The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-02
AN ENDANGERED PEOPLE

Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota tor
risd long enough in Chicago while on his
way to Washington to DO interviewed.
In the course OF his statesmanlike out
civiues the senator developed his ignJr-
ance of what constitutes trade. The free
traders of the country have been claiming
him as q Republican convert from the
hsresy Of protection, but it is evident
from his recent remarks that whatever
opposition be has manifested to the pro-
tsctive tariff has been on account of
certain features of the latter, rather than
because of the principle involved.
The senator assumes that the coming
congress will make an effort Ito SO ar
range the tariff laws as to stop the tre-
mondous impvrtations and give our own
industries a chance" AS an exponent
of the com mercial policy consistently
practiced by the Chinese empire for sew
eral centuries the senator is exceedingly
promising. Like all of his enlight-
ened school of political economy, he
holds fast to the belief that it is the bus
mess of government TO prevent the peo-
pie getting things too easily; that an
abundance of food, raiment and of goods
generally Is dulCblOu
from which the federal government
should at all hazards protect the popu-
lace. To the class he stands for the theory
that results, not labor, form the obj ect of
mems toll and that people are wealthy
in the degree that they possess plenty
of the things that satisfy their wants and
cater to their tastes Is fraught with DIS
sster to the human race.
The principal trouble with Senator
Nelson and his fellow advocates of the
doctrine of ceaseless work and remote
methods OF attaining results is that they
lack continuity of reasoning, they stop
too soon; they fail to pursue to the utter
most limit the line of thought adopted by
them.
In addition to enacting laws to keep
foreign goods out of the country so that
the prices of domestic goods may be ad
vanced with the consequence that the
people who need che things will have to
toll harder to get them, the tariffites
should also compel men to engags in
those occupations for which they are
least fitted, so that they would hsve
more difficulty in accom- plIshing results.
thus afford ing them lots of work. The
invention OF labor-saving machinery
should be made a felony, punishable
either py death or the destruction of the
inventive faculties OF the wretch who
hampers with the destinies of the people
by endeavoring to increase the produce
tivensss of human labor. The construc-
tion of new railroads should bs forbid
den and those now in existence should
be destroyed and the debris used to litter
the highways so that exchange would oe
impeded and 1t would take a long time
and an abundance of work to convey
goods from place to place, for 1t appears
that it is Work and not goods that people
want. The dredging and construction of
deep-sea harbors for the purpose of max
ing 1T easy and safe for ocean vessels to
reach our shores. should be positively
prohibited, and the citizens of California
should instruct their congressional repre-
ssntatives to oppose to the last extremity
any attempt of the fede raj government
to improve San Pedro harbor SO that the
big ships from over the seas may enter.
We don't want the big ships to come in.
They are loaded with goods no, We
do not mean that, we mean they sre
loaded with "bads' and should he kept
out even though the harbo- entrance has
TO be lined with torpedocs and guarded
by severa score OF local Bill McKi
each armed with a copy of the American
Economist and An ample supply of the
tracts of the Restricted Market club of
Boston. And whenever leisure threatens
to get in Its deadly work OF enervating
the people they should be rs-
quired by the paternal government at
Washington to alternately destroy and
rebuild various costly and elaborate pub
lie and private structures so that there
shall be work in supcrdbundance, for it
10 work, ana not the results OF work, that
the people ara fairly hungering for. Does
not the good took declare that IMAM
shall earn his bread IN the sweat of his
brow, and does not this decla "a ton
mean that man shall toll ceaselessly and
arduousy, whether it he necessary or
not? Although these pleasing and hope
inspiring words were supposed for a long
time to have been uttered as a curse, the
apostles of the creed of scarcity DEAFNESS
and commercial isolation have discovered
that beyond cayil they were intended as
4 blessing.
The stopping of the tremendous impor.
tations which tho eaglistic eye OF Mime.
sofas senator discerns deluging the
country will OF course give the whole
population OF the United States wide
open chance to secure the much desired
toll which has been taken from them by
the relentless foreigner. As it Is the
mighty argosies OF Europe and Asia,
loaded to the bulwarks with the products
OF the pauper labor OF the old world
crowd our seaports, and millions of tons
OF eatables, dripkables and wearables are
being forced on the American people at
the point iof the bayonet and at the