Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-29
Free Trade vs.. Equal Trade.

ol"Veu IAdy llof DG SSoeCNt III lqSlSd1 VI
der. L. Our government is of the peo-
pie, of the people ard by the people. 2.
Its duty is to care for the people. 3. 1t
belongs to'and is regulated by the peo-
pie. 4. Its wealth is produced by the
labors of the people: and this wealth,
in the form of capital. is employed in
connection With labor to produce other
wealth. 5. Weahave elev&ted labor
higher, as regards intelligence and COM
fort, than was ever done before. 6.
This tabor is threatened 'by the cheap
and oppressed Tabor of Europe. Now
what shall be done?
Two lines of policy are proposed.
One is to open our ports to the free inn
p~ortation CT foreign manufactures,
which, as we have shown, is theimpor-
tation Of the cheap labor and redundant
capital of Europe in competition with
ours. The other is to levy a tax Or tar
itf, on such imported articles in order
that the price may be made to reach
the level at which our manufactures
can be sold at a profit. The first Of
these is called free trade. The other, a
protective tariff. The two have coca
stoned elaborate and envenomed dis
cussion. Let us strip this of 'obscnrity
and sophistry and try to get at the root
of matters. i.
1t should be observed that the princi-
pie involved is different from that which
we believe to be of vital interest to the
working men. 1t is trade, not labor,
and Fits remuneration. Free trade is,
strictly speaking, free, uninterrupted
barter between individuals and ma
tions-the mere exchange of products
and manufactures-and SO OF labor.
But it is well to notice'that free trade
is not equal trade. The nation that
can barter it's skilled labor with the I'M
skilled labor of another has the advan.
tage in that skilled labor produces
greater value than unskilled. And'the
nation that trades with the products OF
skilled always beats those who trade
on the products of unskilled labor
Here is the source Of Englahd's wealth
Her statesmen saw this point over q
century ago. She prepared to grow
rich on the worlds trade. How? by
changing her unskilled into skilled la
Dor. To do this she established manu-.
factories, enacted prohibitory tariffs
that is, duties so high that the article
could not be imported in competition
with her industries. She held her colo.
MES down and kept their labors unskill.
ed. AT last she was able to compete
and then advocate the free trade.
But even when thus prepared to out.
trade the world England did not adopt
free trade. She maintains a tariff on
certain articles which gives her a reve.
nue. quite equal to what we receive
from ours. She favorsfree trade Where
it is to her interest, and maintains +;
tariff where that is to her advantage
The policy Of England is selfish. She
seeks to beat the world at trade. Why
Because she must be a bartering ma
ton. She does not raise enoughlon hei
own soil 10 support her population. Sc
she trades. And treats as regards trad,
her colonies as foreign natlons-to b.
OUTRAGED and made to contribute t.
the wealth of the mother country. s.
the countries where her trade is domi
nant are poor-she is rich. Canada
right along side of us, and with as ricl
lands in the great Saskatchewan Vale,
as we have, and with the ability to feet
the world, is poor and develops slowly
Why? Because England sucks he
dry. India, naturally rich, grows stead
lily poorer. Why? Because Englan,
only aims to enrich herself out of In
dia. South America, where Englisl
trade is dominant, is poor, because i
trades it's unskilled labor for Englis]
skilled labor. Cuba is poor, for tn
same reason. So trade wereIit!free, woul
not be equal so long as one nation ha
such a start over another.
, Our great object has ever been to pro
tect and elevate labor. The first at
tempt at legislation when congress me
under the republic was in the interes
of labor. The aim was to protect i
against foreign capital and oppresse,
labor. 1t took several years to ascer
tain just what a protective tariff was
but it was aimed at from the first. AM
our history clearly shows that when w,
have a protective tariff we have pros
pered, and when we have abandoned i
we have gone back. Our national deb
proves this. Wehaye always increase,
our national debt under free trade, AM
reduced it under tariff. The tariff o
1912, for example, was offset for a tim
by the Florida war. Yet the debt O
1927. 2O3,45 in l843 was reduced to SIG.
750,926 in 1876 when the Mexican wa
begun. In July, 1857, the debt stood a
S29,O60,3S7. In 1860 it had risen to 1854.
769, BOB; and in 1861, when Lincoln be