St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-19

itScuOiu. ETco SOil, Tree speech, Tree
men and Fremont" was the inspiring
slogan which rallied thousands to its
banner. No party in the history of
parties in our country made so direct
and single an appeal to the conscience
of men as did the Republican party dur
ing the first years of its life. Unselfish,
patriotic, appealing to the highest and
best sentiments of men, pleading for
freedom, it was inevitable. unless the
nation was blind and deaf to such APP
peals, unless its conscience was dormant.
that the response should have been
what it was.
Thirty-seven years have passed over
that party, and for over twenty-five of
them 1t dominated the government,
whose control it had won by asking
men to be unselfish and just 1t is ask
ing now to be restored to the direction
OF the nation; to be again entrusted
with power. What reason does it give
in it's old age for its request? TO what
motives in men does it appeal? What
new measure of freedom for men has it
devised out OF the experience OF its age
and its conduct of the government. and
which it offers to bestow if given the
opportunity?
What contrast! Then it appealed to
unselhshness. now 1t appeals to selfish
ness: then it addressed the consciences
then it laid on men the injunction, ''do
right because it is right" now it prom
iseS 10 put money in their purses; then
it appealed to the highest. now to the
lowest motives of men; then it was the
Christ preaching on the mount, now it
is the tempter offering the Kingdoms of
the earth to those who will worship him.
1t turns to the manufacturer and says:
Support me and | will restrict COM
petition which would cheaper your
wares, and thus give you the privilege
of increasing the price of yours 1t
turns to the farmer and says: l will
build up home market that in time
will consume all your products, savin e
you the cost of transport TO foreign
markets; | will hamper imports of com :
peting produce so that you may get
wage earnerS and demands their votes
because it advocates policy which will
give them higher wages for their labor.
Then, with versatile duplicity, it adj
dresses the consumers, to whom it can
offer no direct bride, and says: AL
though l have promised all these others,
these producers of what you must have
to sustain life, to make the price of their
products higher. assure you that the
result will be lower prices for every
thing you need.
From conscience to greed, self-sacri-
flee to self-loye, could reversal of ap-
peal be greater? In another direction
is this retr0gade metamorphosis as
marked. The party of human freedom
has become the party of induSt rial
slavery. The party which in its youth
denied the right of any government to
give to any man the power to appropri
ate to his own use the labor of another
man, now advocates precisely the same
principle. When it lays a tax on i'm
ports of those things which go to the
comfort or sastenance of the life of men
for the express purpose of permitting
the domestic makers of those things to
get higher price for them than they
could under terms of free competition,
what does it do? 1t compels every buyer
of them to give to the maker OF them,
without recompense. portion of his
earnings. 1t says to him: You must go
back to your toll and earn something
more than you would otherwise need
and give it to this man, whom we favor.
To the extent that this party compels
men to do this, to that extent it eu-
slaves them In slavery more cruel
than was African slavery, for that, at
least, fed and clothed its victims. This
later and refined form of slavery takes
the labor and leaves the laborer to feed
and clothe himself. 1t is indeed mar
VeIouS transformation,