Vi.—: Against French Automobiles.

It is strange to hear an English Prime Minister speaking like Colbert and M. Méline: “I had rather give my money to our own workmen than to strangers.” Partisans of Fiscal Reform are neither more nor less than Colbertists!

In 1903, soon after the publication of Mr. Chamberlain’s manifesto, a prominent Protectionist said to me in a tone of conviction—

“Our yearly import of automobiles from France is more than £4,000,000.”

“To begin with, your facts are incorrect. Last year the import was only £225,000.”

“This year it is higher.”

As a matter of fact the import for 1903 was £1,995,000, and for 1904 £2,636,000. At the time of our conversation my interlocutor could not have been acquainted with the second total, and even if he had his statement exaggerated it by more than 40 per cent. I mention this as an example of the methods employed by the leaders of the Fiscal Reform party, even to their own supporters. This gentleman had been given the figure; he repeated it in good faith without troubling to verify it.

“Anyhow it does not matter,” I said. “You complain of the importation of automobiles. Well make them yourselves.”

“We can’t make them unless we are protected.”

“That’s to say your automobiles would be more expensive and not so good as those you buy from France. Then it is to your interest to buy them in France.”

“Oh, I should go on buying mine from France. But what does it matter paying a little more for them? It will give employment to our workers.”

“Not on your purchases, since you go on buying them in France!”

“That’s true. But with the help of Protection our workmen would learn to make them just as well, and then they would get work.”

“But without the help of Protection they can get the steel, wood, and leather needed for construction cheaper than in France, and you pay less for your coal. Then England has a real protection, which Protection would take away: Customs tariffs, far from increasing would remove her advantages. How do you imagine they are going to give your workmen a skill which they do not now possess?”

“Our mechanics are as good as the French.”

“Yes.”

“Then they could make as good automobiles as the French workmen.”

“No doubt English workmen are capable of constructing the machinery of a motor car as well as the French. If they do not do so, as you say, Free Trade is not the cause of that, it is because English builders, engineers, and manufacturers have not yet taken up the industry.”

“Yes, and why? Because they are not protected. If they were protected, they would have felt safe in sinking capital in it.”

“That is not why the automobile industry has not developed in England: in reality it is not an industry yet, but a sport. Look how fast different makes appear and disappear: at no one time are 500 cars turned out of the same type, with the same cylinders, pins, and interchangeable parts. There is a perpetual change. I know amateurs who buy a new one every year. They want the latest, which has won a prize at some race or other. French roads are the best in the world for record-breaking. When automobilism becomes an industry, turning out every year numbers of cars of the same unvarying pattern, then England will have in this, as every other industry, the advantages of Free Trade. But do you think that the motor car was invented in France, thanks to Protection? That that has developed its construction? On the contrary, it has hindered it by hindering the supply of raw materials; and thus it makes the selling price higher.”

“Well, we import your cars; it would be better if we made our own.”

“Do you imagine that Mr. Chamberlain’s 10 per cent. duty will effect that? If it produced its full effect, it would raise 10 per cent. the price of iron, steel, and all raw materials: the price of the car would be higher and the number of buyers smaller. What a strange idea it is to pay duties as a way of extending your market! It is the markets and not the duties which give employment. Wages are only advanced by employers: they are paid by the consumers; and the dearer they pay the lower is their purchasing power.