Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-08-20
Free Trade and English Labor.

|
A correspondent at Springfield, Mo. /,
asks question often asked and answered,
but always worth answering still. 1t is
this:
| viii the Democratic doctrine of "tariff
for revenue" put the needy at work, and
| thus relieve the institutions of public and
private charity: If so. please explain why
this doctrine, which is in full "force and
effect" in England, fails to relieve the dis
| tress of the poor.
The ''Democratlc doctrine of a tariff for
revenue only" means simply that govern
ment shall take from the earnings of Ia
Dor no more than enough to keep the
peace and maintain the right of the
worker to his earnings.
1t will not "put the needy at work.
Slaves and only slaves are '.put at work.
by government. What Democrats try to
do is to prevent that Interference of gov
ernment which, to benefit one class by
all others. so that men who 60 TO work
voluntarily without being put at work
are deprived of their earnings to make
fortunes for plutocrats.
England is in many respects freer than
other European countries; in some re-
spects freer than this. but there is never
| theless gross oppression under English
law. England has privileged classes in
both state and church. who are supported
without earning from the earnings of
al, S- hN-1 q of
a system. and if we under different sys-
tenn have the same evils it demonstrates
only that In different ways the same end
can be accomplished-that end here and
in England being to give non-earners
part of the earnings Of workers, to whom
no adequate compensation is given Tor
the loss. The Democratic doctrine of
taxation for revenue only is that this
shall not be done by law, and that no
man shall command the service or the
earnings of others except by giving them
service in return on a far basis of free
and voluntary exchange. 1t is only
through this free. fair and voluntary eX-
change of service that labor can be light
ened and the condition of the worker
everywhere improved.
Democrats are not dealing in quack
nostrums warranted to cure all the ills
which must come from seltishness and
covetousness. They do not expect to
abolish poverty or to make. suffering I'M
possible. All they promise is greater
freedom for men to help each other, and
diminution of the opportunities for the
more powerful to oppress the less power
full through governmental control.
That the removal of all restrictions on
trade or exchange of service has made the
condition of the English masses more
tolerable will not be questioned by any
one who knows history. 1t was not so
long ago that the English people were
forbidden to eat bread except at prices
fixed by law for the benefit of Protect
ed Plutocratic class of landlord monopo-
lists. The people starved and died of
famine tevers by hundreds, and when
they met together to cry for bread they
We're ridden down BY the dragons ofthe |
Plutocracv and sabred. But that argu-
ment was as truitless in England as it
will prove here, where it is now so often
used through the rifles of the Pinkertons
and like agencies for giving leaden pellets |
to cure the diseases of the body polite. |
As far as England is concerned, the En-
glish worker is now free to exchange his |
service for that of the Western farmer |
He is allowed to work for the very cheap |
est bread he can get from any market. |
And for this little he is infinitely the |
gamer, since a starving man is almost no
man at all.
And more than this. the liberty English |
Workers have to exchange their products |
freely tor the products of other peoples, |
makes money wages much higher in |
than in ary other country OF the |
Old World-and this though England has
great difficulties TO contend with, notably |
that of a very large population on very |
small territory. The report of the Secre-
tary of State or the wages of labor in Eu-
rope gives the following valuable COM
parsons between the average weekly |
wages of artisans in England and Ger
many: