The Free-trade contest in the United States is becoming sharp.
Mr. Morrison, who leads the movement in the House of Representatives, has drawn his Bill, which secures a reduc- tion of all customs dues by an amount roughly stated at 30 per cent., and an equal reduction of internal duties, and has pressed it on the Democratic party. The majority assembled in caucus have accepted it, by 114 to 57 votes ; but the minority, uniting with the Republicans, can defeat the Bill. The split is of no present consequence, as the measure will not pass this year, and none of the per-centages of reduction are anything but sugges- tions; but what is of importance is this. The Free-trade Democrats were informed and believed that the Bill would cost them the Presidency in the elections of this year; but, neverthe- less, the pressure from the West was so strong that they insisted on proceeding, and, as we see, secured a majority. That means that the West is waking up to the plunder inflicted on it by the manufacturing companies of the East, and the West, when once aroused, rules the Union. The dispute will ultimately be fought out as a sectional one, the producing West resisting and defeating the manufacturing East.
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