St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-09

OCC'i q MAJ hCu Ill llC lOlG VI
personal independence; and all the fruit
of an excessive tariff system.
Further on, Mr.. GLADSTONE says:
Il have seen and known and had the
opportunity of comparing the temper
and frame of mind engendered first by
our protectionism, which we now look
back upon as seryitude, and then by the
commercial freedom and equality which
we have enjoyed for the last thirty or
forty years. The one tended to harden
into positive seltishness; the other has
done much to foster more liberal tone
of mind. The economical question
which have beeu endeavoring to dis
cuss is very large one. Nevertheless,
it dwindles, in my view, when it is COM
pared with the paramount question
of the American future viewed
at large. There opens before the
thinking mind when this SUI
preme question is propouuded a
vista so tranScending all ordinary linn
itation as requires an almost prefer
human force and expansion of the men
tai eye in order to embrace it. Some
things, and some weighty things, are
clear so far as the future admits of
clearneSs. There is a vision of terri
tory, population, power, passing beyond
all experience. The exhibition to man
kind, for the first timein history, of free
institutions on a gigantic scale is mo-
mentous, and [ have enough faith in
freedom, enough diStruSt of all that is
alien from freedom, to believe that it
will work powerfully for good. But to-
gether with and behind these vast de-
velopmentS there will come CORE
spending opportunity of social and
moral influence to be exercised over the
rest of the world. And the question of
questions for us, as trustees for our pos
terity, is, What will be the nature of
this influence? Will it make us, the
children of the senior races, who will
have to come under its action, better or
worse? Not what manner of producer,
but what manner of man. is the AmerI-
can of the future to be?
but, to rise higher still, how will the
majestic inquire, about to become the
largest and most powerful on the stage
of the worlds history, make use of his
| pOwer2 Will it be instinct with moral
life in proportion to its material
strength? Will he uphold and prOpa-
| gate the Christian tradition with that
surprising energy which marks him in
all the ordinary pursuits of life? viii
| he maintain with high hand an UNI
| faltering reverence for that law of
nature which is anterior to the gospel,
| and supplies the standard to which it
! appeals. the very foundation on which
| tits built up? Will he fully know, and
fully act upon the knowledge. that both
reverence and strictneSS are essential
conditions of all high and desirable we'll
| being? And will he be a leader and
teacher to us of the old world in re-
| iectng and denouncing all the miser-
able, degrading sophistries by which the
arch-enemy, ever deyising more and
more subtle schemes against us, seeks
at one stroke perhaps to lower us be-
meath the bruteS, aSSuredly to cut us of
| from the hope and from the source OF
the final good? One thing is certain
his temptations will multiply with his
| power; his responsibilities with his OPP
! p0rtunitieS. Will the seed be sowu
| among the thornS? Will worldliness
overrun the ground and blightits flowers
aud IFS fruit? On the answers to these
| questions, and to such as these, it will
depend whether this new revelation OF
| power upon the earth is also to be a
! revelation of virtue; whether it shall
prove blessing or curse. May heaven
avert every darker omen, and grant that
| the latest and largest growth of the
! great Christian civilization shall also be
the brightest and beSt.'
1t is no wonder that Mr.. BLAINE was
sensitive under the spell of GLAD.
STONES argument and made no effort
to reply, but contented himself with an
argument to prove that Britain'S power
and prosperity were due to her SUI
premacy of the seas. and seized upon
that point to forge an argument in sup
port of steamship subsidies. Here is {
sample of his logic:
s'Fhe opposition to the policy of ex
| tending our foreign commerce by aiding
steamship lines with a small sum, JUS
as we have aided internal commerce or
|
with the American free trader. Mr.
GLADSTONE can not fail to see how ad
vantageous the success of this free trade
effort in the United States must prove
to Great Britain. The steady argumen
of the free trader is that, if the steam
ship lines were established, we coulC
not increase our trade because we pro
| duce under our protective tariff nothins
that can compete in neutral markets
with articles of the like kind from Eng
land. How, then, can the free trader
explain the fact that long list Of
| articles manufactured in the United
States find ready and large sale
in Canada? The Cadadian tariff is the
same upon English and American goods
Transportation from England to Quebec
or Montreal is cheaper than from thu
manufacturing centers of the United
States to the same points. The differ
enee is not great, but it is in favor O
the English shipper across the seas
and not of the American shipper by rail
way. 1t is for the free-trader to explain
why, if the cost of transportation be
made the same, the United States can
not compete with England in every
country in South America in all the
articles of which we sell larger amount
in Canada than England does.
1t is no wonder the protectionists are
disgruntled with Mr.. BLAINE's reply tC
GLADSTONE, and yet there is not one of
them could better his argument. Mr.
BLAINE begged the question simply be
/ fI,a, eiI 1F Sc
foundation upon which to stand.
OPEN SESSIONS.
Senator TELLER is performing a mos
praisewOrthY service in perpetualIN