The Irish standard., 1896-02-15
WHAT FOOLS WE ARE.

An excellent communication from
Judge Willis, of st. Paul, relating to high
protection as a means OF saving Ireland
| will be found in another column.
| Is there. any use OF n1incing matters
about high protection Does not every
| thinking man know it is akin to highway
! robbery? And yet Mckinley as the adj
| vocate of high protection, asks for the
suffrages Of the American people so that
he may be placed in power to further rob
the nation. In this way the American
people like to be hunabugged, humbugged
in the way even that BaMum humbugged
them and told them he was doing it,
A large percentage of the people Of this
country believe that if theytcan make the
goods coming from foreign country cost
them more than they otherwise would
they would be not only happy but rich
and prosperous. The high protection
idea is a plausible ore. 1t says to the
consumer Buy goods dear in this country,
for the purpose of building up home in
dustries. Keep out foreign goods as much
as you can. What matters 1t If Il costs
you more to live when you are building
|.up the country?
Building up the country for whom?
Not for yourself. You are in1poverishlng
yourself in order that a few manutactur-
ers can grow rich. The millions of peo
pie in this country have been fostering
these Industries for almost a century.
They were infants one time. They are
infants still. The bigger they grow the
more they clalnor for support. There is
no end to their begging for aims. They
have an outstretched palm for every sit
ting of the national legislature Their
advocates crowd the Hobbies. In one con-
certed pitch they all cry, TAX lis more:
that We may become rich" These men
tell us that the foreigner pays the tax
and We believe it, but at the same time
we know it is costing us more for our
living. Put up the burdens upon us for
we know it IS only by their weight that
we can have happiness.
That large number of the people in
this country should believe that the more
they are taxed the richer they become is
curious circumstance in this age Of the
world The argument is, il you tax the
foreigner you keep out his goods, and
thus you afford yourselves an opportunity
of making goods for yourselves. >Ad-
nitted. But who reaps the benefits? VIII
a man deny himself the comforts, the
necessaries of life, in order that few
manufacturers shall become supremely
wealthy? And as these manufacturers
become rich through their malicious sell
fishness, the government is not made
richer by one cent. And yet the high
protectionists shout from the hcusetops,
that the only way to live in comfort is to
give all You have to- the struggling manu-
facturer. He is a patriot. He lives only
that the laboring man snail have home.
For himself he cares nothing. When he
is satisfied that the workingman has high
wages and all the comforts Of life he will
go to the grave happy, g. philanthropic
man. All of us know he is constructed
on that style of architecture.
If the great mass of the people only
stopped to think how they are robbed by
tariff and by financial legislation they
would be appalled, at the ignorance they
had dwelt IN and would take by the
throat the money kings and tariff robbers
and choke out their worthless lives in a
manner they deserve. But it seems they
know it not The education of a nation
is a process that is slow. The people who
toll wonder often that fortune comes to
them with leaden feet, at the same time
adm.r;ng the ease with which some men
acquire millions without even bending
their backs to labor. What a magnificent
hlimbug the whole thing is. Millions of
us believe we are awake, when we are
actually asleep.