Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-08-01
The Voice of a Statesman.
WHAT WAS TRUE IN THE PAST IS TR
TO-DAY,


TO-DAY.
From speech of Hon. R. NJ. T. Hunter,
delivered in the .. S. Senate in 1926
years ago-we quote the following which is
as true picture of the present as if it had
been drawn at this day instead Of 36 years
ago. What he predicted would be the re-
suit if the government ould attempt to
regulate business and to foster particular
iuterists has been verified to the letter.
He said:-
sI celieve that if we undertake to protect,
to foster, and sustain every interest, this
Government will become one vast jobbing
concern; that temptations will beset our leg
islation until corruption becomes the order
of the day; and that the Capitalization of
power will go on here until nothing shall be
left to the States and but little to the peo-
ple believe that in country 50 large as
ours, with interest SO vast, society must
work much of its own machinery; and that
then what will be necessarily left for us to
do will be full as much as free repre- SEN
tative government can possibly manage.
If we 90 further, and insist upon taking
more subjects under our charge, in such a
qulre higher degree of Capitalization and
a more refined and despotic system of Or
ganzation.
know that these views may seen narrow
and poor to those who believe that it is the
| duty of government to attend to everything,
to sustain and support every interest. and
| who believe that they are doing good when
| they attemptit. But I would appeal to
them, to the most considerate and experience
ed among them, when they come to make a
calm retrospect, to say whether they do
| not find that in nine cases of ten when they
interfered for such purposes they have
| failed in their expectations-in their gen.
erous aspirations, if you will-after the
| good of their racer
"They may call it protection of indus
try, an encouragement of enterprise. They
do, indeed, become the artifcers of the
fortunes of few; but at what an expense
to the many whose Just claims are forgot
ten or overlooked They satisfy the de-
mands of importunate capitalists who
clamor around the Treasury door; but it is
done at the expense of the silent millions
who toll for their daily bread, too little
heedful of the measure in which they are
taxed or the manner in which the money
thus raised is afterwards distributed.
| We hear great deal about "protection
to American labor" and strenuous efforts
are made to make the wage workers be-
lieve that their only safety is to be found
in high protective tariff and that all who
oppose the system are enemies of the labor
ing class. The republican journals of
Pennsylvania are mad and sorrowful by
turns, aud sob and weep over the false
charge of free trade. 1t would be we'll for
them to spend some of their efforts near
home and sweep before their own doors.
The following articles written by North
ern man after thorough investigation,
will give some light upon the blessings con-
| fer-ed upon the wage workers of Pennsyl-
vania by high tariff upon everything ex
cept imported pauper labor. Read what he
says:
"The meagre earnings of the laborers are
eaten up by the exorbitant charges at the
stores which are run by the companies en-
ploying them. They are compelled to pay
outrageous rent for the miserable huts in
which they SILVER in winter and swelter in
summer. In the mining region there is
nothing cheap except labor The men re-
ceive from go to so cents per day. They
are brought into constant competition with
the spauper labor of Europe, which is hired
| by the mine bosses every time it underbids
American workingmen."
Again:
''There. is many a miner who goes with
out dinner day after day, and who tightens
his belt when noon comes. A piece of fresh
meat is luxury for the holidays, and two
OF three cold potatoes are the usual con
tents of his dinner pail There is DO allow
ance made by the employers for accidents
and illness. When the doctor is needed
each visit must be paid for when it is made.
When rent-day comes the rent is taken
from the months earnings, and if the head
of the family can work no moro the family
il turned out with all the bitter cruelty of
| business Wholesale evictions take place
in Pennsylvania as well as in Ireland, and
scenes of brutal Indifference to human rights
and of pitiless carelessness of human feel
ings are common"