The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1904-08-20

are a lot OF old fashioned, out OF date peo.
pie, principally Democrats. who say that
the watchword of Industrial progress among
communities Is not ISOLATION and independ-
ence, but reciprocity and interdependence OF
productivity that isolation leads to feel
ings of estrangement and enmity among peo'
pie that Industrial interdependence consti.
tutes a sort of world effective bond to keep
the peace. need not stop to tell you
that such men are mere theorists" One
Of them might be granted plenary power Tor
a thousand years and at the end or that
period would not have given any change OF
occupation to such capitalists and working
men of Maine as are. or might be, made
to be, DESTROYS of raising sun-ktssed plants.
The base Cobdenite would leave the work
lngmen in Maine and Vermont "unprotect'
ed" TO devote their labor ~selhshly to other
things, merely because the cultivation or
manufacture of these other things Is nat
urally more profitable!
How In the world 1t has happened
Though | confess 1t did happen) that dur
ing colonial times, when there were no Gus
tom houses between the several colonies
and when all the products OF Great Britain
had freq access to our markets, our la
borers yet worked at wages very much
higher than those which then prevailed in
Great Britain, | can not understand. How
II has happened, since we became a Fed
eral nation, that the comparatively pauper
negro labor of Central mississippi has not
been able to run the high priced Waite labor
of Central New York out OF the farming
business, | can not understand. Nor can
| understand how 1t Is that wages In Call
fornia should have been for years two or
three times what they were In Maryland,
although the products OF the comparatively
pauper labor of Maryland had free access
to California, aud although that compare
lively pauper labor Itself was secured by
the constitution In the privilege OF mlgra-
tIon TO and sojourn In California. Stranger
vet. the pauper labor of all Europe was
daily focking both to Maryland and Call
fornia. | do not understand doubt even
if Uncle Joe Cannon himself can fully un-
derstand-these foolish facts. Some people
have been silly enough to say that the
white man in Central New York need not
fear the competition of the black nan In
Central Mississippi: nor any diminution OF
his wage because of that competition. They
say, forsooth. that the white man in New
York us a more efficient laborer-qulcker.
steadied and more diligent-than the black
man in Mississippi that he does more work
In q day. turns out more product In an
hour, works more days in a week, Is idle
fewer weeks in the year, has more self
control, foresight and frugality, and, being
himself, for these reasons. more prosperous,
makes the community in which he lives
more so. These same people are absurd to
add that the highest priced labor Is, as q
rule, the cheapest labor and the lowest
priced labor is, as a rule. the dearest, and
that, somehow, 1t has happened in the his
tory of the world that the home of low
priced labor has never been the home or
highly developed agriculture or prosperous
industriallsm. and that the most prosperous
and profitable industrial communities have
always paid the highest daily wages. They
even go so far as to say-perhapS you, ike
me. have, with establishment, heard them
say-that the very reason why certain labor
Is high priced Is because 1t Is efficient. and
therefore q better Investment for capital,
when productivity is considered. than the
lower priced labor with whose products 1t
comes in competition. OF course. you and l
know better than that-we have learned bet
ter from our Republican friends. We know
that the reason why labor was more high
ly paid even in colonial times In America.
than the same labor. for the same work
was paid in Great Britain must have been
the existence Of some sort OF protective
legislation, keeping out Of America the pau
per labor, and the products, q She pauper
labor of England, Scotland. Wales and Ire
land. 1t Is true that we have not thus
far found the law upon the statute books,
and we are told, by Ignorant historians.
that there was none, but, whether that
sort of legislation has yet been found or
not, it must have existed, because superior
wages and the prosperity of the working
man must be had. and can only be had. by
force of n policy of legislative protection
ism. The lost statute will be found after
a vhile-neyer fear. sir-because the theory
cannot be sustained in any other way, and
the theory, as our Republican friends tell
us, Is "our fixed national policy ; hence to
Doubt 1t would be disloyalty.
A wise man entertains a sovereign con
tempt for a great many sorts or errors. but
the sovereingnest of all should be visited
on the designing idiot, who says that the
price of labor depends upon the amount
Of work to be done in a country AID the
number of men capable and DESTROYS or DO
ing it in q word, on demand Tor ana sup
ply of labor. That particular sort of pecu-
iiarIy inspired idiot attempt to explain that
| the high wages which were paid in Califor-
mia and all the new States for those enl-
ployed on farm. In store, mine or forest, in
comparison with the wsgeS paid In older
States, which were without free lands and
with comparative abundance of laborers, Is
| TO be accounted for by this same scarcity
of workingmen and the abundance OF new
work In the new States. The same feather
less biped. we cannot be too severe On him,
sir. carries his explanation further aud tells
| you that the superiority of our wage rate
In colonial times and Away since then,
| over that existing In Great Britain and on
the continent, was due to this same fact.
viz paucity of workingmen and abundance
of work. How lacking In the subtlety of in
tellect! Instead of seeking out in remote
metaphysical places reasons satisfactory to
a curious mind, he contents himself. like
a brother so the OK" with facts that hap
pen to obtrude themselves right In front
of his nose. These be, sir, mere dema gogic
appeals TO the basest set In the land-the
| farmers" as our fellow citizen In the white
house Is reported to have called them. What
is the brother to the OK" fit for. anyhow,
save to be taxed for the creation" of nat
urally Improbable industries? 1t Is plain
sir. to me and you and other s~trenuosities
thai an industry, created by taxation and
maintained by legislation, taxing competing
products, must necessarily be more proht-
able to the taxpayer and to the consumer
and, therefore, to the commonwealth, than
an industry which does not require any
legislation to make 1t profitable in the first
instance, nor any taxation of consumers to
keep it on It's feet after 1t has been "cre-
ated" by the base agencies of soil, climate,
natural aptitude and other environment.
That reminds ne of another blunder OF
our ancestors, both under the common law
in Great Britain and in the United States
They seem to have entertained a notion
that combinations in restraint of trade,
seeking monopoly and throttling competi
tion, are In some way adverse to the &c
veiopment of individuality and somehow
poison the life of trade. They went go fal
as to contend that the highest object OF
mans existence Is not to be well managed
even at a living money profit to himself,
but that 1t Is to learn to manage himself
we'll. We know now that combinations OF
corporations. seeking with the power OF
monopoly the resultant power Of taxing
consumers by raising prices to an extor
tlonate figure, under the shelter OF tariff
laws shutting out foreign competitors, and
seeking the further resultant power to bear
down the price to be paid to the farmer
raising the raw material, and seeking the
yet further resultant power to regulate
| wages by reason of the fact that the work