Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1882-05-05


ers not involving US.
But how long would these cheap
rates last under free trade? How
long after foreign producers obtained
a monopoly Of our market would il be
until they would avail themselves
Of the advantage which that mon.
opoly afforded, and price their goods
in way TO make the head swim2
Would they continue 10 sell as cheap
goods after they gained the power to
sell them at their own pricesY If so,
they are not the kind Of folks we've
been used to-
But the free trader will insist that
the foreign manufacturer need not
and would not have such a monopoly,
even in the absence Of protection
that the American manufacturer real
ly needs no protection aud is entitled
10 none, and that there is no reason
why he should not make goods at as
low prices as they can be made in
other countries. Well. they can do so,
under the same conditions. They
can do so by reducing the wages Of
their employees to starvation figures.
DO the free traders desire TO see that
done2 Does auy body in this land of
liberty and plenty wish to see his fel.
low.beings here, whose misfortune il
has been to be born in poverty aud to
be under the necessity Of toiling for
living, transformed into beasts OF
burden, and made 10 drag out an ex.
istence Of misery and abject hopeless
nessY Does any body want to see the
women in this country, and their little
boys and girls driven from January to
January, and made to do the hardest
and dirtiest work imaginable for
scant subsistence-a subsistence that
an American would scarcely offer to
an average dogl Such is the condi-
ton, family described. of the pauper
laborers Of the old countries, and such
is the condition to which the free trade
doctrine carried out will bring our own
people. Aud when one protests against
this proposed crime against humanity
he is denounced as communist.
The free trader attempts to mis-
lead, and does mislead many honest
people by the use of abusive epithets.
He calls the proprietors OF manufac
turing establishments "bounly-ted
barons, SUBSIDY lords" NJ. This is
to delude the credulous into the belief
that the owners ofthese establishments,
who are enormously rich. are the sole
beneficiares of the protective system.
and at the same time to divert atten-
ton from the fact that tree tradism
aims a fatal blow at the laboriug man.
1t should be borne in mind that al
though the mill-owners are benefited
by the tariff, there are hundreds of
operators FOR every mill-owner, all Of
whose wages are favorably affected by
il. So that protection, when consid-
cred either with reference 10 the NUN
Der OF people whom it Immediately
benefits, or to the aggregate amount
in dollars of the benefits it affords, will
be seen to operate infinitely more to
the advantage Of the labOring class
than Of the 81 called "bounty-fed ba-
rons.' The fact is, the free trade idea
is altogether an aristocratic one-it
originated among the "barons" of
Great Britain. 1t proposes to buy
where you can buy cheapest, and to
hire where you can hire cheapest.
These two things go together beauti-
tully-in fact are lnseparable-and
they accord exactly with the lofty and
notions Of the born "barOn.
Free tradism has no pity for poverty,
no commiseration tor misfortune. Ii
says to the poor laborer: "Sir, to be
laborer is your lot in life. You must
not hope tor more nor aspire to i'm
prove your condition, nor must you
complain, either, for that annoys those
born to better things"
The various industries of country
are mutually dependent upon each
other. Their interests are SO inter-
twined that the prosperity Of any one
of them favorably affects the rest, and
vice versa, the adversely of one effects
the Others prejudicially. If the far
mer is prosperous, if he is receiving
high prices for his wheat, corn, &c,
he is able, on the one hand, to pay his
farm hands good wages, and on the
other he is enabled to buy more goods
from the manufacturer and pay more
for them than ii he was not thriving
in his own business; aud that, in turn,
enables the manufactures 70 pay bet
ter wages to his employees, aud also
causes him TO enlarge his operations
aud thus afford employment for more
laborers, as well as 10 give patronage
to other industries Building up the
manufacturing Interests is building
up th farming interests, and these
build up every other interest Az
impulse given 10 one vocation is i'm
mediately transmitted To another. aud
then To another, aud - on dd infai
tpm
To enact a tarh Law is not to legs
late for any bpiy, bat it Is 10 legislate
aqaiast an evil that, it left alone,
might aud would blast our own pros
perity The pauperism of the old
countries is the mIs'ort une OF those
countries, not ours; aud we have Ms
good right to protect ourselves against
lis evil effects as We have TO quaran
tine against yellow fever, 1t is not
our duty to allow foreign countries to