On the basis of quality, therefore, the volume of manufactures in the States is not worth more than 50) per cent. of the value of British' manufactures. But the United 8tates is protectionist country, and] the manufacturer is able to add this} duty to the price. With so heavy' a duty on foreign manufactures to protect him it would not be human if the American manufacturer gave his consumers anywhere near the same quality of goods for the same price as is charged for British products. The United States consumer! has the benefit of protection with a vengeance; he pays through the' nose for goods of inferior quality. With the milch-cow in the country' itself and safe against competition, thanks to the tariff, the American manufacturer has never looked for wider markets for his good: In this connexion it is necessary to mention that in the United States values are not fixed according to ay prices, but according to statements made by the manufacturer, exporter or importer. Also the States annually import cotton manufactures of the value of over £13,000,000—which Mr. Barker has failed to mention.
Moreover, if the American mana-facturer goes abroad, he will have to compete with the more finis! and cheaper articles from Great Britain. There was at one time, of course, rather a good market in China for American cotton goods. Yet now even Japan, which is not yet famous for the quality of products, has been able to dri American goods out of Manchur But Mr. Barker is convinced of the beneficence of tariff'a prion; and he swallows wholesale the state ments of the United States Tariff Board, constituted to boom the protective tariff. It makes reckless as two-thirds of British exports go to the poverty-stricken nations of Asia, to Indis, China and Asiatic
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.