Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-08-21
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, ! another; and hold that the farmers OF
: this country can better afford, as a mat
teT OF pecuniary advantage, to pay good
price for manufactured articles than to oh
tain them lower through the depression and
inadequacy of the wages Of the artisan and
laborer.
You will understand me. then, to be ut
/ terly hostile to that idol of free trade
worship known as free or unlimited COM
petition. The sands of my hour are run
ming low, and | cannot ask time to ex-
anime this topic more closely; yet | am
confident l could show that this free
| competition is n most delusiye and dan
gerous element of political economy. Bear
with brief illustration At this moment
common shirts are made in London at the
Incredibly low pricS of cents per pair.
| Should we admit these articles free of duty
and bay them because they are so cheap?
| Free trade says yes buy I say no Sound
policy as well as humanity forbids it. By
admitting them We simply reduce n large
and worthy and suffering class Of our pop
ulation from the ability they now possess
of procuring 4 bare subsistence by their
labor to unavoidable restitution and pau
perism. They must now subsist upon the
charity Of relatives OF of the community,
unless we are ready to adopt the de-
moniac doctrine CT the free-trade philoso-
pher Nautilus, that the dependent poor
ought to be vigorously starved to death.
Then what have We gained by getting these
articles so ezor5itantIy cheap? or, rather.
what have wenot lost? The labor which
formerly produced them il mainly struck
out of existence; the poor widows and
seamStreSses among us must still have
subsistence, and the imported garments
must be paid for: where are the profits Of
our speculation?
But even this is not the worst feature
of the case. The labor which we have here
thrown out of employment by the cheap
importation Of this article is now ready to
be employed again at any price-if not
one that will afford bread and straw, then
it must accept one that will produce pota-
toes and rubbish; and with the product
some ftee-trader proceeds to break down
the price and destroy the reward of similar
labor in some other portion of the earth.
And thus each depression of wages pro-
duces another, and that q third and SO on,
making the circuit of the globe-the ag-
gravated necessities of the poor acting and
reacting upon each other, increasing the
omnipotence of capital and deepening the
dependence of labor, swelling and pam
pering bloated and Fictitious commerce,
grinding down and grinding down the des-
titute, until Malthus' remedy for poverty
shall become grateful specific, and, amid
the splendors and luxUries of an Aide
vouring commercial feudalism, the squalid
and famished millions, its dependents and
victims, shall welcome death as q deliyerer
from their sufferings and despair
l wish time permitted me to give haSty
glance over the doctrines and teachings of
the free-trade sophists, who esteem them
selves the political economists, christen
their own views liberal and enlightened,
and complacently put ours aside as be-
nighted and barbarous | should delight
to show you how they mingle subtle fallacy
with obvious truth, how they reason
acutely from assumed premises, which, be-
ing mistaken or incomplete, lead to false
and often absurd conclusions-how they
contradict and confound each other, and
often, from Adam Smith, their patriarch,
down to McCulloch and Ricardo either
make admissions which undermine their
whole fabric, or confess themselves igno-
rant or in the dark on points the most
vital to a correct understanding of the
X
to science. Yet even Adam Smith him
self expressly approves and justiies the
British Navigation Act, the most agrees
lively protective measure ever enacted
measure which, not being understood
and seasonably counteracted by other ma
tions, changed for centuries the destinies
OF the world-which silently Slapped and
overthrow the commercial and political
&c III ~ IL,
thunder of Van Tromp, and swept the
broom from his masthead. But mustnot
detain you longer. l do not ask you to
judge Of this matter by authority, but from
facts which come home to your reason and
your daily experience. There is not an
observing and strong minded mechanic in
our city who could not set any one of these
doctors of the law right on essential points.
beg you to consider how few great prac-
teal statesmen they have even been able
to win to their standard | might almost
say for Huskisson was but nominal dis
ciple, and expressly contravened their
whole system upon an attempt to apply it
to the corn laws; and Calhoun is but a
free-trader by location, and has never yet
answered his own powerful arguments in
behalf of protection. On the other hand,
we point you to the long array of mighty
names which have illustrated the annals
of craftsmanship of modern times-to
Chatham. William Pitt and the great
Frederick of Prussia; to the whole army
of memorable French statesmen, including
Napoleon the first of them all to our own
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, and
Madison to our two Cliutons, Tompkius,
to say nothing of the eagle-eyed and genial
hearted living master-spirit Henry Clayl
of our time. The opinions and the argu-
ments of all these are on record; it is by
hearkening to and needing their counsels
that we shall be prepared to walk in the
light of experience and look forward to a
glorious national destiny. My friends 1
dare not detain you longer, commit
to you the cause of the nations indepen-
dence, of her stability and her prosperity.
Guard it wisely aud shield it we'll; for it
involves your own happiness and the en-
during welfare of your countrymen.