The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 7, 1867.

PROTECTION.

" Protect me !" is the imploring cry of a comfort-
able, well-fed, well-clad personage whom at first
sight one would hardly take for a beggar. Pro-
tect me!! I own but ten thousand acres of land in
the world. It is my all. It is full of coal ; but the
Englishmen and the Nova Scotians have got coal
too, and they offer to sell it cheaper than the price I
want. Shut out this foreign coal and protect me,
an American labourer." He looks even less like a
labourer than like a beggar. " What makes coal
so dear, when the weather is so dreadful cold? God
help', us poor !" comes from between the chatter-
ing teeth of a toil-worn, care-worn, shivering
woman, as she measures with stingy eye a scanty
fresh supply of fuel to her waning fire. No cry
from her to Government for protection. No
protection to her from the greed of the strong, the
cunning, the avaricious. " Work for yourself.
Work or starve. Self-help. Every one for him-

self. If Government gave bread, or clothes, or

fuel to the poor, it would demoralise them. Take
better care of the pennies you earn. Lay them up
in summer for a wintry day." Such are the
answers she would get if she asked for protection—
if she turned beggar. No chance for her to put in
a replication. The voices of the coal-owners are
mighty to drown hers. If she could be heard she
would say, " Ilow can I lay up my pennies when
the strong arm of Government takes them from me,
day by day, as fast as I can earn them, and hands
them over to my richer neighbours ? On every
spool of thread I buy Government takes from me a
penny or two to pay over to the Woonsocket Factory
Company, so that they may make dear
thread and big dividends. On every garment I
wear it takes pennies and shillings from me
wherewith to fill the purses of the rich men who
make cloth, and stockings, and shawls, and who
cannot be content with less than fifty or one hun-
dred per cent. increase of their wealth every year
to pay them for making dear clothes for the Ame-
rican labourer. When I buy a stove or a pair of
scissors, I must pay some of my hard-earned pen-
, nies to support the wealthy iron-maker of Penn-
sylvania. I get no protection to my lab.ur, and
I ask none. Let us both alone--me and the manu-

facturer. As you let me work my humble way
along as best I can, leave him to do the same.
Give him no part of my earnings, and I am con-
tent with my little share of this world's goods."
If it demoralises society for Government to give
the poor food, and clothes, and fuel, is it not
equally demoralising for Government to give to the
rich and the strong ? Aud when it gives to the
rich by taking from the comforts of the poor, is it
not demoralising society at both ends ? " Mother,
do give me another blanket, I am so cold," begs a
shivering child, of a winter's night, on our northern
frontier. " I have no more, child ; blankets,
are so dear, and all sorts of clothes so dear.
John, what makes woollen things so much
dearer than they used to be?" "I don't know ;

but they do say it's all done to purtect us poor folk
A tonguey man told us the other night that the
Government must purtect us from the blanket-
makers in England and other foreign countries."
" Yes, but John, over in Canada they have nothing
but English blankets, and you can buy two blankets
there for what one costs here. The English blanket-
makers don't seem to be so hard upon poor folk after
all." " Well, I can't tell the story exactly ; but the
tonguey man made it all out clear. I think, he said,
too, that wool wouldn't grow on our sheep unless
they was purtected." " Why, John, you don't
mean that they kiver our Air erican sheep with
blankets to make their wool grow, and that's the
reason blankets are so scarce and dear ?" " Well, I
don't know about that; but he made out that the
sheep must be purtected to git the wool, and then
the men who made the wool into blankets must be
purtected ; else we'd have to use the cheap
foreign blankets, and then he said we'd be worse off."
" John, don't you think the tonguey man was pull-
ing some wool over your eyes? If I could get two
Vankets instead of one to keep the children warm
the sheep would do well enough with their natural
kivering. It seems to me that we poor folk, what
don't have any natural kiver of wool growing on
our backs, want purtection more than the sheep."
" Well, that's just what Deacon Welloff says ; he
says these high prices purtect us as well as the
sheep ; and you know the Deacon subscribes a good
deal of money for the poor." " That's all true,
John ; but then the Deacon don't seem to get any
poorei for all he gives away; and the Deacon has
got a good many sheep of his own ; and whatever
is good for his sheep must be good for the Deacon's
own pocket ; and they do say that he owns part of
a big blanket-factory down in Rhode Island; and
so, maybe, the Deacon wrongs us poor folk out of
$lO and then gives us back $1 of it in charity ;
maybe, if the poor had cheap blankets and cheap
clothes, they wouldn't want any charity. You can't
make me believe we're any better off for having
only one blanket when, if they was cheaper, we
might have two." The parable of Dives and
Lazarus might be useful reading for those who are
getting fat dividends from coal-mines and factories.
—Round Table.