The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-05-30
THE FREE TRADE QUESTION.

In the tariff discussion, in which the press
generally seems taking hand, it is well to
lay aside, for the time, temporary considera-
tons and weigh the vital principles on which
the Government rests. We propose only such
suggestions as shall constitute refuge for the
people from evils that are yet more or less re-
mote. There is no tariff reform in the sense
in which it is meant, no tariff revision that
opens upon any policy which the country will
be finally at liberty to chose. The time may
be forseen when vast national interests, that
are likely to push everything else to the wall,
will constrain a policy which has but enc
simple name, and that is free trade.
1t is very certain that all tariffs restrict the
liberty of trade, no matter how modified or
by what names called. Restraint is
not freedom. The perfect freedom
of trade, of all privileges that attach as rights
to the transactions of men with each other, is
a primordial principle of government. 1t is
indefeasible and awaits the time when the
temporary policies that prevail shall fade, or
fall before the sweeping influences of the fu-
ture that shall compel the nation to 60 back
to first principles. In what we may briefly
say on this subject, we have no quarrel with
policies. We desire only to show
that in the coming time no policy will answer
the ends of government but that Of strict pub
lie justice and answering principle.
There seem many incongruities at the door
OF this discussion. The right Of every citizen
to buy where he can buy cheapest and
the folly of setting up a congressional
inc uest to direct men where they shall
spend their money, are propositions over
simple and apparent. The pro-
ject of taxing people into prosperity and
the anomaly Of ascribing the prosperity Of the
county to its taxes are fatal to all logic. The
into which the people can be taxed
is seen in the now existing, and rapidly grow
ing, condition Of affairs. Great aggregate
wealth makes the average of per capita wealth
high, while the riches are in fact held by a
few. In getting at the average wealth we
must remember that il one family is worth
ST. 900 600, and SO other families are from
hand to mouth there are the hundred families
of an average of $40, 900; but the riches are
all held by the one family. 1t is thus that
wealth is really held by a few families
who live luxurious lives in the
midst of want and poverty. 1t is to
this we are tending, and against this freedom,
Il al eff for
safety. The workers and wealth producers OF
the land must be rescued from the necessity
OF paying perpetual tribute to millionaires,
whose serfs they become. This is a protec-
ton that requires only repeal, no new laws,
only release, no constrainst on others.
If the liberty which is TO preside over the
destinies of the American people means
total abolition of all restraint upon individual
right land that alone is liberty, the vast in
dustrial theatres of the country will grad ually
take on new activities through rivalry purely
competitive, fair and just. When free
labor and free capital cannot sus-
tain prosperous outcome they will
drift into new forms of competition
and work out the phenomenon of success
without a thought of recourse to restraint
monopoly, or any of the ruinous devices now
in operation. 1t is perfectly obvious that
with, say zoo, ooo, 900 of people there mu st be
no immunities, restraints, monopolies, advan-
tages or disadvantages of any kind created by
law. Men must acquire sense of not only
being perfectly free, but conviction OF abso-
lutte equality, and combinations and associa-
tons Tor joint effort must be wholly without
the aid or Intervention of legislation. Its
practibility and force lie in its perfect sim
plicity.