moment men are starving there in tens of thousands. . . .

In America they can afford to make great experiments, because their resources are so great that a few mistakes will not ruin them. They have experimented with protection on a good scale and have stood its strain and weight in a wonderful way ; but it is bearing down even America, with all her gnat natural wealth.”