Newfoundland and the Jingoes: An Appeal to England's HonorFretwell, John
History
Newfoundland and the Jingoes: An Appeal to England's Honor
Fretwell, John
Newfoundland and Labrador -- History
On investigating the published accounts of some twelve American
brewery companies in which Englishmen have been induced to invest more
than $41,808,000, I find that the depreciation in selling price of
shares, taking the highest rates of November, 1894, was no less than
$21,917,280, or 52.42 per cent. on the paid-up capital; and, taking
the common stock alone, the loss exceeds over seventy per cent. on
the paid-up capital.
I am glad of it. The Englishman who, knowing the influence of this
infernal traffic on his own countrymen, would make money by extending
its curse to the United States, deserves to lose his money quite as
much as the Tory investors in the Confederate Loan deserved their
loss. Now suppose this $70,000,000 thus invested in "Alabama damages,"
Confederate Loan, and American breweries had been put into
Newfoundland roads and railways, what would have been the result? An
immense amount of traffic which now must pay toll to American
railroads would have gone over purely British lines, all the way
through British America to China and Japan. All the mining and
agricultural lands of Newfoundland might have been developed. The
French shore question would have ceased to occupy the diplomatic
wiseacres, because the people would have found so much profit in other
employments as to care nothing about French competition in the cod and
lobster fishery. Newfoundland itself would have become an impregnable
arsenal for the British navy, commanding the entrances to the St.
Lawrence, and, in case of war with the United States, giving that navy
the power of practically blockading all the Atlantic coast.
All this has been thrown away, because the British Jingo supports a
Tory cabinet, which, while making theatrical demonstrations of
imperialism, neglects imperial duties and betrays imperial interests.
And look even at sober free trade Manchester, the community which is
supposed to understand the worth of money better than any other in the
world. Has it really gained by its Jingo policy? Professing to be the
stronghold of free trade, it rejected the great free-trader, John
Bright, when in Sir John Bowring's war he asked for justice to China.
It rejected Mr. Gladstone when he sought the suffrages of South-east
Lancashire that he might relieve Ireland from the insolent domination
of an alien church.
And now the great makers of cotton machinery are coming from
Lancashire to establish factories in New England, and her spinning and
weaving mill corporations are losing their markets and their profits.
Of eighteen such corporations whose shares are quoted in the
_Economist_, the highest November prices of common stock show a loss
of $2,553,294 on the paid-up capital. Supposing that, instead of
supporting the Jingoes, Manchester had sent men to Parliament who
would support a wise and conservative policy in the colonies,
Newfoundland included, would it not have been better for her
interests, to say nothing of principle?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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