Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-05-24
A Voice From the Grave.

l "a vO1Cc xxUm GuC 01dtC.
Within the memory of millions O
people now living in the United States
the great struggle for the destruction
of the institution of human chattel
slavery was begun and carried to q
| successful conclusion. On the muster.
rolls of the army that enlisted in the
cause of Freedom, more than half a
| century ago, we find the names of Will
liam Lloyd Garrison, Gerritt Smith,
Henry Ward Beecher and scores ot
as illustrious.
Believing in the principles of human
freedom with all their minds, and
hearts, and souls. and strength, they
did not hesitate, when the shackles
were stricken from the limbs of 81
900, 900 of black slaves, to declare for
Industrial and com mercial freedom.
These men were the sworn enemies
OF the protective tariff theory, and ad-
vocated the widest and fullest COM
mercial freedom. Among the notable
and noble utterances of that great
man, William Lloyd Garrison, upon
this subject was his exposure of the
hypocrisy and futility of tariff taxa
ton as means of aiding or protect
ing the laboring classes. Discussing
this subject, he said:
The protection of American labor
has taking sound: but it really means
the restriction and taxation of that
labor. Protection against whatP Have
we not the best educated and most in
telligent population on earth? And
does not this imply industry, thrift,
skill, enterprise, invention. capital
beyond any other forty million of peo-
pie? Have we not muscles as we'll as
brains? Have we not country un-
rivalled in the variety and abundance
|of its natural productions. and the
abounding riches of its mineral re-
sources? What more need we to claim,
or ought we to have? If in an open
field we cannot successfully compete
with the cheap and pauperlzed labor
of Europe in all that is necessary to
our comfort. or even to our luxury,
then let US go to the walls. Was the
slave labor of the south at all a match
for the free labor of the North? In
which section of the Union was indus
try best protected Or wealth most aug
mented? Is it not ludicrous to read
what piteous calls are made for the
protection of the strong against the
weak, of the intelligent against the
ignorant, of the well-fed against the
half-starving, of our free Republican
nation against the effete governments
of the Old World, in all that relates to
the welfare of the people? With all
that God has done for US in giving to
US such a goodly heritage, cannot we
contrive to live and flourish without
erecting barriers against the freest in
tercourse with all nations? Must we
guard our ports against the free i'm
portation of hemp, iron, broadcloth,
silk, coal, ETC., as though it were a
question of quarantine for the small
pox or the Asiatic cholera? Refusing
to do so, will the natural conseq uence
be vacant factories, furnaces standing
idle. the shops of manufacturing in
dustry closed, labor begging and
starving for the want of employment,
and all the other fearful results that
are so confidently predicted by the ad-
vocates of the protective policy, false
ly so called? Similar predictions were
made by the defenders of Southern
slavery in regard to the abolition OF
that nefarious system, and in order to
subject to popular odium those who
demanded the immediate and uncon-
ditional emancipation of the oppress-
ed. Freedom, as well as wisdom, is
justified of her children: and in proper
ton as she bears sway will it go well
with government and people"
This is as the voice of one speaking
from the grave, and in what marked
contrast is it with the l,abble of the
McKinleys, the Reeds and the lesser
advocates of commercial RESTRICT on
and high taxation,-Hernaann Ledger.
Deserving Praise