The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-06-27
IGNORING HISTORY.

The conservatives Of the dominions OF her
majesty the Queen of England, which lie
Just north of us have passed through avery
exciting political contest in the last lew
days and have again triumphed over the
liberals. The feature in the fight of great
est interest to us is the fact that the ques-
tions at issue are identical with th ose agita-
ting this country at present. While the
mother country has one class of subjects to
deal with politically, in Canada they are en-
t,rely different and Canadas practical indie
pendenceis shown in nothing more than this.
The land-leaguers and the landlords may
battle to their hearts content, and the home
government may exercise itself over the
Eastern question, but the dominion moves
on inditferently except as to such matters
about which she is herself practically inter-
ested. In the present contest, however, her
C items, or the majority of them, do not
seem TO have displayed the advanced states
manship which was hoped for by the more
liberal and democratic, and while the is
sues there were those which will interest us
in our coming elections, we trust the
results will be entirely different.
The two principal issues in
the canvass were protection and
the question of railroad subsidies, the af
firmative or advocacy of both propositions
being championed by the conservatives and
the liberals boldly denouncing them. The
3 l.. a 4. As.,a
was Sir JOHN MACDONALD and his party
has carried the day. Thus, we see the sin
gular spectacle of the mother country
strongly advocating free trade while he
! colony is declaring for high-tariif, an(
added to this, voting heavily for buildin!
up gigantic railroad monopolies within he
! borders. The history of England, where
+ after two or three centuries free
trade has been adopted as wis
] political lesson taught by the past
has been ignored, and in face o
the monster monopolies which have grow
up on this side of the Canadian border, ant
for years have been making the rich richie
: and the poor poorer, the Canadians hav
gone back to the crude theories and TIN
aristocratic sophlstries of hundred year
s ago, and are building up what other peopl
are attempting to pull down. We hay,
= gone through the mills which have well
, nigh ground us to powder, and the democ
= racy OF the day with us are endeavorinl
( now to undo what at last We see is simply
class legislation and directly hurtfu
: to the masses al large. BY
short-sighted legislation and by
: systematically ignoring broad natura
! laws that govern trade and investment "
supremely and everlastingly as they con
: troll the physical development Of man, W,
a have built up gigantic corporations ant
monopolies which are gradually corruptinl
every administration of public affairs an,
i slowly enslaving the poor and alarmed n
: the possible consequences we hay
: halted and are devising means t,
relieve ourselves of the burden
n Seeing and presumably understanding
}. the results of our system, it is b.
no means credtable to our neghbor
+ the Canadians that they have failed to ap
a preciate the lessons taught. There mus
. be either very little disposition on thei
: part to protect the weak and equalire po
litical burdens, or the intelligence Of tn
!. country is open to criticism. Incidental!
the subject of independence from Grea
Britain was agitated but voted down
:, 1t will be next in order to hear from on
g southern neighbor, Mexico, on this point
Thus we see that history, as of old, is bu
little needed, and teaches her lessons i
: vain. Nothing but the good sense whic
comes from hard experience can be relic
on to lead nations eventually into correC
. political pathway, and 1t is to be hoped thg
n we at last have got int the light, howeve
- dark it may be elsewhere.