The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-03-28

it has been most devoted was that or
| the protective tariff. This policy has
always been defended, not merely as
afording living prices for American
products in the domestic market, but
above and beyond all az securing pre-
lection to American labor and Ameri
can manhood, and adding to the dig
nifty and independence Of the Ameri-
can artisan and farmer.
I'VE sought to keep out OF our mar
ket the cheap products OF foreign labor,
which was so poorly paid, lest u W
labor should in time, by being com
PEELED to compete with such labor be
degraded to it's level. We have by
this means built up q manufacturing
interest greater than that of any other
nation on earth. We passed to the first
rank in this respect during the year
just passed, during which Great
Britain, our only rival, was pushed to
the second place.
1--WE are now confronted by these
industries, which we have so pains
takingly and at such sacrifices fostered
and built up-with an implied under
standing at least that they would, by
competition among themselves, furnish
che consumer with goods at the lowest
possible price COMMENSURATE with good
wages, gathered into the hands OF a
few corporations and trusts, who,
while still demanding protection from
the Government, use their awful power
to kill all domestic competition, and to
bring about the very condition In re
specs to labor which the tariff system
was designed forever to prevent. Shall
we permit these industries, tostered by
national sacrifices and national wis
dom, to be absorbed by a few heartless
exploiters and to be used as a weapon
for crushing American manhood into
a slavery more appalling, because more
helpless, than that Of the black slaves
whom Abraham Lincoln emancipted3'
He continues:
&c antlemen, shall we be satisfied
With the statement Of economists and
courts that there is no remedy for this
state of things9 Must we sit supinely
idle while before our very eyes a great
people, slowly but surely, descend to
che grade of slaves9 Is it possible that
human ingenuity, that human pity.
affords no means to stop this down
ward movement Of the race on this
continents
Shall a nation which accomplished
these things 0reeing OF the ~slaves), in
spite of constitutions and courts, basely
confess its helplessness to preserve the
freedom, the manhood of the country,
because the sophistry Of the James
Buchanans and the Judge Taneys of
our W day shakes in it's face the rag
ged remnants of Law that Abraham
Lincoln deied and spit upon.
There must be remedies. The law
was made for the people, not the PEG
pie for the law. We have done greater
things, holder things, before. o her
peoples have accomplished reforms
which seemed qIite as d.ticult to the
lawyers and the courts. .
IF technical construction Of the
Cons titution stands in our way, the
Constitution can be amended; or, a
more summary method may be adop'ed
by electing and appointing judges who
will construe these instruments accord
ing to the eternal law of justice and
humanity"
On the question of remedies, GOV
ernor Pingree says:
1T is evident that state legislatures
have but little power to reach the
sources Of this disease. If one State
we're to deal heroically with the sub
ject, it's industries might be driven to
other States which neglected this
work, but it would seem that the
power Of a State might require all its
citizens to be treated alike and com
pei foreign corporations to furnish nee
e~ssities at the same price to all it's in
habitants, except as to difference in
cost Of transportation and in amount
purchased. This would prohibit the
Standard Oh and biscuit trusts from
putting up the price in n locality to
crush out competition in another, as is
now done whenever any one dares com
pete with these combines.
IF the remdy must be applied at
Washington and must cover all States
alike, this does not relieve US of all re-
sponsibility in the matter.
This may not be the place or time
for the discussion Of remedies in detail.
1t may be suggested, however, that a
practical step might be taken in the
desired direction if q national law were