The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-02-19

- ~ NAS - ehA Nv IiCsSu c t1tulSs
to regulate gravitation, the rainfall, or any
other natural law or phenomenon. If Mr..
Randall CON raise wages by q high tariff SO
as to promote the general welfare of the
United Statcs," while our ports are open for
the laborers of all the world to freely enter
and compete for those w~ages-under the un-
restricted operation of the law of supply and
demand-his wisdom is very great but quite
incomprehensible. Mr.. Randall, and all men
who theoriZe and argue as he does, insist, by
the existing protective tariff, that there shah
be n tarif-burden of seven cents on each
dozen spools of cotton thread imported from
abroad, because these spools of thread are
the product of the labor of low-wages-earn-
ing artisans in Scotland or England. But
these spools of thread have only a specific
purchasing power, and can never be used to
make an Except with a party, who
desires thread. Coins Of English gold and
British bullion are also the product and re-
sultant of low-wages labor; and yet the gold
anywhere in competition with American gold
coins anything which is for sale. Coins OF
gold are more potent than spools of thread
in all the competitions of commerce.: and why
should Mr.. Randall and all the protectionlsts
discriminate against the spools OF thread,
which are the commercial eonsumma:
ton of human effort. Think of
tsefs taiass' Of AND ar. mf Randall the wh tsS
I have given you in his own language con-
sistent with each other if you can and also
epoteee aen Mrah iG ie@ rates. Agsin Of II interest we m" in
money, and low wages for labor which may
prevail in any Nation, until we equalize the
| SoSto VI Z anu hSiS ho" AOhe
will it be before the railroads penetrating
the Republic of Mexico from the United
States can be utilized as dividend payers to
their owners? How long, had this policy
been adopted by Great Britain, would Eng.
land have waited for the establishment of
How long before the United States could
make a profitable with the West
India Islands, where wages and interest are
nominal and where the Spontaneity of nature
provides most of the eXports? And how
did England maintain free trade and grow
4 -tal, s, r,fl Ah1 nf
slave labor of the United States prior to the
Interstate war of 1861? Certain it is that
England ed,gnn ao then "a as snow now COMPETED af with a us In
cipation came to the negro slaves of the
Southern States. Did England have any
And if Mr.. Randal's argument is good now,
as to the laborers of the United States, was
land?
PROJECTIONS OUTLOOK TO COMMUNISM.
And if free trade makes low wages and pro-
lection high wages, why is it that Germany
sends us ten emigrantS where England sends
us one, to enter the lists of labor in competi-
ton with citizens of the United States? The
German fees from the low wages of his pro-
tective system, and the Englishman remains
contentedly at home to enjoy his wages, and
the prosperity of his country which has been
builded up under free trade. And this fact
alone also controverts Mr.. Randalrs theory.
The German leaves the highly fairfield land
of his birth, not only because of the low
wages which he receive under protection,
but because of the communism which Bis
marck foreshadows. in the paternalism he
now advocates, as the resultant of protec-
tion-whichi is at last to ccre for and furnish
employment for all the people of unified
Germ annesr r to e casual S'o obserye as 1 leads sa al.
rectly to paternalism. But free trade, that
is, every citizen doing the best he can for
himself, without impinging on the rights of
his fellows, guided by an enlightened selfish
ness to make his exchanges, Unrestricted by
burdensome duties, where he can realize the
biggest gains, tends to republicanism, to fixed
ana certain DODula government. AS IN
a village, if every man is doing the best he
| sally prosperous and lightly taxed, SO also
in a Nation. But when one class is protected
and nourished into opulence by taxing all
the other classes for its support, paternal-
ism is already instituted; and such paternal-
ism must, If the system is adhered to by the
Nation ex sse nd IT'S ITSELF nro by addin 3gnt mere III land and
be protected, at last, by all owning in COM
mon the wealth of the Nation. The down.
ward progress of protection must end in the
depths of communism.
FREE A AMERICAN IN ITS ORIGIN.
But Mr.. Randall makes, and all who agree
trade. that it is q of English origin. In this
objection they are far from the truth, though
as a matter of right and wrong, it makes no
difference whence justice may have sprung.
The origin of u blessing, the inception of a
charity, the beginning of a great benevo-
lence may be unknown; but when sutferings
spirit lifted up, these results of charity and
benevolence the race sees and reverences.
between ali the Nations, and the example
thereof, were purely of British origin
that would not detract from the benig-
trade, any more than his humble place Of
birth detracts from the intellectual splendor
ereth. The appeal made to prejudice and to
transmitted hatreds now, happily, almost
dead in every cultured American, by refer
ring the origin of free trade to England, and
charging those who advocate it here as
hirelings of British gold, is unworthy of de-
hberate debate and not becoming to states,
men. 1t is our pride that civil liberty and
human rights have been conserved to all the
civilizations of the earth by the English
speaking races. This Republic is only an
evolution of the enlightenment which Eng
land bestowed ON our ancestors, who were
generally of British, origin and none the
broadened in purpose, refleXed in the fer.
tility of new soils, energized by the envi-
ronments of new conditions and invigorated
by the possibilities an illimitable future pre-.
sents, is America, and in some century, yet
to come. America, socially. commercially
and r~eligiously. will be England. But
the truth of history should always be pre-.
served, and therefore it is my duty in
this presence. before the Farmers Alliance
of the State of Nebraska, to quote an official
American published prior to the
adoption of free trade by England, to illus
trate the fact that an American statesman
precedes Cobden's triumph in repeating the
corn laws of England, by a plea for free
trade in behalf of American agriculture and
commerce..
ARGUMENT FOR REE TRADE BY AN AMERI
CAN SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
It is pleasant and pertinent to r~eiterate the
following, from Hon Robert j. Walker, in
his report as Secretary of the Treasury OF
the United States. addressed to the Hon
} Der 3, 1916:
IF the Marshal were sent by the Federal
Government to collect a direct tax from the
whole people, to be paid over to manufactur
ing capitalists, to enable them to sustain
their business, er realize a larger profit, il
would he the same in effect as the protective
DUTY, which. when analyZed in its SimnlnS1
clements, and reduced to actual results, is
a mere subtraction of so much money from
the people TO increase the resources of the
protected classes. Legislation for classes
is against the doctrine of equal rights; re
and it is apprehended by many, may become
but another form for privileged orders
under the name of protection instead of priv
by profits and dividends extracted from the
%anyi by Of fa fSe fs%. N shem' Df for tht
is felt by the Secretary &C the Treas
nry against manufacturers His opposi
ton is to the protective system, and not to
the manufacturers are sincerely persuaded
that the system which is the source of sc
much profit to them is beneficial also to the
country. He entertains a contrary opinion
and claims for the opponents of the system
settled conviction of its injurious effects
rights of all classes forbids a discriminate
in favor of the manufacturers by dutie.
above the lowest revenue limit, no DISPOSE
ton is felt to discriminate against them b.,
reducing such duties as operate in their fa
vor below that standard. Under revenue du
ties it is believed they would still receive
reasonable profit, equal to that realized b.
those engaged in other pursuits, and i
is thought they should desire no more, u
least through the agency of Governmental
power. Equal rights and profits, so far a.
laws are made, best conform to the principle
upon which the constitution was founded
and with an undertaking regard 10 which al
its functions should be exercised, looking L
l the whole country and not to classes or sec
tions. Soil, climate and other causes var.
= very much in different countries, the pun
suits of which are most profitable in each
and the prosperity of all of them will be bes
promoted by leaving them unrestricted b,
legislation, to exchange with each othe
r those fabrics and products which they sever
ally raise most cheaply. This is clearly illus
trated by the perfect free trade which exist
I among all the States of the Union, and b.
- the Ink nnNvlndrnd fnct TINT NM nf thnS