St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-29
SHIFTING THEIR GROUND.

SHIFTING THEIR GROUND.
Time and again the dexterity of
the fencing of our Republican OPP
ponents has excited admiration for
its skill, if it has raised disgust at
it's palpable insincerity. No corner
into which they nave been driven by
reason, facts or logic was too tight
to hold them. When you thought
you had them nailed down and
chained up beyond the possibility of
movement, presto, and there they
were out in the open, as saucy and
audacious as ever. It is a continual
hunt for what Holmes calls that
medieval gentleman in semi-lunar
smalls," who is never there when you
put your finger on him. In private
life one soon learns better than to
waste thought or time in contests
with so shifty an antagonist; but in
public there is the great audience
watching the contest and making up
llo Illlllu oSllOSl 6lCly cS W SlIS 1llSl
of the case; caring little for the con-
testants, but very much for the truth
of the matter. So it makes it incum-
bent on the journalist to follow his
elusive opponent from one field to
the others on which he reappears,
and snlite him there hip and thigh.
For many years England has been
the stock economic bugaboo of the
Republican press and stumpers. It
has been set up and knocked down,
tricked out in hideous and fearsome
array and shaken before affrighted
audiences with an effect that has
been gradually wearing off, until the
expressions Of alarm have for the
most part given way to the indulg-
ent smile that implies knowledge
Of the hollowness of the ogre. En-
glish free trade, English pauper la
Dor, English gold, the Golden club,
the flood of cheap English goods,
the cunning Englishmen, seeking to
break down our trade barriers and
deluge us with cheap products, and
then, when they had silenced the
guns of our poor manufacturers, run
up prices with a rush, all this is ev-
identity regarded now by the oppo-
sition as being played out. The spec
tacle Of our manufacturers sending
their wares into England, our iron
ore and iron, our steel rails and
woolenS, our boots and shoes and
leather, makes the lachrynlose warn
ing Of ruin appear so ridiculous that
even a Republican editor perceives
it's absurdity and beats a retreat.
But if one bugaboo becomes unserv-
iceable, another must be found or
acknowledgment made that the Zig
is up" with the party of bugaboos.
So the world is secured for one and
it is found in Japan.
Some one writes to that organ of
the protectionists, comically named
the American Economist for no 9TH
er perceptible reason than that it is
not economic, portraying in vivid col
ors the danger to our industries that
turks in the new nation which has so
suddenly and dramatically taken it's
place among the powers. We have
again the appalling narrative of low
wages coupled with remarkable in
genuity and productiveness which,
in the domain Of cottons, has already
made the cotton makers of even old
England quake in their boots. Due
stress is laid on the DEVELOPMENT
in the mechanical industries, and
ample warning is given that here is
a people capable of producing the
things civilized Americans need so
cheaply that unless the barriers are
put up higher than ever the good
people of this country will be sup
piled with them at prices unheard
of, to the utter discontinue of the
gentlemen who have been supplying
them at figures which admitted of
their enjoying ali the comforts of
life in a satisfactory and liberal man
ner. Content heretofore to send us
their quaint bric-a-brac, these Yank-
ees of the far Orient are now am
bilious to send us cotuons and silks,
ironclads and bicycles and other
| things indispensable in any well sup
piled American home.
Thus, as the silver lining of their
cloud fades into pervading gloom on
| the eastern horizon, the western
edge brightens and CLOVIS. The old
bugaboo takes ON new habiliments.
1t no longer bangles before the pub
| lie eye as the fat, purse-proud, grasp
ing, cunning and scheming John Bull,
| but is now the olive-colored, almond
| eyed, sleek, Suave, Skirted Jap, deX-
| trous of hand and nimble of wit, imi-
| tative as his simian ancestry, appro-
| priating our implements of industry
and manning them with labor indif-
ferent to its dignity. happy without
| pianos in its homes or chromos on
their walls. Send John Bull and all
| those paraphernalia to the garret