The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-16

tS, emerge from slavery DO fEessls@ wiAhim
6hy years, in the United States the change
Will DO effected prudently without war, with
ont debt, and without an agOnising devas-
tatiOn Of FIRE and sword. For here free
discussion, general education and rapid i'm
migration, will most readily promote that
increase in the producing power of man, and
that capacity % his part to pay for the vo-
lputary services Of bis iellow-msn, which
tend to substitute wages for the lash, and TO
make every wOrkingman the owner Of the
sill or other implements with which be car
ri,s on bis industry.
But exactly the reverse Of this prOPOsiticu
IS been true. We have emancipated A.
10000 of slaves, by the loss Of a million
q lives and five thou nd millions of mo
Tley, while Russia has emaneipated i've times
ss many serfs without the cost Of dollar
or the shedding Of drop Of blood. Why
this contrast 1t was not because Russia
was despotism and the United States a
democracy. For no despOtism could have
lave abolished slavery directly here, nor
-ould any mere vote of the people, unac-
companied by profounder industrial causes,
have made the abolition Of serfdOm peaceful
40 Russia.
\ The whole difference grew out Of the fact
Mat Russia by steady policy of protecting
her industries Of all kinds, sought to secure
the highest wages to her labOring classes,
and succeeding in this, it became more pro-
itable for the owner of Russian serfs to al.
low them to work where they chose, at home
or abroad, in their own town or another, as
agriculturists, clerks, artizans, bookkeepers,
merchants, sailors, architects, and even law
GERS, physicians and priests, than to bold
them in personal serfdom and work them as
slaves. In Russia, manufactures were built
up until, in 1860, six times as large a pro-
portion of the Russian as of the AmericanI
people took part in them. This diversified
yRussian industry, gave the Russian farmers
Ibetter markets at home, and enabled Russi-
an manufacturers to compete with the Brit
ish in the markets of Asia, fOz the sale Of
hemPen, linen, iron, cotton, wooden, and lea
Their goods, wooden wares, and furniture.
Only two years ago, embassies from the
british National Chamber of Commerce
made pilgrimage through Russia, and en-
deavOred to induce the Russians to adopt a
policy Of free trade towards England, by
be argument their manufactures were now
30 far advanced, that even under free trade
sthe English could not undersell them. eff
% - rornarl al tha R,,..:ou ,aocuEa ofy.raro -
areply, free trade would do you no good. "
Thus while the plea Of the free traders here
is, that free trade would teneft our people
because the British can undersell us, in
Russia the free-traders sing the opposite
tune, and plead for free trlde, because the
Russian manufacturers, they say, can nov
defy all competition.
| But while Russia, by a consistent policy
. Of protection to her industry, was diversity
ing Der employment, distributing q larger
proportion Of her people to manufactures,
making the serf so valuable as an Garner Of
wages, that bis masters ownership in him
became near y nominal 1.-THE right of per-
sonal chastlsement on the part Of the master,
or even of cont: Olling the slaves residence
or occupation gradually Disappearing, and
nothing remaining of his waning serfdom
except the necessity of paying an annual
stipend to his master for his time -ir
America, under the policy Of British free
trade, begun in 1888, and continued with
out intcrmission Except for the four year,
from 1912 to 1880, until the great pro
slavery rebellion of 1860, precisely tho op.
posite results were developing. In the
protective period from 1924 to 1882, there
seemed a prospect that manufactures would
he built up throughout the South as well as
in the North, and slave owners were al
ready considering whether their slaves
would not profit them more as FREQ laborers
for wages, than as field hands. The system
Of "hiring their time" was more largely
practiced at the South, than ever afterwards
Propositions to abolish slavery were intro
duced in the Legislatures Of Virginia, Ken
lucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and
discussed by shareholders with but little o
the bitterness that characterized the subse
quent discussions of the slavery question
1t is usual to attribute the rapid growth
aud arrogance of the slave power Turing
the free trade period from 1882 to 1860, 4
the invention Of the cotton gin and the con
sequent proGtableness Of raising cotton, anC
to anti-slavery agitation. But these are su
pertical reasons for accounting for fac
which had its origin in the economical pol
icy Of the country. THE best protected IN
daGstries the country ever conducted ,cer,
tie breeding of sIaUes, and The gr0sCing o.
cotton and sugar One clause in the con
stitution prohibited the importation of slaves
after 1903, and this gave the slave breed
ers of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee
Kentucky, and Missouri, an exclusive mo
nOpoly of the business of supplying labor.
ers for the cotton fields. Another clause
in the constitution prohibited tax on ex
, ports, and practically exempted the South
from any serious taxation, since she had
J nothing but cotton to tax, and this was moi
taxable. When VIC add that under all ad
ministratiOns, however given to free trade
on everything else, high protective tariff
was laid on sugar and molasses, We see that
our whole system Of taxes was adapted tc
give the utmost possible protection to slave.
breeding, cotton exporting, and sugar plant.
ing, while the cry Of ''hee trade'' was
used to prevent any corresponding protec-
ton to manufactures Of cotton, iron and
steel, woolens or other fabrics, essential to a
real diversified industry. In word, we
protected slave labor by prohibition where it
was wanted, by high tariffs and by exemp-
ton from taxes, and left free labor to be
undersold at every point Hence slavery
grew and freedom declined. Instead of
exporting our cotton in its manufactured
forms, we exported it raw, and received
but from one-fourth to one-tenth the price
VIC Sbnuld hava rccaivad for u Is - Ill