The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-02-13

as to promote the general welfare or the
lmted states; while our ports are open Tor
the labOrerS OF ali the world to freely enter
and compete for those wages-under the I'M
restricted operation of the law Of supply and
demand-his wisdom is very great but quite
incomprehensible. Mi. Randall, and all men
who theorize and argue as he does insist, by
the existing protective tariff that tn ere shall
be tariff 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 OF England. But
these spools of thread have only 3 specific
purchasing power, and can never be USED TO
make an exchange except with party Who
desires thread. Coins of English gold and
British bulliofi 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. Colts OF
gold are more potent than spools of thread
in all the competitions of commerce; and why
should Mr.. Randall and all the protecb0n1stS
discriminate against the SpoolS of thread,
ana put no duty on the imported gold coins
when are the commercial consumma-
ton of human effort Think of
declarations of Mr.. Randall which
have given y6t iii his own language con
slstent with each other if y6a cap and also
protect against low rates of interest in
money, and low wages for labor which may
prevail in any Nation, until we equalize the
long
will it be before. the railroads penetrating
the Republic of MB1ie9 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
gainfal exchanges with Africa and China?
How long before the United States could
make profitable Commerce with the West
India Islands, where wages ana interest are
nominal, and where the Spontaneity OF nature
provides most of the exports? And how
did England maintain free trade and grow
rich. in competition with the products of
slave labor of the United States prior to the
Inter State war of 1851? Certain it is that
England, then as now, competed with us in
cotton goods of every variety before eman-
cipauon came to the negro slaves of the
Southern States. Did England have any
labor with no wages at all, as we had them?
And if Mr.. Randalrs argument is good now
as to the laborers of the United States, was
it not good then as to the laborers OF Eng
land?
PROJECTIONS OUTLOOK TO COMMUNISM.
Aid if free trade makes low wages and pro-
lection high Wages why is it that Germany
sends us ten eihgfantS where England sends
us one, to enter the lists of labor in eompeti-
ton with citizens of the United States? The
German fees from the low wages of his pro-
tective system, and the Englishman remains
cohtentedly 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 controVeftS Mr.. RandalFS theory.
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-
u0h--which is at last to care for and furnish
employment for all the people of unified
Germany. Protection strange as the fact
may appear to casual observer, leads di-
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
and certain popular government. AS in
a village, if every man is doing the best he
can for himself the village viii be uDiver-
sally prosperous and lightly taxed, so also
in 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 paterna-
ism 1fust, if the system is adhered to by the
Nation, extend itself by adding more and
more classes to the protectees, until all must
mon the wealth of the Nation The down
ward progress of protection must end in the
depths of communism.
FREE TRADE AMERICAN IN ITS ORIGIN.
But Mr.. Randall makes, and all who agree
with him make, the objection to freedom of
trade, that it is Of English origin. In this
objection they are far frofn the truth, though
as matter of right and wrong, it makes no
difference whence justice may have sprung.
The origin of blessing, the inception of a
charity, the beginning of a great benevo-
lence may be unknown; but when sufferings
are alleyiated, the broken in health and
spirit lifted up, these results of charity and
benevolence the race sees and reverences.
If the advocacy of unrestricted commerce
between all the Nations, and the example
thereof, were purely of British origin
that would not detraCt from the benig-
nant, wise and just character of free
trade, any more than his humble place of
birth detractS from the intellectual SplendOr
and philosOphic precepts of Jesus of Naz-
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
hrelings of British gold, is unworthy of de-
liberate 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
worse therefor. England renewed in youth,
| broadened in purpose, rehexed 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
Ito come, America socially, commercially
and religiously, will be England But
the truth of history should always be pre-
this presence, before the Farmers Alliance
of the State of Nebraska, to quote an official
American document, 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 plea for free
trade in behalf of American agriculture and
commerce.
ARGUMENT FOR FREE TRADE BY AN AMERI-
CAN SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
1t is pleasant and pertinent to reiterate the
following, from Hon Robert j. Walker, in
his report as Secretary of the Treasury of
the United States, addressed to the Hon.
George N. Dallas, Vice President, on Deem
Der 3, 1915:
IF the Marshal were sent by the Federal
Government to collect direct tax from the
whole people, to be paid over to manufacture
ing capitalists, to enable them to sustain
their business, er realize larger profit, it
would be the same in effect as the protective
duty, which, when analysed in its simplest
elements 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-
pugnant to the spirit of our free institutions;
and it is apprehended by many; may become
but another form for privileged orders,
under the name of protection instead of priv
ilege, indicated here not by rank or title, but
by profits and dividends extracted from the
many by taxes upon them, for the
ury against manufacturers. His opposi-
ton is to the protective system, and not to
classes or individuals. He doubts not that
the manufacturers are sincerely persuaded
that the system which is the source of so
much profit to them is beneficial also to the
country. He entertains contrary opinion,
and claims for the opponents of the system
settled conviction of its injurious effects
Whilst due regard to the just and equal
rights of all classes forbids a discrimination
in favor of the manufacturers by duties
above the lowest revenue limit, no DISPOSE
ton is felt to discriminate against them by
reducing such duties as operate in their "a
vor below that standard. Under revenue du-
ties it is believed they would still receive
reasonable profit, equal to that realized by
those engaged in OTTER pursuits, and it
is thought they should desire no more, at
least through the agency of Governmental
power. Equal rights and profits, so far as
laws are made, best conform to the principles
upon which the constitution was founded,
and with an undertaking regard to which all
its functions should be exercised, looking to
the whole country and not to classes or sec
tons. Soil, climate and other causes vary
very much in different countries the pur-
suits of which are most profitable in each,
and the prosperity of all of them will be best
promoted by leaving them unrestricted by
legislation, to exchange with each other
those fabrics and products which they sever
ally raise most cheaply This is clearly illus
frafad nv tho narfeof free trade which exists