The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-12-09

polling greed to make a concession In
their favor. And if they strike, they
will be forced into submission by the
| compelling power of empty stomachs,
long before the demand for iron and
steel will raise the prices of those
commodities so high as to enable the
products of foreign mills to come IN
over the tariff. This is the simple
reason why a protective tariff never
has benefited workingmen, and never
will benefit them. No doubt the
masters whose business is protected
could afford to give their work ng
men better pay-that is, they could
divide their increased earnings with
the men who labor to make those
earnings. And, in that case, protec.
ton, so called, would be a conspiracy
of masters and men against the con
sumers of the country. But, in the
case that actually exists, and always
has existed, protection is a conspiracy
of masters against both consu mers and
workingmen. Without garniture of
any sort, this is what the President of
the United States offers in his annual
message to the millions of toilers in
this great country.
It is one of the curiosities of Re,
publican craftsmanship that the same
message which tries to fasten the hate
full Mckinley bill upon the people of
these States should contain an argu.
ment in favor of reciprocity between
this country and the Central and
South American States. Has Benja
min Harrison lived to this present
time in enlightened and freedom low
ing America, and has he risen, by &C
cident or otherwise, to be the Chief
Executive of this Re public, without
finding out that absolute GREE
TRADE" is nothing else but rec procity
universally applied =? The logic that
will open the ports of the United
States to the commerce of Central and
South America will open those same
ports to the commerce of every nation
under heaven. Surely the day of
wonders is not past.
The message we are considering in
dulges in the usual dull, dreary
platitudes of Republican statesman
ship about the establishment of steam
ship lines to extend our commerce
and enable US to recover some part of
4he worlds carrying trade. Mr.. Har-
rison's ideas of what ought to be done
to re establish our prestige on the
high seas, seem to be entirely ex-
hausted when he asks Congress to
put it's hand into the public Treasury
and give somebody some money to
establish steamship lines between this
country and Central and South
America. 1t seems never to have oc-
Cured to the astute Benjamin that
the Infamous navigation laws, written
upon the national statute books by
the Republican party, have had any
thing to do with driving our flag from
the oceans of the world The Presi
dent intimates, in his message, that
be wants all sorts of things done;
and he wants those who do them to
be paid out Of the public purse for
their doing,
The message shows by its tariff
twaddle, and by its partiality to the
employ ment of su sides, and by its
hypocritical commentators of the
FoJ ce bill, that the President and his
party have learned nothing from the
results of the late elections. Well.
it may be better for the country in
the long run that those lessons should
be thrown away upon this &C ministra.
ton.
Taken as a whole, and taken in its
parts, the message is weak-weak to
the very verge of stupidity. The only
element of strength in it is its stub
born refusal to see the pla n hand
writing of recent events. But how
could a message advocating the the
cries of the dominant party in the
present Congress be statesmanlike in
any particular? The way to answer
that question n does not see