The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-04-10
FREE TRADER VOORHEES,.
Facts i'm Reply to Unwarranted State
ments i'm His Late Speech.

To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal:
That Senator Voorhees, is now a self-con-
fessed free trader cannot be mistaken.
The bill now under consideration .
constitutes a long stride. though not a final
one, towards the approaching day of full
and perfect de~liverance." Such is the lam
guage of Senator Voorhees, in concluding
a paragraph on the protective system or
tariff taxation. BY this declaration Senator
voorhees, classes himself with a very small
minority of the people of Indiana, who be-
lieve that it is better to give away the OPP
p%ortunity of employment than 1t is to sell
the competitive advantage that our country
affords, the price of which sale shall go
TO the support of the national government.
The advocates of free trade are more cas-
lily classified in the United States at the
present time, perhaps, than ever before in
the history of the country. The eleven
Southern States whose representatives in
the Senate are co-workers and co-labOrers
with Senator Voorhees, in industry wreck
ing represent only 3H.6i0 employees in fac
tories out of a total of All, S2, a little over
Z per cent. while the combined vote of
these eleven Southern States on this ques-
ton of labor represents. including the two
Senators of Indiana, one-half of the major
iy by which the infamy of the Wilson bill
is to be enacted into law.
A further effect of this free-trade move
ment which Senator Voorhees, boasts OF
leading in the United States Senate may
be better understood from.a consideration
of the following facts. The eleven Southern
states, who only employ per cent. of the
four and a half millions of labor. and who
pay their employees less than one-third the
average wage paid in the State of New
York. may in some degree explain to the
people of Indiana why Senator Voorhees, is
acting so Zealously with the free traders of
the South who for n h.1n6raH a - hnxra
commended for either slave labor, degraded
labor or cheap labor to the exclusion Of all
others.
United States in 1890 TO the four and a half
millions of employees was $4Si per head.
while the average wage rate TO the $4,000
wage earners of the eleven Southern States
was only 1852. being SIP less per mar than
the general average of wages for the whole
United States. These figures are taken from
a late report published over the signature
of Carroll d. Wright "a Democracy, Com
missioner of Labor for the United States.
The right to employment is ~God-given.
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread" is an Injunction older than any stat
chairman Of the finance committee Of the
United States Senate would ignore in the
writing OF a new statute which shall deny
to the laboring people of Indiana that God
given opportunity.
If we are to purchase abroad, the coming
year. many millions worth of manufac-
tured goods in excess OF that purchased in
former years. very many of the L. 354 fac
tories located in the State of Indiana (the
greater portion of which now stand idle)
must abandon their avocation and cease
to become employers of labor to become
the purchasers of the competitive products
of the labor of Europe, thereby denying
to nearly 10000 of the citizens of the State
the possibility of employment.
Well may crime be defined TO be "the de-
privinG of one of the use of his goods or
property But far greater must be the
crime by which the citizen is deprived of
the opportunity of providing for his own
maintenance and support, whether ii be
by statute or by the wrongful acts of any
number of individuals. If Senator Voor-
hees, by his voice and vote. assists i'm the
taking away from the citizens of his State
the opportunity OF honorable employment
he must stand charged with having partici-
pated in the committing of a greater crime
than slavery. namely. that OF pauperizinG
the fellow-citi2ens of his own common
wealth. THOS. u. MKEE
Washington. d. c.. April o.