The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-27
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.

one OF our city churches on the injunc-
ton to work out your own salvation -
one Of those latter-day sermons that
deal with life and morals and duty
more than with dogma and creed and
the dialectics Of theology, and are as
refreshing as cups Of water to parched
lips. The teacher-the old theologians
were the 'preachers'-toId Of the va
rious sorts Of people who are always
trying to get something for nothing.
including in his enumeration those
good people who make a profession
or religion, but expect to get their
souls salvation for nothing. He kept
his topic clear of politics, as was be-
hitting his cloth, but it is equally true
in that field where, in it's present t11r-
mol, there is evinced in both parties
In their policies, a catering to desire
to get something for nothing. The
extension of the sermon to politics is
the province Of the secular press.
When man gets more for the prod
Nv
ing to sell their similar products for.
he Is getting something Of the man
he sells to for nothing. Whatever he
gets over the price others will sell
for is that something. In the ordinary
the normal conditions of trade. where
every man is free to get as much as
for what he sells or buys, the two con-
fiicting impulses may be safely left
to correct each other by their play
upon each other. Men will still get
something for nothing through the ig-
norance of others, but that is the school
in which such men have to learn. and
the educational process is a good and
a helpful one. It teaches prudence.
caution and compels observation and
study. But the case becomes an en-
tirely different one when that aggre-
gated power Of all which we call gov
eminent. is enlisted to permit some
producers to get more for their products
than open competition would permit
for then that great power is misused
TO let some get something for moth
ing. Protection means the giving to
some, through operation of law. OF
something for nothing.
Again, and on the other hand. if
one man, owing another, pays him
that debt in something that is not of
the value expressed by the debt, he
is getting something for nothing. If
ne Is to pay the debt in labor and
shlrks work In paying it, he gets some
thing for nothing. If he owe wheat Of
a, certain grade and pays it In that of
a lower, he gets something OF his cred
itor FOR nothing If the money in
which he pays his debt is worth less
than that in which the debt was con-
tracted, he again gets something for
nothing. There is no difference be-
tween labor and wheat and money
Under normal conditions the defeat of
the desire to thus cheat may be safely
left to the watchfulness of those to
whom debt is due. The desire of the
one to give less is checkmated by the
desire of the other to get all, at least
that is due him. But, again, the case
becomes a very different one when it
is proposed that this aggregate of pow
er called government shall be used to
compel the man who is to receive
payment to take less than is due him.
thus giving to the man who owes some
thing for nothing. On one side Of the
shield which Mr. Bryan carries is
written precisely such promise Free
coinage of silver at half the market
ratio means the use of power to oblige
some to give others something for
nothing.
This is the moral, or, rather, the i'm
moral side of protection and free coin
age. The practical side is the failure
of each. The immutable law of com
pensation holds it's own and refuses
to be made the plaything of puny men.
Action and reaction always equal each
other. Nature never gives something
for nothing. She exacts equivalents
always. And nature in man obeys the
same law of impulse. you cannot do
wrong without suffering wrong" says
Emerson. In nature nothing can be
given; all things are Sold Both of
these political parties have sinned and