The Saint Paul globe., 1898-01-10

foreigners, and free traders render I'M
willing tribute to its beneficence. And
then it gurgles complacently over its
discovery.
We are not aware that any free
trader ever denied that the wage rate
is higher in this country than in any
other Of the old nations, just as it
is higher in the KIondike than in
Minnesota, in Montana than in Mas
sachusetts, and in New Hampshire
than in Alabama. And this in spite Of
the fact that domestic labor is unpro-
tected against the coming in of foreign
labor to compete with it in the do
mest1c market; employers having, as
Fig Iron Kelly boasted, free trade in
labor that pays it's own freight" The
important difference, which the unde-
Veloped intelligence Of our contempor-
ary renders it unable as yet to see, is
that the true standard of wages is not
the money paid per day or week, but
the value Of product produced per day
or week by labor. If callow editors
ana simple workmen fail to perceive
TINS, employers do not. They measure
the value of labor not by the money
paid In wages, but by the amount of
product turned out in the time for
which payment is made From the en-
ployer's point of view. and his Is the
practical one, our labor is the poorest
paid In any civilized country, for it
produces more in proportion to the
wage II receives than does labor in any
other similarly advanced country. No
matter what line of industry is sub
mltted to this test, the result is the
same. Even between Canada and the
United States, in the product of labor,
Commissioner Wright showed the
senate that Canadian lumbermen paid
$12S to labor for producing a thousand
feet of lumber, while American lum-
bermen paid but 81 cents.
Again in the matter Of buying at
home there is a distinction that is over
looked. 1t is a moral one, however, so
its neglect in this case is not surpris-
ing. The syllogism on which compul-
sorry home-buying is based runs about
in this fashion: 1t is the duty Of gov
ernment to provide for the general
good. 1t is for the common good that
men buy those things that are made
by their fellow citizens. Therefore
government should compel its citizens
to buy homemade articles. The syl-
logism Of the free trader is about like
this: Your prosperous neighbor must
share his prosperity with others 1t
is for your own interest that YOUR
neighbor is prosperous. Therefore you
should buy what you need Of your
ne1ghbor who makes it. The distinc-
ton is obvious, except, Of course, to
the uninformed or myopic protection
ist. 1t lies in the immense difference
between you must" and you shouId;'
between involuntary and voluntary ac-
ton; between physical compulsion and
appeal to the moral nature Of men.
1t is distinction that has been fire.
quently overlooked "as the history of
this pale earth runs" There was a
time, not so far rearwards. when. as
the salvation of souls was the most
important object Of existence, and as
that could only be obtained through
the church. government assumed the
function of compelling every person not
only to membership in, but to contrib
utlon through taxation to the support
OF the church. Granting the premise of
our modern protection, it must be ad
mitted that such exercise of govern
mental power was strictly logical But
experiment, running through several
hundred years, accompanied with hor-
ror and cruelties that shock later dav
readers, demonstrated the futility of
the effort, and every state constitution
now guarantees free religion to every
citizen. Men Should" be religious not
must be, is the modern position of
nations. Again, more recently we have
had large number of good-meaning
folk trying to apply the premise of pro-
lection to their purpose and deduce
the consequent that 1t is the duty of
government to prevent men from get
ting or using intoxieants. If universal
sobriety is good and governments are
instituted to produce common good
we fail to discover why the logic Of
protection is fnapplicable to prohibi
ton. If government can rightly saw
men must" buy of their neighbors.
because it is for the common good It
can equally say men must" be sober
for the same common good. But most
protectionists refuse; to follow their
logic in this and other directions. but
insist, with free traders, that the dis
tinction between you must" and "you
should'' in such cases is vital one
that must be observed if men are TO
remain free. Some day, as intelligence
dawns upon them. they will come
where the light is strong enough for
them to see how universal is the dis
7 ytinction and how essential it's observ-
ance is to human liberty.
CUBA AND EVOLUTION.
To the Editor Of the Globe
n fha foil