The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1894-02-01
Moving Toward Free Trade.

Tho Wilson Bill has provided a
discussion, which, more than any of
its predecessors, has served to tear
off the glossy lacquer with which
protection frauds have been made
plausible. 1t has done more 1t has
brought to the front an unusual
number Of members who, with the
courage to face the impassioned de-
nunciation of being free traders"
have stood firmly on the rules of
right and justice, denying to Gov
eminent the function to
help one section, or class, or individ-
uals at the expense and to the detri-
ment Of another; especially denying
the privilege or right of the few to
despoil the many under the name of
protection.
In the long and dreary history of
the struggle for unshackeled exchange
and unhampered commerce the dis
custom Of. the Wilson Bill marks a
substantial progress in the avowed
recognition Of the constitutional in
hibition Of any tax except for
revenue, as well as the aggrandize-
ment Of one trade by "gratuities
forced from others.
The doom of protection is sealed.
The right to speak, write, travel,
worship and labor is not whit more
sacred than the right to exchange
commodities unhampered by partial
Legislation. No element Of property
is so essential to it's value as its ex-
changeability aud it becomes an in
cumbrancc, and oftcntimes it's value
is wholly destroyed. Protection is
monopoly because it tends to beget
scarcity and not abundance. High
prices are thu result of the one, low
prices Of the other.
The ghosts Of protection can no
longer go about speaking and glib
bering among the laboring men OF
protection; their false theories are
condemned and secuted by the intel
ligcnce and progress Of the age. The
theory Of ''home market" is a fall
lacy, an inpracticability, an absurd
ity in the actual economics of society,
If there be one act which society and
it's agent, the Government, SHOULD
foster in freedom it is trade. The
time has gone when governments
should undertake to fix the prices OF
goods or regulate the processes OF
manufacture. "Lct them alone, -
says Secretary Walker in his me
morab!c report, sis all that is rcquir-
ed of man. let all international ex-
changes of products move as freely
in their orbits as the heavenly bod
les in their spheres, and their order
and harmony will be as perfect and
their results as beneficial as in every
movement under the laws OF nature,
when undisturbed by the errors and
impcrfections of man."
The struggle has been long. 1t is
marked by tears and blood through
the centuries. But free trade is the
great law which should and will III
timately govern the industrial opera
tons of mankind. 1t is the law
which the Almighty has stamped up
on the very constitution of society,
which is but an aggregate Of the
creating, producing and industrious
animal called man. In the consti-
tuition OF the earth every country, soil
and climate were ordained to have its
peculiar mission TO perform in the
great industrial and civilizing opera
tons of the world John Stuart
Mill, in his book on Liberty" states
the primorial proposition:
"The cheapness and good quality
of commodities are most effectually
provided for by leaving the producers
and sellers perfectly free, under the
sole check of equal freedom to the
buyers for supplying themselves else
where
AS civilization has progressed we
have not seen the sphere of govern
ment enlarged; we have instead seen
it's sphere reduced. We have wit
messed the bonds of individual effort
extended and natural activities re-
ceive less and less attention of re-
straining government. The spirit of
our constitution, the aspirations of
our institutions, all fall in the line Of
the Estrict letter of the doctrine of
the non-interference of the state with
the business of the individual.
Free trade would bind the world,
not by isolating nations, but by the
civilizing amenities Of interchange.
1t would make the weakness of every
man and every nation the strength of
all by that law of interdependence
which is the philosophy Of humanity
and the glory of our faith:
s.Hesven formed each on o,her to depend,
Birds on each Other for assistance c.l'
Till one mans week.-mrs. grows the strength OF all.
Waits, fraities, passions, closer sill ally
The common interest OF endear the i'c'
Germany's Industries.
Germany is taking conspicuous