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Show "For twenty years enterprise in this country hns been checked," recently declaimed our free trade foster father president. Is checked the word? In 1895 this "checked" country had a populntion of twenty-three to tho square mile. In 1014 it hns increased to thirty-three. In 1012 the nntionnl wealth was 10.65 per capita, as against 11.17 in 1015. In those "checked" protection pro-tection yenrs the national debt decreased from 13.00 per capita to 10.41 notwithstanding in thnt period we fought the Spnnish wnr nnd built the Panama canal. The per capita of money in circulation increased from 23.21 in 1805 to 34.35 in 1014. As n little side nid, the bank clearings jumped from fifty-one billions in 1805 to one hundred and sixty-four millions in 1014 or over 200 per cent increase, though our population popula-tion increase was only 43 per cent. Then, just to nut an extra touch on tho "check," the individual in-dividual deposits in the nntionnl banks, savings banks, trust compnnles, etc., increased 350 per cent during the same protection period. With our per capita exports of merchandise doubled, every year, cotton production doubled, conl production trebled, pigiron production more thnn doubled, sugar production trebled and the annual railway traffic increased 100 per cent in passenger nnd 20 per cent in freight departments, with our gross postal revenues 300 per cent greater than nt tho first. Here mathematicians stagger when they try to realize what this country would have done if it had not been "checked" by protection. |
