The National Era

RUSSIA, ENGLAND, AND THE UNITED STATES.

"She is actuated by no regard for Turkey but she is looking to the extension of the field for her own manufacturing enterprise and capital. In that wide field for commercial enterprise, which is the real prize at which Great Britain is looking, we have a powerful motive to prefer the success of the Czar. The one is our rival as a manufacturing and commercial nation, the other comes not into competition with us. Whilst, therefore, our sympathies are with Turkey, because she is weak, and is threatened by a Government that is strong, these sympathies are not so strong that they may not be overcome when our interests are fully ascertained to be involved by the disclosures as to the policy and object of Great Britain."—Washington Union.

While exposing yesterday the insidious attempt of "the organ" to arouse prejudice against England, and enlist sympathy for Russia, in the approaching struggle between the Eastern and Western Powers of Europe, we promised to notice the commercial reasons assigned, for preferring the success of Russia to that of England, France, and Turkey. These reasons, such as they are, are stated in the extract quoted above, there is so little in them that it is difficult to make them the subject of an argument.

If the Czar succeed, he will take permanent possession of the Principalities, acquire a protectorate over Turkey, be supreme in Central Europe, and probably be able to embarrass the commerce of Great Britain with the East Indies. What are we to gain from all this The commercial policy of Russia is not so liberal as that of England. It produces little that we want, wants little that we produce. Were she in possession of Constantinople, it would be as unimportant to us, as it is now.

If the allied Powers succeed, the independence of Turkey is preserved. England may obtain additional facilities of commerce, a larger market for her products, but her settled policy now is Free Trade; and wherever her influence extends, it is felt in favor of Free Trade—than which nothing can be more advantageous to us, in a commercial point of view.

Competition in trade, manufactures, and the arts, between nations, with great resources for all these forms of enterprise, and resembling one another in energy, tact, and intelligence is their appropriate stimulant, quickening their enterprise, and developing their resources. Under its energizing influences, the mightiest results are produced.

Great Britain and the United States are competitors, but at the same time they are complements to each other. We supply her with what she must have, but can get nowhere else; she supplies us with what we need, and can obtain nowhere else on so favorable terms Hence, while rivals in commerce, and to a certain extent in manufactures, we are dependent upon one another, more than any other two nations. From this it follows, that the expansion of the resources and power of the one is a positive benefit to the other.

To talk of Russia being a natural ally of the United States, and England our natural enemy, is sheer madness. Look at this table which any one may verify by examining the yearly tables of our exports and imports:

[Table: Exports and Imports with Great Britain vs. Russia]

The sum total of our commerce yearly with Great Britain and her dependencies, nearly $234,000,000; with Russia, not quite $3,000,000 And in our petty trade with Russia, she takes less of us than we take from her, while in our magnificent commerce with Great Britain, she receives from us $32,000,000 more than we buy of her. In fact, our trade with Great Britain and her dependencies is greater than with the whole world beside, and she buys from us nearly four-sixths of all our exports of domestic products!

Suppose, then, in the vicissitudes of a war in the East, England should come into possession of Egypt, what commercial interest of ours would suffer? The sum total of our domestic products now consumed by all Turkey is but two hundred and twenty-five thousand. Less she cannot consume, under whatever domination she may fall; but under the protectorate of a Power like England, with her Free Trade policy, she would be apt to increase her consumption.

But the key to the preferences of "the organ," we presume, is to be found in its predilection for Cuba. It hates England because she is the ally of Spain, and it supposes her influence to be the chief obstacle to the acquisition of Cuba. It would prefer the success of the Czar and the prostration of English power, so that the project of annexation might be ventured upon with impunity. In other words, it would rejoice to see that nation, which buys from us nearly two-thirds of all our domestic products, whose commerce is of more value to us than that we carry on with all the world, which is the best customer for the cotton of the South and the breadstuffs and animal products of the West, utterly prostrated by Russian Power, in a war, too, waged by that Power for its own aggrandizement, by the dismemberment of an unoffending State; and all this, so that this Government might obtain a few thousand square miles more of Slave Territory.

This is Pro-Slavery statesmanship!

Imports	$1,581,660	$100,595,220
Exports of Domestic products	1,060,748	124,333,381
Exports of Foreign products	138,732	8,902,363