[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Stu, Mr. Gilbert Beard is undoubtedly right in suggesting that America—and the same is true of any other protected country—" takes the goods she does want," and refuses to take those she does not want, namely, those she can produce at home, with advantage to home industries. America,' and other protected countries, therefore, do not accept Mr. Beard's theory that indiscriminate free imports " auto- matically " give employment to _home industry.,
In stating this. comfortable theory, moreover, Mn _Beard appears to have overlooked the well-known fact, familiar to and indeed frequently emphasized by all Free Traders, that our imports of goods are not paid for only by exports of goods, since they largely represent the earnings of our shipping and interest received by this country on its foreign investments. These last may indeed have been the product of British labour in the past, but they surely do not provide employment—" automatically " or otherwise—for our " staple export trades " to-day.
If increased imports necessarily mean increased employ- ment in this country, how are we to explain the fact that with record imports we are faced to-day with serious and chronic unemployment ?—I am, Sir, .&c.,
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