New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-26

rise OverWnciinlngiy III HiS io'oi 10 BIG
canvass progresses. As for the others,
1--WE shall meet again at Philippi"
THEOLOGY ON FREE TRADE AGAIN.
Our neighbor of The Independent, hav-
ing opened in favor of what is called free
trade, declines to pursue the discussion,
from scrupulous delicacy lest it should
step beyond the sphere of religious jour
nal. 1t says:
ave have nothing 10 do here with the general ques
ton of protection either in s political in its eco
nomcal aspects. As we have before said, whenever
the way opened for the discussion OF topics OF political
economy separate from all questions OF party politics In
their moral relations simply. shs have something
to say But Is not within the province of this journal
TO discuss such questions under their secular aspects
We shall not therefore be drawn into any such discus
sion as The 7rsne seems to invite by It's catechetca
| inquiries
We confess our inability to understand
this sensitive avoidance of the main point.
|, is news to US that the way is not yet
opened for the discussion of political econ
omy separate from party politics. At any
rate. if it is not, it is time it were, and our
neichbor could not do better service than
by breaking the path. We shall be very
happy to follow his lead, and to confer
with him on the moral relations of this
question. And by way of showing that it
has moral relations, we will venture one or
two propositions that shall have in them
no odor of party politics whatever.
l. The system called free trade has for
its object to reduce all countries into coloni-
al dependence upon England, and to COM
| pel them to resort to her market, both to
sell their raw products and to supply them
selves with manufactured articles.
.. Those countries which have ca. led
| out this system, as Ireland, Portugal, lneia,
have been exhausted and ruined. or, as in
the case of Canada, have had their natural
growth checked and prevented, while those
countries which have adopted protection,
as Germany and the United States, have
grown in population, power, and the gene
raj we'll being of their inhabitants.
8. The system falsely called free trade,
impoverishes and degrades the masses of
the people, while protection to home indus
try enriches and elevates them.
4. Therefore, protection is more favora-
bic to the interests of morality and religion
than its opposite, which is NOS true free
trade, but simply an agent designed for the
colonial subsection of other countries to
England.
Now here are propositions which we
should like to discuss with The Indepcn-
dent, and which we think are no more Sec
ular than the question of the duty on coal.
1t is time, as it appears to us, that religious
journals, which profess sidewise adher-
ence to free trade, should enlighten The
public as to the grounds of the faith that's
in them, and show what are the moral and
religious reasons on which it is based.
The Independent persists in branding
the holders of Pennsylvania coal lands as
monopolists in the face of the fact that
those lands are now worth in the market
4 great deal less shan it has actually cost
to render them accessible, and to bring their
mines into working order. That the lands
now pay a considerable revenue to those
who own them does not entitle our cotem-
porary to confer on them so highly secular
IN epithet as monopolists." That reve-
nue. is nothing like tolerable interest on
the money actually invested. and the ben
eft derived by the owners is not to be
mentioned in comparison with that derived
by the public.
But for protection those mines would not
have been opened nor their benefits enjoyed
by the people. Nor are those benefits vet
fully realized. Mining is now being car
RED down into q deeper and richerlayer, and
is about to be so tar improved that the price
of coal must fall in spite of the efforts of
al the dealers in che country to keep it up.
We speak confidently on this subject the
cost of delivering ceal in New York and
Philadelphia will presently be so reduced
that the foreign article can be undersold,
duty or no duty. And this will be the con-
sequence,-let The Independent mark the
fact-not only ofprotection but f the effors;
and losses OF these same monopolists" it
| denounces.
Our neighbor also makes the following
| statement:
tT1s 7ribse argues that this measure the abror.
ton Of the coal duyl would be for the benefit of the
iron interest Of the moot important manufacrng
interests Of the country. We accept The Tribune a. az
nerits Of the case"