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

IRELAND and India are fair examples Of
the effect which It has upon the agricultur-
lists Of country to allow its manufactures
70 be broken down by competition with a
q reign and stronger rival. Three-quarterS
o century ago the general manufacturers
Of Ireland rivaled in prosperity those Of
ngland. The Irish linens were, indeed,
uperior 70 az c.hers, and the Woolens stood
early as high. As consequence, the large
portion Of her people engaged in manufac-
9 urcs, consumed all the products of her far
neTs, while her farmers could consume but
a small portion of her manufactures. These
she exported, and 50 maintained an extern
sive Importation Of tropical procucts. Could
Felsnd then have controlled her own legis-
lation and protected her manufactures from
being broken down by competition with
I hose Of England, she would still have been
prosperous nation though she could not,
for want Of iron and coal, hove carried her
manufactures to so high perfection as those
If England. But instead Of this, the union
with England, by admitting English goods
free of tariffs, broke down Irish manufac-
uTes, turned her Whole people into farmers,
while giving them no market for their pro-
duce, gave rise to an eXhausting and waste
ful mode of farming, by compelling the rails
ing Of ono crop year after year on the same
soil, without rotation, and so brought on the
potato rOt and other causes Of famine, which
reduced her population in a few years, from
eight millions to five millions, and is still
reducing them by emigration.
A centUry ago India had never known q
famine. Her people were 50 divided be-
tween manufactures and agriculture that
each class produced what the other needed
TO consume. Not only did her native land
looms weave the finest cOttOns, and wooden.
OF casbmeres, but the richest silks, such n.
for centuries bad been carried from Indr
across the deserts of Central Asia on cana
els TO Europe. But free trade was carrie
into India at the point Of English bayonetE
and with it came the destruction Of Indian
manufactures, and the turning out of en-,
Ployment of millions of labOrcTs. TheOreC
ically they were free TO buy in the cheapcS
market and sell in the dearest, but, in fac
they could sell nothing and buy nothin
Farmers could not sell their crops becauA
there was nobody producing anything bat
crops. WeaVers could not sell their CROP
because there was nobody producing any
thing but crops. Wesvers could not sell
their cloths because the English undersOl'l
them. Those who made their cloths il
England did not buy their crops, becauT:
they could buy them cheaper nearer hOmA
Hence the poor Hindoos had no recOura
but to starve and die by millions, by th
roadsides, and in the fialds. Famines, ua
known under the previous exclusive policY
and still unknown in japan and Chm
where that policy is still resolutely am
wisely maintained, prevailed periodically, d
many as two millions of persons dying in
single year, and this repeatedly. On SOM
occasions the Governor General in movir
through the country was compelled to sen
out bodies of "sappers and miners" in al
vance, to bury or remove enough Of tt
dead to enable the governors cavalcade t
advance, Now the coolies are being Fl
ported from India, like the Irish from Ir
land, in search of bread. OF what avail s
them is the privilege Of buying cheap an
selling dear, when they have nothing to sci
and nothing with which to buy.