The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-04-20
FREE TRADE FOLLY.
Weak Points In Democratic Philosophy
Shown Up.

In the tariff DEBATE IN the senate on
April 10, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
delivered a powerful speech in which
he summed up in a mastery manner
the follies and fallacies of the free
trade doctrine. He began by saying
that in the tariff bill two questions
were involved. One is the effect upon
business prosperity, the wages of
workiugmen. and the welfare of people
of given set of tariff schedules and
duties on imports; the other, much
wider and deeper question, involving
nothing less than a conflict between
two hostile theories of government
upon the outcome of which is staked
the social and political fabric which
enbodies modern civilization. Argu-
ing from these premises ne said:
1.-The first question is domestic and OF the
gravest and most immediate Importance. But
II neither belittles undertakes II TO say that
1t falls far short OF the second In its scope and
in its influence upon the fortunes Of civilized
man. In what shall say propose to discuss
the second and larger question first for on
that think the cause in which L believe most
surely rests. Protection and free trade are
merely expressions In one direction Of the the
cries Of society and government which have
during this century with the control of the sf
fairs OF the civilized world as the grand prize
set between them They serve, however, to
illustrate and exhibit the conflict of the con-
tending forces Of which they are only the out
ward sign and manifestation In examining
the history Of these two opposed tariff policies
We are able as readily as in any other way to
reach the great principles which underlie them,
and of which, as / have said, they are merely an
expression
AT the outset in treating Of protection and
free trade, ii is well TO clear our minds OF can't
tariff policy in its largest sense as part of
a general theory and system OF government
and in its farthest results may affect nation
socially, morally and practically: 1t may so
modify the distribution or wealth as 10 give II
a wider and better scope, and may IN this way
influence the whole arrangement and growth OF
society," On the other hand tariff policy in
the usual and narrow sense, and especially
from the standpoint of the free trader. is pure
ly an economic matter, question OF the
pocket, of dollars and cents and Of the nation
al ethcd of doing business In this latter as
pect there is nothing sacred or moral about
a tariff system
40 the practical man OF affairs the theoret.
ical and convinced free trader is generally ex-
tremely exasperatlng But to the student Of
history and to the disinterested observer, to
men Of phiosophic minds and blessed witt a
sense OF humor, he is one OF the most interest
ing and entertaining of human phenomena.
These convinced free traders generally have
some education and invariably think they have
a great deal They are provided with set OF
little sayings ana aphorisms which can be car
ried without Intellectual strain In very small
compass and which TO their thinking are COM
plete solutions of oil social and economic ques
tons. These they draw forth on all occasions
and present them TO the world with entire con-
fdence in the inality of their little sentences
and profound contempt FOR all persons who
| venture to differ with them and who do not
think that the difficulties OF humanity can be
so easily disposed OF.
And so the free trader, not in the forest Of
| Arden but in the busy, eager days of the nine
| teenth century, pulls out his little memorandum
| and says the tariff is tax. You cannot be-
| come rich by taxing yourself any more than
| you can lift yourself by your boot-straps,' and
SO on, and so on. 1t is very interesting to know
| that there are men who really think that the
| complex affairs of humanity can be disposed OF
| by a collection of epigrammatic half truths and
| watchpocket memoranda, and who firmly be-
| lieye that they can regulate the vast mechan-
| ism of modern society with lstch-key because
| that simple instrument sufficeS to open their
| own front doors They are interesting also in
| another way. for to use the expressive slang Of
] the day, they know it all The curious
thing about it is that they really do know it all,
! II by 1T you mean free trade. 1t is possible
| for anyone to know everything about free
| trade, because its doctrines reached maturity
| fifty years ago and have stood still ever since
untaught by history and unchanged by facts
| "1he only condition necessary TO this COM
] plete knowledge, besides being able to read, is
| that you should know nothing else except free
| trade. You must close your eyes and shut your
| ears to everything that has happened since the
| time Of the Manchester school; you must take
English opinion as the ultimate expression OF
human wisdom, and then you know all about
1 .AA a-,d hat ia oil xufn Hnn hna
| the free trader and his doctrine stand station
| airy and immovable. You csnnoG aff1x to them
| Galileo's sentence, which an American wit de-
| clared to be the proper motto for Italian loco
| motives: And yet IL moves There Is no mo-
| ton about the free trader or his doctrine. To
| him human wisdom eliminated and found its
| complete expression in the free trade measures
| OF the Manchester school-doctrines which
| Thomas Carlyle irreverenty christened The
Dismal Science and the Calico Millennium
10 the average free trader nothing has hap
pened since His mind is as tightly shut TO
| new ideas or new facts as that of the average
Englishman on the currency question, or as q
rock bsrnacle at low tide He still believes
| that his doctrine is not only as scientifically
true as the law OF gravitstion, but that It is abb
| solutely new, although 1t is wrinkled with age
| and bent by the failures OF fifty years. When
| the astronomer, calculating the orbit OF
| Uranus finds perturoations for which no con-
| ditions account he reasons that there must be
| some hidden cause which Is the origin Of these
uncalculsted deviations He observes and
watches, and presently a new planet swims
within his ken His problem is solved, and he
adjusts his calculations to meet the new condi-
lions.
Free trade rests entirely on the let-alone
doctrine-thst Is. upon the doctrine that
| the least interference OF the state Is
| BEST or. in other words. that the state ought
not TO interfere at all in the affairs Of Its indi-
vidual members, except to maintain order at
| home or abroad or in defense Of public morals
| and public health. and even these are logically
infractions of the doctrine Of absolute tndivid-
| ualism Free trade, comparatively speaking.
| is not q very large question II Is merely the
| expression in one limited direction OF a much
broader principle. II the letalone theory is
correct as a general economic principle, and II
| the experience and practice OF mankind show
that 1t is correct. then free trade is, of course,
| correct as one Of It's parts. But IT, on the
| other hand the letalone doctrine can be
proved in many directions to be incorrect II IL
| has been abandoned again snc again In prac-
tice by the most civilized nations. then the pre-
| sumption Is against free trade any other
| single expression OF the central principle. Let
| US see, first how far this let-alone doctrine
has been invaded since IL found its last ex-
preston in England half century ago.
In the direction OF free trade itself the case
| is very readily summed up England has main
talneo tnat tarlH system since sne aoopteo IT,
France, under the second empire perhaps the
worst government which that country has ever
| had made spasmodic effort to initiate Eng
| lands example. 1t was, however, quickly
| abandoned, and France is to-day a country Of
| high protection 1t may be added that France
| is the strongest country IN the world, except
| our own and Great Britain. both financially and
| economically. The wealth OF the people was
| demonstrated in a most marvellous manner
| when the French. out OF their own savings,
! paid the enormous indemnity to Germany
| after the Franco-Prussian war, so that to-day
| the public debt OF France is practically held by
her own citizens Without going into details, II