Wichita eagle., 1888-06-29
LET Us LOOK A LITTLE.
Something Besides Blood on That Shir

Something Besides Blood on That Shirt.
Bv free trade the capitalists of the
south hope to reduce the laboring classes
to the level of their former slaves, on the
theory so long and stoutly maintained by
jeff Davis that for ahigher civilization
lower class or substratum of inferiority
is necessary. Alexander Stephens also
said it. The south fought-spilt blood
and treasure-to maintain or hold that
desired substratum in the persons OF
their slaves. They failed. Now Mr..
Jefferson Davis says-and anybody who
takes him for chump will get left-Old
jeff says, as he totters on the brink OF
eternity, that he, even he, may live to
see his southern brethren gain by and
through politics what they lost on the
battle field, that is, an aristocratic class
who shall live off of the "hewers of wood
and drawers of water" The only way
in which this can be done is through
free trade, which will depress prices, and
as everybody knows-even the fool Dem
ocrats know - that when prices go
down labor, and the pay for
labor goes down. Therefore, when
ever you find man who labors for
his bread by the work of his hands, TAX
ing up Democratic free trade doctrines,
you may know that he is a creature of
prejudice and not of reason, that he Is
already practically himself a slave, who
takes his cue from his superior, which
superior will set down on him and keep
him set down on if free trade Democracy
should hold its sway in this country a
few more years.
jeff Davis says that in the absence Of
slave labor the south must have free
trade labor. The whole south says what
Jeff says, and the whole Democratic
party says what its master the south
says, therefore President Grover Cleve-
lands astonishing and impudent mes
sage of last December in which he
ignored every interest and every rela-
ton of this vast government to tell con-
gress that the tariff must be cut down
and that there was no other interest or
issue before the country.
That's what Jeff Davis and the south
demanded, and that's just what Grover
Cleveland did, and Democrats won't even
deny that the EAGLE puts the whole case
fairly.
When the average workingman of
Kansas shall fail to understand that ten
dollars for days work amt better than
one dollar, even admitting that the pur
chase-power of the two sums nigh prove
Identical SO far as the home market was
concerned when that time comes we
will 60 down and live with the Mexicans
who get ten cents per day and are happy
happy in being slaves.
In this connection let us quote the last
paragraph of Blaine's letter declining to
be candidate, words written far away
from his native land while he was noting
the disastrous effect of free trade princi-
pies to the workingmen of Europe:
Republican victory, the prospects of
which grow brighter every day, can be
imperiled only by lack of unity in coun-
ell or by acrimonious contest over men.
The issue Iof protection is intellectually
stronger, and greater than any man, for
it concerns the prosperity of the present
and of generations yet to come. Were
it possible for every voter of the repub-
lie to see for himself the condition and
recompense of labor in Europe, the party
of free trade in the United States would
not receive the support of one wage
worker between the two oceans. 1t may
not be directly in our power as philan-
thropists to elevate the European laborer,
but it will be lasting stigma upon our
craftsmanship if we permit the Ameri-
can laborer to be forced down to the
European level. And in the end the
rewards of labor everywhere will be adj
vanced if we steadily refuse to lower the
standard at home.''