The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-10-10
from the Cleveland Herald.l
PROTECTION.
The Irish Labor League.

The irish LABOR LeaRues.
II LARGE AND ENTHUSIASTIC MEETING
OF LABoRING MEN AT THE RINK
SHALL AMERICAN INDUSTRY BE
PROTECTED AGAINST ENGLISH PAU
PER LABOR-wIAT THE LEAGUE
WILL DEMAND OF BOTH PARTIES.
A meeting was held at Central Rink on
Saturday evening in. the interest OF protec-
tion to American industries and manufac-
TIRES. and for the purpose of consolidating,
60 far as the influence of one evenings
speaking could extend the sentiment of
American tradesmen against the doctrines
free trade. The meeting was called under
the auspices of the Irish Labor League,
and naturally the great bulk of the at
tendance Of over two thousand persons was
Of Irish laborers, and those mostly from
the furnaces and FORCES of the city and its
vicinity.
Considerable interest in the subject was
manifested by all those present, and it was
the evident desire of large number to lis
ten carefully to the arguments presented
by the speakers and weigh them before
Judging their merits, as was eyiEced by the
careful and undemonstratiyc attention given
by that class, while the majority were evil
IDENTIFY thorough ''protectionists, and re-
garded the meeting more as a jubilee in
honor of their sentiments, and attended it
prepared to endorse the propositions of
the speakers in toto. 1t was noticed,
too. that some of the large man.
ufacturers and capitalists were in
the audience, and that they observed the
arguments of the speakers with OBJ nous
satisfaction and approval. The men en-
ployed at the Lake Shore shops met at
their place of business and came down in
n body. Half dozen transparences, ex-
pressing appropriate sentiments, were pro-
,yided for them. The following notices
were noticed
"Shall our..Mechanieal Work be. Done in This
Country or in Europe?"
'sShail the Working Men of America be
Forced to Compete With the Ill-Paid Labor OF
'1Shall Two Millions of American Working
Men be Thrown out of Employment, that we
may Support an Aristocracy in England Z, %
'sShall We have Home Industries, Plenty Of
Empl oyment and Good Wages, or Idle Factories
and Mills, Little or no Employment and III Paid
Labor ~
Protection TO American Industry, or British
Gold. WhchY' s;s..
Burn Everything that Comes from England
but her Coall'' = y
The meeting was called to order by
othy Foy was elected chairman. A STIR
ring Introductory speech was made by
Major Boland, who announced the object of
the meeting to be to consultup the inter-
ests involved in the vital question of protec-
ton to American industry, a proposition
which, he said, was assuming q great inn
portance in the politics Of the day, and the
only question, which was dividing the two
political parties of the nation. People were
prepared to accept the inevitable results OF
the war, its memorable logic, without un-
necessary inurnur, but this great question
agitated in the conflict of sentiments now
affected all tradesmen, at their homes, In
their school-houses and in all their relations
of life. The question for them to consider
was whether American industry should
flourish in America, whether the manufac-
lures which came into use on American soil
should be made within her own borders or
in England.
The proposition advanced by free trade
advocates. that intcr-commercial relations
of Europe were natural, he did not believe
would hold. This continent embraced al
the natural resources that enter into the
requisites of an advanced civilization, anc
combined all that were destined to con-
tribute to the elevation of the condition O.
humanity. The people are the sovereign
power. They make and unmake govern
ments by virtue of their sovereignty. They
hold in their control the authority which
withholds or allows free trade. The
speaker believed that protection wa:
necessary to the education OF the i1slns
generation, and that free trade woult
be ruinous to it. He declared tina
all those who preached the principles
of the latter in this country, wer'
the hired instruments of England, Hol
land. or Belgium, the first of which
nations recognized in America dangerous
rival in the struggle for the supremacy il
manufacture, and consequently saw he
own cause advanced by the influence Q
free-frade orators in this country. Amer
ca, he said, with proper protection to he
industries, could send her manufactures t.
all nations. She fell back upon her owl
resources during civil war, illustrating tina
men and nations, who have supplies o
means of supply upon which they can de
pend in times of emergency, always reallz
the greatest success. Commercial pursuit
and manufacturing capacity were the onl.
reliable resources of q nation, as has bee
shown in the fatcs of ancient nations grea
in philosophy, literature, and learning, an
yet undecipiined in manufacturing pursuits
He declared that the members of tn
League proposed as lrishmen to be fire
people in America, to exercise their right
of freedom in American politics, to max
this country the seller instead Of the dc
pendent purchaser and to teach all nation
her supremacy in manufacturing advanta
ges and ability. In his concluding remark
he said that we would always welcom
men to our shores, but that manufacture
could not be landed without being taxed
His remarks, although brief, were yer
By the crowd. He took advantage of til
national characteristic of his countrymef
and his references to Ireland and his col
trast Of her former and present conditions
his relations of tales Of oppression an
misery borne by her people were aptly r.
sorted to and well appreciated by the PR