The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-12
THE SOUTH FOR FREE TRADE.

A accommodating region, compared
with the North, the South under tariff
for revenue only would have their sugar
protected by the revenue tax on that pro-
duct. Cotton raising is the chief staple of
the South. Labor they can make as cheap
as they like; it is really cheaper to them
today than it was in the days of slavery.
The South has nothing to fear from for
eign labor; its manufactures are compare
lively small compared to those of the
North; cotton has been on the free list
since 1886 Free trade, which would
be ruinous to the North with its
high wages, immense manufacturing
and varied producing interests, would
not be ruinous to the South. It
would sell its cotton at as good prices
as formerly: its sugar would be pro-
tected; its iron manufactures would
not suffer as would those of the North, for
its labor is now cheap and there is no
public opinion at the South which would
resist an organized, inhuman effort to
make the negro labor cheaper still. The
free trade" that closed the iron manu-
factories of the North would not close
those of the South. for the labor of the
South can be reduced to serfdom without
resistance on the part of the negro, while
the effort to reduce the labor of the North
to the wages of Europe would mean a
revolt and defeat of the Democracy at the
ballot box.
The South under "free trade" would
get cheap goods from Europe in exch ange
for its cotton, and the South would rather
buy cheap goods of Europe and enrich
Europe than buy goods of the North 10 the
enrichment of that section. Mr.. Mills is
a survival of Calhounism, and so for that
matter is the whole South. Its whole
purpose in politics is to enact "free trade"
because under 'free trade" the superior
pace of the North in the march of national
prosperity will be reduced, while the
South will suffer little if any by compar-
ison.
This is, of course. a short-sighted view.
but i: is specifically a very taking and
popular one: the South of today simply
lives to bruise with its heel the serpent
of the North that it believes stung
the Confederacy TO death in the
war for the Union. Let no man
North who is patriotic Democrat
fool himself for moment, the South
knows exactly what it Is about and what
1t wants 1t is the Democratic party to-
day; it has elected Cleveland for the same
| reason that it elected Franklin. Pierca
and James Buchanan; he has ALWAYS been
n Northern man with Southern sympa-
thles and principles. 1t means TO continue
Its efforts until ii recoups itself at the ex-
| pense of the North for every dollar that
the defeat of the cause of the Confederacv
| cost the South. And it will do it probably
| in time. 1t will DO it the moment it gets a
| court of claims packed with men who will
endorse the 500 600 600 of Southern war
| claims, the present aggregate. Every
! Democratic congress swells the millions of
| claims that are sent to the court for adj
| iudication.
| There will be no need to elect an ex-Con-
| federate president so long as the race of
| Northern men, like Cleveland, with South.
| ern sympathies and principles, is not
| extinct. II is only necessary to have a
| president TO pack the courts and to keep
! congress IN both houses Democratic in
order TO slowly but steadily enable the
| South 10 recoup itself for the losses of the
! Ccntederacy. The South will put its men
in the saddle; it will not care whether
they are Of Northern or Southern birth. 80
| long as they wear their totem and tribe.
marx, When they want 8 president they
viii say 10 the Democratic party North.
saddle ne an ass" and they will
, ssraightway saddle him.
All this the South will try TO do; thew
may not succeed; they may drive too
roughly, as they did before The war, and
Si1eh the team. but the purpose OF the