Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-10-31
JlSl BLAINE.s CONGRESS.

JiN BlA1NE'S CONGRESS.
The Plumed knights Efforts to Extend
the Area of Industrial Slavery.
It is generally admitted that the
Congress of Representatives of Amer
lean Republics is the result of Mr..
Blaine's endeavor His friends now
claim that he had this step in mind
while in Garfield's Cabinet, and that
to him alone is due the credit of the
suggestion that the protective system
of this country should be extended to
cover the other republics calling
themselves American" Though
there NAV be some who envy the
glory attaching to his present posi-
tion it is not probable that the future
will have any thing but reproach for
the author of this effort to extend the
area of industrial slavery.
There was no fact more generally
admitted than that the old form of
chattel slavery could not continue in
this country if it were to be confined
to the narrow limits of the States
south of the so-called Mason and
Dixon line. Upon this was founded
the contention of the Republican
party-not that the Government had
the right to abolish slavery, or to in
terfere with the institutions of a
State, but that it had clearly the right
to prevent the extension of slavery
into virgin territory. Recognizing
the same truth the advocates of
slavery North and South rejected the
assertion that this country could not
exist one-half free and the other half
slave territory, and also the other
claim that any State had right to
prevent the citizens of other common
wealths from taking their property
wherever they saw fit within the Ma
TONS boundaries.
The reason for the belief in the me-
cessity for the extension of the terri
tory of slavery is plain to the students
of political economy. 1t lies in the
fact that as a system it could not COM
pete with the free institutions. It was
exhausting to the soil, in that the cheap
labor (so-called) of the slaves was inn
potent to stand beside better paid
labor of the free States. The effect
was seen in the value of land in the
border States. Helper, in his elm
pending Crisis" placed in juxtaposi-
ton the land values of the States bor-
dering on the Ohio and Mississippi,
and demonstrated the devastating nat
ure of slavery. The constant effort
of the South was for the extension of
slave territory. the aim of the North
was to strangle slavery by constric-
ton.
There is an exact parallel between
the needs of chattel and Industrial
slavery. The effect of protection is
not, indeed. to lower, but rather to
raise at first the value of land. But it
is only land in the manufacturing
centers to which the added value at
taches permanently. The claim of
benefit to agriculture has been ex-
ploded by the vacant farms and inn
poverished farmers of New England.
and the older States of the West. But
the tendency of the two systems is to
the same result. The very theory
upon which the protectionists' argu-
ment is built, is that it develops and
stimulates competition of production
in a market which is by this means
limited. This must of necessity pro-
duce the difficulties now experienced
by the manufacturers of New En-
gland. Their manufacturing indus
tries are unable to stand the effect of
competition with those in more IA
vored localities, and it is dawning
upon their owners that something
must be done to extend their markets.
They have first demanded free raw
materials, and when they discover
that they have asked for the over
throw of the very foundation of the
system of protection. they will be
forced to accept the plan of extending
the territorial limits in which their
system may operate, or else look for
other industries in which, for time,
they may feel the effect of the tariff
beneficially. The progress of nego-
tiations with the other American
states will be watched with interest by
those who understand the intentions
of the originators of the scheme of an
all-American Union.--Chicago Leader.