The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-02-27
Protection.

Protection.
We Find the article below in our
exchanges, without .any credit at
tached to it. It strikes us as being
thoroughly illustrative of the princi-
pie of protection as understood in
the down East States, and was pro-
badly written for that latitude. The
reader will find instruction and en-
tertainment in it's perusal:
''Protect me- is the imploling cry
of comfortable, well-fed, well-clad
parsonage, whom, at first sight, one
would hardly take for q beggar.
E'Protect me! own but 10, 600 acres
Of land in the world. It is my all.
1t 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 Ame-
rlcan laborer." He looks even less
like laborer than like beggar.
''What makes coal so dear, when
the weather is SO dreadful cold? God
the chattering teeth of toil-worn,
care-worn, shivering woman, as she
measures with stingy eye scanty
fresh supply of fuel to her waning
fire. No cry from her to Govern
ment 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 himself. If
Government gave bread or clothes or
fuel to the poor, it would demoralize
them. Take better care Of the pen
MES you earn. Lay them up in sum
mer for 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 replica
ton. The voices of the coal owners
are mighty to drown hers If she
could be heard, she would say, "How
can lay up my pennies when the
strong arm of Government takes
them from me, day by day, as fast as
[ can earn them, and hands them
over to my richer neighbors? On
every spool of thread l buy, Govern
ment takes from me penny or two
to pay over to the Woonsocket Fac
tory Company, so that they make
dear thread and big dividends. On
every garment wear, it takes pen
nics 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 hundred per cent
increase of their wealth every year to
pay them for making dear clothes for
the American laborer When Z buy
o stove or pair of scissors, I must
pay some of my hard-earned pennies
to support the wealthy iron maker of
Pennsylvania. beg no protection
to my labor and l ask none. Let us
both alone-me and the manufac-
turer. AS you let me work my hum
BILE way along as best 1 can, leave
him to do the same. Give him no
part OF my earnings, and [ am con
tent with my little share Of this
worlds goods" If it demoralizes
society for Government to give the
poor food and clothes and fuel, is it
not equally demoralizing for Govern
HiNh0 W give TO the flcn ana the
strong? And when it gives to the
rich by taking from the comforts of
the poor, is it not demoralizing So
ciety at both ends?
Mother, do give me another
blanket, / am so cold," begs a shiver-
ing child, of a winters nig / t, on our
Northern frontier. 'I have no more.
child; blankets are SO dear, and ali
sorts of clothes so dear John, what
makes woolen things so much dearer
than they used to be?''
II don't know; bnt they do say it
is all done to purtect us poor folk.
A tonguey man told ns The other
night that the Government mast pro-
tect US from the blanket makers in
England and other foreign coun-
tries
Eyes, but John, over in Canada
they have nothing but English blank
cts, and you can buy two blankets
there for what one costs here. The
English Eianket-makers don't seem
~ l. L.