The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-27

honor of their state De maintained
Neither will the people forget or for
give it. They want only the truth and
the right. Let those upon whom the
responsibility rests see that the truth
is told and that light breaks upon the
dark places of the prison system.
AN UNCONSCIOUS FREE TRADER.
We are assured that our Democratic
fellow citizens found fully as much de-
light in our narration of how a staunch
protectionist squirms when he is pinch
ed by protective tariff as we did. We
should, perhaps, put on a sympathetic
cally solemn face when Mr.. George w.
Smalley related his tale Of woe and
told how he and his fellow Americans
had to go down into their wallets and
pay blackmail,' as he forcibly termed
it, for the privilege of bringing home
with them from Europe such apparel
as had struck their fancy and their
innate love of bargains. It looks heart
less to be laughing at a fellow crea-
lures misery, but to save ourselves
from suspicion of cruelty to animals
we could not help it. If George had
been a good, loyal free trader, now, we
would have let our blood boil to an equal
degree Fahrenheit with his own; but he
has been such a devoted protectionist
ever since he sat at the feet of Horace
Greeley that we could not resist the
impulse to hilarity when he had to
take dose of the medicine he has
been prescribing so long for others.
But we did not exhaust all there is
that is mirthful or instructive in the
jeremiad of George. He is, we are
glad to find, no exception to the uni
versal rule that every protectionist is
one only when the question is a mere
abstraction, like a belief in the nebular
hypothesis, or when he is simply bliss
fully ignorant of the contributions that
are eXacted from him. but when he is
confronted with the bill and has to
open his wallet and take out the money
and pay it, he becomes as stiff a free
trader as the most ultra of that school
Of Hberty-loving persons. Il know up
right and honorable men," says the
Wrathful George W., "some of them
Republicans and protectionists, who
said that in presence of such a law as
this, smuggling became moral duty
1t would bother even one of these pro-
tectionists to tell where the line lay
n 1C lyn
Of clothes a moral and of sugar, say
an immoral act. There was much
freedom of speech in the comments on
these eccentricities of our wise law
makers at Washington" he continues.
"As yet they have left us freedom of
speech, while abridging freedom of act,
freedom of choice, freedom to do bust
ness in his own way and where he will
and with whom he will, which the true
and good American prizes not less
Bless us; these words have a familiar
sound. The G l o b has been saying
something like that for years, but it
did not limit the freedom to the buy
ing of clothes. If freedom to buy where
and of whom one will is right as dear
as is the freedom of speech then the
| freedom of buying in like manner
| whatever else he wants or needs is
! equally sacred.
But to return to our irate TORY
Squire" He thinks that 'it is not
enough for the United States govern
ment to have made itself the tool of
the tailOrs and furriers and dressmak-
ers, but it must allow these trades
men Ito set spies upon the customs of
ficers to make sure that they exact
to the uttermost farthing from the
! possessor of any garments not made by
these same tradesmen." This, he de-
clares, is deliberate and impudent at
| tempt to prevent Americans from buy
ing where clothes are good and cheap
and to compel them to buy where they
are dear and less good" Queer talk
that for a protectionist, isn't it? But
| he surprises us, who had come to think
that, with free WOOL we had cheap
| clothing, when he says that inquiry
full legal duty to be exacted
it is still far cheaper to buy abroad
and pay the duty than to buy here of
! the New York tailors, furriers, dress
| makers and the rest of that interest
! ing combination. 1 estimate the av-
erage saving by purchasing abroad at
| 80 per cent" But whether it be more
! or less, he serves notice on President
Mckinley, Mr.. Dingley and the whole
aggregation that ''the American, sub
missive as he is to the small tyrannies
which beSet him, will not permanently
| endure to be told that he shall not
deal where he likes" Bravo, George.
! Now you are talking like an American,
| only don't restrict yourself to your
| clothes and furs. Strike at the same
! tyranny that will not let you deal
| where you like.
FOR ELECTION PURPOSES ONLY.
The Republican newspapers are full
| once more of the war scare. In faring