II. (2)

Mr. Chamberlain has never had a chance. He declared that England was ruined; her trade and industry in a galloping consumption; if imports were increasing, exports were diminishing. The foreign trade returns for 1903 gave him the lie in the most striking manner; the total had never been so high; it was £903,353,641—£26,000,000 above the record years 1900 and 1902. It represented £24 19s. per head; whereas, even in the annus mirabilis 1873, when prices were much higher, it was only £21 4s. Comparing this total with those of the other six great nations, and subtracting £25,000,000 to allow for the fact that their returns are for 1902, not 1903, we find that the English total compared with Germany, the highest of them, is as 170 to 100.

At Greenock Mr. Chamberlain said, “Sugar is gone: silk is gone: iron is threatened: wool is threatened: cotton will go. How long are you going to stand it? At the present moment these industries, and the working men who depend upon them, are like sheep in a field. One by one they allow themselves to be led to slaughter, and there is no combination, no apparent prevision of what is in store for the rest of them.”

First: “Sugar is gone.”

“Silk is gone.”

“Iron is threatened.”

“Wool is threatened.”

“Cotton will go.”

And this in spite of the 1904 cotton crisis, which deprived Lancashire of its raw material.

At Newcastle Mr. Chamberlain mourned over the disappearance of glass and earthenware.

The importation of raw materials is a sign of a country’s industrial activity.

These are not signs of ruin, and if they were Mr. Chamberlain has never shown how taxes on foreign foodstuffs and manufactures will assist the expansion of British foreign trade.