Protection Ok Free Trade, Which ?

Tliere eed be no misuiulcrstanding of the issue between protectionists and free traders, liowever zealously the latter may seek to. confuse voters by diverting tbeir attentlon to subjects In no wiee affected by tariff laws. Protectlon means that eniploytnent sball be given to every man wbo wants work, and that for sueh work the corapensation shall be suffleient to enable liim to live as becomes an American citizen. Pree trade raeans that all work which can be done cheaper elsewhere tban in this country shall be turned over to the nation that succeeds in getting froin its people the greatest amount of labor for the smallest amount of money. Protection means to build up in this country all lincs of manufactures necessary for making our people comfortable and prosperous in time of peace, inde. pendent and invincible in time of war. Free trade means to keep this country u perpetual dependence upon foreigners for the market for surplus farm productsi and that by way of payment we are to accept manufactured producís at such prlces as the foreign scllers may díctate. Protectlon means that the existing American standard of life shall be maintainedjthat the wages of all classes of workers sball remain, as now, higher than the wages paid to Europeans for similar service. This cannot be done except by placing a tariff on foreign products sent here for sale in competition witb the producís of the farms and faetones of this country. Free trade means that all barriers against the competition of foreign labor and commerce shall be removed, with the inevitable resuH that wages throMghout the world will be equalized, or that the labor on all producís that can be transported be turned over to those who will perform t for the least money- whether it be in making the loom, weaving the cloth, or at the sewing machine by which cloth is transformad into garments; whether in mining and smelting the ore or in making machinery by which the producís of the farm are transported to market. The issue before the country is to determine which of these divergent policies shall prevalí; whether, following the advice of Jefferson and Clay and Lincoln, we wil! continue the policy of keeping milis and factories near the farms that feod their operatives, or whether in accordance witb the teachings of Cobden and Qladstone and Cleveland, and other advocates of tariff reform, we will consent that our people shall confine themsolves to agriculture and turn over to others those privileges and proflts found only in a diversity of industries. Our free trade brethren teil us that protection favors the rich and grinds the poor, while free trade helps the laborer against th rich. Will sorne one please teil us then why the rich of free trade England do not emigrate to protected America, and the laborers of this country go to England ? Just the reverse seems to be the case.