LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
A FABLE FOR FAIR-TRADERS: THE GIRDERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TEN "SPECTATOR."]
SIE,-1. was walking through the streets of a provincial town the other day, and came upon a crowd of persons gathered round a large trolley. The horses had been unable to drag the car on the slippery ground, and one of them had fallen down, and the trolley was blocking the street. In it I per- ceived two large iron girders—made in Belgium, I believe— such as are used in the building of factories and workshops. Presently a considerable crowd collected and began to talk about the accident and the contents of the trolley. Very soon I noticed that an excitable person, with a clean-shaven faee, was beginning to gather most of the crowd around him, while he expounded something in loud tones. I went up to listen, and found he was addressing .tho crowd in such terms as these:—" Yes ! that's what it is ; that's what's a-ruining the country. Them blessed girders might have been made in England, and given poor men like me employment. But no, thanks to our infernal system that we calls Free-trade, but which certainly ain't Fair-trade, whatever else it is, them girders comes from Belgium, and the work that might have been keeping many happy homes going is lost to England for ever. I call it a d—d shame, I do. But I hopes and believes that Joe Chamberlain's going to put that right. If he has his way, we sba'n't have no more of them girders coming in and ruining the country." Possibly -the gentleman was an itinerant sample of Mr. -Vince's hundred tariff-reform lecturers, - of whom we have been bearing of late. At any rate, his oratory seemed very effective, and his speech was greeted with groans and cries of " Shame !" from all the by- standers. It looked as if Fair-trade and fiscal reform was going to have it all its own way. But very soon a working man shouldered himself through the crowd and stood by the side of the speaker, and called out: Hold hard there, mate ! What are you a-talking about saying them girders is a-ruining the country ? " And then he turned to the carman and said : "Aren't them girders going down to build the new shop Mr. Johnson's a-putting up ? " "Yes," said the carman. " Ah ! I thought so," said he. "That's the only new work- shop that's been put up in the town for some time. I know about it because my son's got employment on the building, and glad he was to get it, for the building trade's been precious bad here of late." (Cries in the crowd of " Yes ! that it be.") "Well, if it hadn't been for the Belgian iron used in that building, I'm told it could never have been put up. Mr. Johnson, they say, thought first he'd have nothing but English material, but, Lor' bless you, the tender for all English material mounted up to a sum that Mr. Johnson couldn't afford to pay and hope for a profit. But he found by getting the stuff from Belgium he • could afford to build, and so he's building, and a precious good job for the people in the building' trade, say I, though I'm not in it now myself." "Yes," said another man, "but it don't stop at the building trade, because when that building's put up there's going to be a boot factory opened there, and that'll give employment to two or three hundred hands. But if the building couldn't have been built, why, of course, it couldn't have been opened as a boot factory. No Belgian girders, no building; and no building, no boot factory; and no boot factory, no work for the boot-maker. So I can't say as how the blessed girders have done the country much harm ; anyway, they ain't done me much harm, as I'm in the boot trade, and looking to get employment when the shop is open." At this the crowd began to turn round, as a crowd will, and the Fair-trade orator looked somewhat annoyed at the course of the argument. But there was worse to come. A local builder next came up and desired to put in a word : "All I can say is that if that building hadn't been begun—and it never would have been begun if cheap Belgian girders had been forbidden to enter the country—I shouldn't have got the contract for putting up a hundred cottages on that vacant piece of land there. The new factory's expected to give employment to at least two hundred hands, and so a syndicate was formed to provide more cottages in the St. Mary's district. and I got the contract. I am doing it very reasonable because I can get Belgian iron and Swedish wood ; but if these are going to be kept out it's the last cheap job I shall be able to do. Protection may do very well for some people, but it would be certain to ruin me." How many other people were going to testify for or against the girders I do not know, for I had to come away, but as I left I heard a shop-keeper declare : "Well, all I can say is, if Belgian girders make it cheaper to build factories for people to work in, and houses for them to live in, then I'm for letting 'em in. New factories mean new houses, and new houses mean new customers and more trade, so I ain't going to vote for Joe's policy. It ain't likely. Why should I ?"—
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