296 BlUTAIN FOR l^HE BUITOJ^ 



The Feee-tkade "Fiddle" 



The great question of the best economical position for 

 Great Britain to assume, rests then, between two contending 

 parties, namely, the Free-traders and the anti-Free-traders. 

 The latter is a comprehensive term and generally intelligible to 

 the voter. The former is fairly comprehensive, but not so 

 intelligible, because it seems to be capable of so many interpre- 

 tations as to puzzle those desirous of understanding its prin- 

 ciples. Irreverent satirists have likened Free-trade to a fiddle 

 upon which many tunes may be played to suit the varied 

 tastes of a " Constituency," and it certainly appears that a 

 smart politician or an expert political economist would 

 experience no difficulty in putting the Free-trade horse through 

 many and varied paces. 



Cobden's ideas of Free-trade, for example, were less elastic 

 and capable of fewer interpretations than those of Mr. Lloyd- 

 George, whose Tariff Convention with the United States signed 

 on 20th November, 1907, and his arrangement with the 

 Australian Government a month or so later, in wliicli our slate 

 trade benefited by a preferential reduction of 5 per cent., while 

 the bicycle trade reaped even greater advantages, partook rather 

 of the nature of Reciprocity and Protection than of Free- 

 trade. Nor can it be said that the new Patents Act, which 

 forces foreign manufacturers to set up industries in this country, 

 is an essential ptrincipjle of " Free "-trade. 



Then again, although the avowed views of a Conservative 

 Government may differ considerably from those of a Liberal one 

 in respect to the meaning and import of Free-trade; and 

 although they declare them to be — for purely political purposes 

 — as wide apart as the poles, we do not find, that when a 

 Liberal Administration succeeds a Conservative one, it evinces 

 a feverish desire to smash up and vehemently cast out the 

 anti-Free-trade measures of its predecessors. 



Taxes on Food — Free-trade Inconsistencies 



Sugar affords an example that the real difference between 

 the Free-trade party and the anti-Free-trade party is, after all, 

 more a matter of political technique than a solid disagreement 

 which stands rigid as a wall between the contending parties. 



You can no more do without sugar than you can do without 

 bread, and yet the present Free-trade Government have no 

 scruples about deriving over £6,000,000 annually in duties 

 from this widely used and necessary article of consumption. 



