St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-07-06
THERE Is no PEACE.

nioSlJ We CdHlIOl QOuULs
THERE Is NO PEACE.
The senate, dominated by protected
interests, has reshaped the Wilson bill
in their behalf, and sends 1t back to the
mouse. The bud of protection in the
Wilson bill has burst into flower in the
senate bill. Thirty-Six Democratic SEN
ators made cowardly surrender of their
party and its cause to eight projections
lists wearing the badge of Democracy.
Now this recreant body of senators turns
to the house OF representatives and ask
it to join them and ratify the terms of
capitulation. LET US have harmony"
they plead; ''let us have peace;;" and
Democratic journals are to be found
which. from various short-sighted mo-
tives, join the senators ana plead for
ratification. Sundry business interests,
imagining that the passage of any tariff
bill will be panacea for the hurt of the
D anic OF '93, urge the acceptance of the
senate bill in hopes that. thereafter
business may resume its wonted chan
nelS.
When over century ago conditions had
brought about recurrence of the old
conflict between freedom and privilege,
and men were to be found counseling sur
render to privilege Cor the sake of
peace, one clearer-sighted man, taught by
the lessons of history that conflicts of
p principle are irrepresSible, said to his
countrymen: Gentlemen may cry
peace. peace. bat there is no peace" If
the history of our race teaches one les.
son more convincingly than another, it
is that compromises of principle never
settle anything. Compromises are only
permissible where the principle is ad.
United, and diSagreements involve only
questions of method. Time aud again
the principle of human freedom was
settled" i'll our country by compro-
misses which never settled the question.
SO now. in this struggle of commercial
freedom against commercial slavery,
compromises that may be weakly made
are only temporary truces i'll struggle
which will continue until commercial
freedom triumphs or the latest effort to
establish republic goes down in an=
archy or despotism. u
The abstract question of human right
involved is reinforced as it has not
been since the war 10y economic condis
lions beyond the control of legislation.
The war came to violently disturb the
normal conditions then prevailing.
Trade. commerce, productions. prcesi
were then iii natural condition but
slightly Influenced by legislation. The
war gave US speeulation; replaced
thrift with unthrift; contentment with.
slow accretions of wealth, with pas
siou for sudden and great fortune; leg
islation was purpoSely directed to stimu-
late production and make the aceumu-S
lation of wealth easier for those ia
yored by it. As under the steady press-1
ure OF economic laws conditions tended
to a return to the normal, legislation
again and again interfered to prevent
the return. With each succeeding col
lapse of legislative effort to stay the
operation of natural laws there came
increase of appeal to legislation for re.
lief. -
Today the cry is as tumultuous as
ever. We see one political party de-
nouncing another because it is reduc-
ing the opportunities given one class by
law to make unearned profits out of the
Others. We see another party demand
ing that the government shall furnish
market for one product at twice the
price OF the market. On every hand
people are raising their hands in sup
pllcation to the government with the
same blind, unreasoning faith that the
simple HindOo appeals to his imaged
god.
The struggle to maintain protection
is vain. Economic conditions are ar
rayed against it. The false policy
which for twenty-five years advertised
to the sellers of labor of the world that
this country was using its taxing power
to give wage earnerS abnormal re-.
compense has been such an incentive
that over 12,000,000 of people, hav-
ing only their labor to sell, have
brought it from foreign countries to this
market, creating surplus which, I'M
der inexorabe law, must reduce wages.
Against this neither legislation nor
trade organizations can long prevail.
On the other hand, the effort to re.
strict international exchanges has re-
suited in a development of immense
areas in other countries devoted to
agriculture, under the impact of which
upon the markets prices steadily and
permanently fall. Against this no legis-
lature can prevail, and nothing is left
producers except to adapt themselves as
best they may to these changed con.
ditions. These are the hard facts of the
Situation. With wages diminishing, aud
with the prices of agricultural products
shrinking, there will inevitably come a,
demand for liberty to purchase with this
decreased income what men need or de-
sire where it can be bought the cheapesty
1t Is a necessity of conditions which
knows no law. Before it any party
which proposes to artificialiy enhances,
by legislation the price of the thingsr
labor needs will inevitably go down. Lag.
the falling prices protection reads its
doom. Senators may daily and COM
promise, business interests NAV plead
and threaten, representatives may make
weak surrender, but there will be no
peace until cheapened labor In the,
shops and on the farms shall have
secured the right to purchase what it,
will. whereit will and OF whom it wiki.
without let or hindrance. "Gentlemen1t
may cry peace. peace. but there is no
peace"
CHIEF OF p oLICE BRENNAN. of Chi i
cago. did wise and proper thing in
promptly dismissing from his force an
officer who, sent TO the railroad yards to
preserve the pease, busted himself in
attending to switch and facilitating
the movement of trains. A police officer
is supposed to be strictly impartial in
the discharge of his duties, and to show
no favors to either side in times OF pup
lie excitement and disorder. The man
hesitation of sympathy for the railroads
i'll this instance was quite as or eat Il !
breach of diSninlina and prnnriatu a.