FREETHINKER 



2325 



FREE TRADE 



"Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free 

 Men," and although it did not carry any state 

 it elected fourteen members of Congress, and 

 was strong enough to send Salmon P. Chase 

 and Charles Sumner to the Senate. In 1852 

 the party strength was only half of what it 

 had been in the preceding general election, 

 owing largely to the defection of the Barn- 

 burners. In 1856 the Free-Soilers joined the 

 newly-formed Republican party. See POLITI- 

 CAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. 



FREE 'THINKER, a term applied to those 

 who refuse to accept Divine revelation, and 

 who feel free to adopt any opinion in religious 

 or other matters which may result from their 

 own independent thinking. 



In the seventeenth century the name was 

 claimed by those who took part on the anti- 

 Christian side in the religious controversies. 

 Anthony Collins (who first made it a name of 

 a party by his Discourse of Freethinking) and 

 his friend, John Toland, are among the chief 

 of the early freethinkers. Lord Bolingbroke 

 and Hume were among the leading later free- 

 thinkers. In France, Voltaire and the ency- 

 clopedists, D'Alembert, Diderot and Helvetius, 

 are among those who argued for natural, as 

 against revealed, religion. In the reign of 

 Frederick the Great the same spirit became 

 fashionable in Germany. Freethinkers to-day 

 are unorganized, and their numbers appear 

 not to be large. Voltaire is their inspiration. 

 See VOLTAIRE. 



FREE 'TOWN, the principal seaport of West 

 Africa, capital of the British colony of Sierra 

 Leone and headquarters of the troops of the 

 West African garrison. Until recent years the 

 town was commonly referred to as "the white 

 man's grave," for the climate was so un- 

 healthful that few Europeans could live there. 

 The surrounding swamps have now been drained 

 and living conditions consequently have greatly 

 improved. The natives are skilful in gold and 

 silver work, and a large export trade is carried 

 on in rubber, gold, palm oil, gums, nuts and 

 ginger. The city is strongly fortified, has an 

 excellent harbor and is a coaling station for 

 vessels of the British navy patrolling the Afri- 

 can coast. Population in 1911 37,724, of whom 

 about 500 were Europeans. 



FREE TRADE, in economics and govern- 

 ment, is the name given to the policy which 

 aims to encourage the greatest possible com- 

 mercial intercourse between the various na- 

 tions of the world. This policy teaches that 

 the exchange between nations ought not to be 



restricted by laws or tariffs that favor the 

 home producer. A nation that adopts free' 

 trade does not give any assistance to the home 

 industries, either in imposing customs duties 

 on foreign products or by offering a bounty on 

 home products. It means, in other words, that 

 all the producers, either home or foreign, are 

 treated exactly alike in the market of that 

 country. The opposite policy, which main- 

 tains that a state can reach a high degree of 

 material prosperity only by protecting its home 

 industries from the competition of similar for- 

 eign industries, is known as protection (which 

 see). 



Great Britain is the only great industrial 

 country of the world that has adopted free 

 trade. Belgium and Holland have also tariffs 

 that are only slightly protective. The rest of 

 Europe, the United States and all the self- 

 governing British colonies have adopted the 

 policy of protection. Customs duties and taxes 

 imposed for revenue purposes only are not 

 opposed to the principle of free trade. 



The Theory of Free Trade. Briefly, the 

 economic principles on which free trade is 

 based are stated from the standpoint of those 

 who advocate it. The first and foremost of 

 these is the well-known economic principle of 

 the division of labor and the specialization and 

 organization that accompany it. Division of 

 labor in this case means that each country 

 would be able to concentrate its energies in 

 the production of those commodities for which 

 it is best fitted by its natural resources, geo- 

 graphical position, skill of its inhabitants, and 

 so on. But commodities are produced in order 

 to be consumed or exchanged for other goods. 

 There must therefore be the widest opportu- 

 nity for each country to exchange its products 

 for those of other countries. Free exchange, 

 or freedom of trade, becomes therefore the 

 necessary condition for the realization of this 

 international division of labor. Foreign trade, 

 just like domestic trade, is nothing else than 

 an exchange of goods for other goods, in which 

 both parties to the transaction are the gainers, 

 for each of them obtains goods more desired 

 than those with which it parted. Freedom of 

 trade, which allows the capital and labor of 

 each country to be used in those industries 

 that are most suitable to that country, secures 

 the greatest production of goods to the greatest 

 advantage of the consumers. 



The development of the material resources 

 of the world and the production of wealth 

 contribute to the welfare and to the progress 



