WHAT ONLOOKERS THINK OF FREE-TRADE 53 



How "Cheapness" may prove a Curse 



Another alarming feature in our present-day system, which 

 strikes this great body of independent onlookers, is the reckless 

 manner in which every interest in the kingdom is sacrificed to 

 Cheai'Nkss. That every reasonable care should be taken by 

 the national administration to secure the best possible terms all 

 round in regard to the price of commodities, so that all classes 

 of the people may be equally benefited, is quite sound ; but if 

 cheapness, per se, be the prime motive of those who set up this 

 procedure, then it stands to reason that in securing certain low- 

 priced goods many other interests would have to be sacrificed 

 that would conceivably outweigh the single advantage of 

 Cheapness. 



A cheap loaf, for example, might not, it is held, be the boon 

 and blessing to all classes of the community that Pree-traders 

 would have the people believe, because in securing it you must 

 necessarily deprive a number of people of the means of buying 

 a loaf at all, cheap or dear. In legislating for this " cheap loaf," 

 so called, it is known that agriculture had to be sacrificed, and, 

 in sacrificing agriculture, millions of people — and here it should 

 be understood that millions were included in the ruin and not 

 thousands — were thrown out of employment and — had to leave 

 the cowntry to avoid starvation. 



Exhausting Emigration 



If a man has to leave his native land to avoid starvation 

 because the laws of his country deprive him of his occupation, 

 it follows that those laws are either unwise or unjust, or both. 

 If the people have to leave their native land in their millions 

 and. tens of millions, it follows that those laws are not only 

 unwise and unjust, but highly dangerous to the stability of the 

 nation, in that they constitute an exhausting drain on the 

 manhood of the country which is depleting it of its virile 

 strength. Not less than 3,205,897 of the best, hardiest, and 

 most enterprising of our people emigrated from these shores 

 during the fifteen years 1893-1907,* while upwards of 14,000,000 

 souls found the necessity of fieeing from their mother-country 

 since Free-trade set up its system, because of the unwisdom 

 and injustice of these measures. 



Now it follows in natural sequence that, if national affairs 



* "Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom, 1893-1907" (Parlia- 

 mentary Blue Book). 



