National Republican., 1888-05-10
TENNESSEE BUSINESS MAN.
His Views on Free Trade AMI the
Mills Bili.

trade aud the Mills bill:
Ncithcr free trade nor protection are to be
counted as theoretical and speculative |
things the value Of which is yet to be |
proven. Each has hccn most thoroughly /
tried hy the two countries best able, from |
their conditions, to test them to the utter
most England and the United states.
England, with unlimited money with
plant In manufactures which made her the
workshop Of the world, with commerce
that gave her command of the carrying
trade uf the world, with skilled labor ut
lone, with colonies all over the world, tcit
strong enough under the dclusivc influence
Of Hind leaders to throw aside all the barriers
which protected her own people in I'M AT
tempt to control the trade of the world by
grindngUnCuutiO against another Twenty
Years ago when the SueI canal was COM
llctcd aud India, with its 2jOOJJ,OOO OF
British subiccts--2OO 900 Of them en-
gagged IN agriculture at wages no civilized
and free people can ever he brought to
when tcCming and crowded India was thus
brought several thousand miles nearer to
Europe. Englund's great trump card was To
lie played. She was at last to reach the goal
Of free trade; to bc able to buy cheaper than
she could make. That is the goal of free
tradc-to buy cheaper than you eau make.
That Is the goal the blind statesman from
Texas is trying TO reach by calling caucus
to whip in the faithful that law may he
| passed that will enable the American people
10 buy cheaper than they can make.
England has found that she can buy her
| bread cheaper than she can make H.. Her
| wheat lands have gone into grazing lands.
| destroying ivc-eghths Of their power 30
| employ labor aud to feed mankind, When
| She can buy her meat cheaper than she can
make It her grazing lands will 20 into deer
| parks. She is now finding out that her
| scheme To grind one nation against another
Is a failure. Other nations have put up their
| fences Of projections ANA every nation is
grinding England. She can buy manulac-
| turcd goods cheaper than she can make
| them. and the destruction Of her manuldc-
lures is following that OF her agriculture,
aud a large part of her carrying trade is
Low without profit. Electricity and the
newspapers have made the world neigh
uorh0od. The news OF Democratic
caucus comes from Washington stimuli
tGncuusly with news from London
rs to some of tho results of an inve,ti.
| cation now going ON by a select committee
Of the house of lords into the "swcating sys-
tom''-a free trade insttution-by which
British manufacturers are grinding the faces
Of English wOrkngmen and working Wo-
men.
While England is gathering the bitter
fruit of free trade a Democratic caucus Is TO
he held at Washington to plant the seeds in
America
OF ali the foolish and cruel pitfalls that a
nation eau dir for itself an attempt to so
legislutc that ii can buy cheaper than "
can make Is the worst II Is the road %
slavery. Profit is the first law of trade h"
first incentive to labor except starvation.
Whenever labor ceases To be profitable II
will stop at the starvation limit. MI that
Is beyond harbarsm and savagery is based
upon profit Free trade simply reduces tile
most Fortunate a tlp lpypl pf tlp most
unfortunate. 1t is throwing our happy lot
into a blind pool against the combined
misery and pauperism of the world. Just
80 far as this country shall adopt q policy
Of grinding its industries, whether OF Agrl-
culture, of manutaCtures, or OF commerce,
against the industries Of less fortunate
cOuntriCs-Und 10 country on earth is 50
fortunate as Ours--iust so far must II APP
prOach the lower levels of freedom and
prosperity IN less fortunate countries. If
we pull against each other II is easy to tear
down our prosperity. The road to hell is
paved, and down grade
But we have a continent to develop. 1t Is
the richest by nature, the most capable Of
sustaining and increasing prosperity, upon
which the sun shines. We have only to pull
together, to stand by each other, 10 help
each other, to protect each other. There
have been differences in our institutions aud
in our conditions 2Ht &arfe Hr2lnrRRI RRnI
made us one country and given to each aud
every portion the elements of prosperity
and happiness, but man had made us two
countries. Part Of our country was blessed
with freedom, part of it cursed with slavery.
The north, with its free public dOmlin,
stimulated by the operation of the home
stead and land grant laws and the tariff
was still further stimulated by slavery in
the south, which, by shutting out from that
section the vast tide of emigration
and capital, concentrated its whole force
upon the north and the west. The eastern
states of the north aided by the capital and
emigration from the old world, had the stu
pcndous contract of crcatingOut of wilder.
ness the great empire Of the wcst-such a
contract with such results and such profits.
as the world never before witnessed, The
sOutll-retaldcd by her institutions dcyas.
tated by war brought on to establish the
southern confeder0Cy on the basis of free
trade founded on slave lubor-had little or
no share in the growth forced by the national
policy. Notwithstanding the wonderful abun-
dance and variety of wealth nature has Law
iShed upon her. But that has passed away.
The new south is coming forward rapidly,
but It's growth, great as it has BEEN has re.
stmbled that of the west prior to the close
| oil the war-rapid, local, scattered, and
| crude. But the south Is now at the TIRES
hold OF growth elm character, but greater
in extent, than that which took place In the
horth ana west after the war, when the
| local boom" gave way to the great fOunda
tion of railroads then built, upon which the
west grew up naturally, sOlidly and at a
rate entirely unprecedented in the ddvs of
local looms. say the growth to come III the
south will he greater than that which, with
ont parallel in the history of the world, we
| have seen IN the past quarter of century in
! me west, Tor two reasons: First, because
the natural wealth of the south, in it,
! abundance and variety, Is greater than that
| OF tue west, and secondly, because for the
time being, at lcast) the western growth has
! reached the limit of its market and must
fnd new one. 1t will not find It in for.
| clgn trade or foreign investments. CONNIE
| tltion from India, from Russia, from Aus
tfalasla, from the Pacific coast, and from
| south America in the foreign bread stuff,
market is more likely to lessen than any
other possible forces are to increase foreign
markets FOR western products; and so the
eastern and western states Of the north must
| double team to develop the south as the
| west was developed by the east. Both the
iield ana the working force for southern
| development are larger than they were for
| western development, and the results will
bein proportion The south is the only
held large enough to afford scope for the
energy and capital of the north
y Texas steer might stand as much chance
/ ostop mogul engine with a loaded train
bclihd II, aud running forty miles an hour,
as the blind statesman from Texas, even
with Democratic caucus behind him. has
to stop the march of the American rcpublic.
True, the steer might dcrai the train, but
the train would he put on the track again.
and the steer would not!
Inc tarlii Is not 4 local issue, thing to
bcneit one section Of the country or one
class OF her citizens at the expense of an
other section or class There is no section.
no port, no locality, no citizen Of the Union,
hut 1t VIII benefit ana enrich If 1t were
otherwise II would he unworthy of free,
honest, intelligent men, No bargain is n
good one that Is not good for both sides,