Conservative *
v bo reduced below the point that will
,
cover the difference between the labor
Wf
cost here nnd abroad. The well-being
of the wage-worker is a prime considera
tion of our entire policy of economic
legislation. "
Labor cost and wages are not synony
mous terms. One farmer may pay a
man twenty-five dollars a mouth and
board for husking corn and get husked
at these wages seventy-five bushels each
* ' that is four hundred and
day ; , fifty
fc
bushels a week. But his neighbor ,
another farmer , pays his corn husker
only fifteen dollars a month and
board , and gets but thirty bushels a day
or one hundred and eighty bushels a
week. There is more labor cost in low-
waged-husked corn than in the high
waged. Two men doing the same work ,
one at ten dollars a day and the other
at five , do not prove that the labor cost
in the product of the ten dollar man is
more than that in the product of the
five dollar man. Skill , celerity , continu
ity of effort on the part of the former
may make his labor cost in a given com
modity a half less than that of the five
dollar fellow.
There has been a deal of partisan
sophistry about protection to American
laborers. High
No Protection. duties have been
put upon certain
foreign manufactures because they are
said to be the product of cheap capital
and "pauper labor. " But capital is as
cheap in New York as in London , Paris
or Berlin , and there is not now and
never was any pauper labor. "Paupers"
never labor ; they are supported by
i taxing those who do labor. No Pro
tective Tariff has ever shut out the in
coming of laborers from all Europe.
There has never been a duty on brain ,
brawn , skill , muscle and mind , although
there is a constant influx of each to
compete with Americans in every trade ,
fg vocation and profession known to mod
ern times. Men and women land every
day in the United States to compete for
a living -with American men and
women. There is free trade for labor
and protective duties for capital.
President Roosevelt is a good , honest ,
courageous and able man , and he knows
a Truth when he meets one. He likes
conscience in the public service , and
patriotism , better than he likes craft
and partyism , and the Conservative has
faith in his coming out clearly at last
for sound economics.
The prohibition
MAKE IT state of Iowa and
WICKED. its best county
named after Gener
al Fremont occupying the extreme
southwestern corner of the common
wealth , immediately opposite Otoe
county , Nebraska , and at the east end
of the railroad bridge into Nebraska
City , constantly reminds the Conserva-
tive of man's proueness to eat and drink
forbidden things. Many of the lowans
like beer , wine , whiskey and other
stimulants forbidden by the statutes of
that state better than a hound pup
loves to suck eggs. But before the pro
hibition the same citizens oared little
for any intoxicants.
One of the most delicious and refresh
ing beverages known to mankind is
water pure , clean ,
Water. clear water. And
if some modern be
liever , of Iowa , or Nebraska , in the
efficacy of law enacting , will secure a
statute limiting , or prohibiting , the
drinking of water except on Sundays , it
will be guzzled down by the bucket full
every day in the week. Just as soon as
it is wicked to drink water , that liquid
will taste better and everybody will
thirst for it and get it and fill up on
it.
Our friend , J.
NICE THEORY. Sterling Morton ,
says that "F r e e
trade does not compel Amer
icans or anybody else to trade any
where. Free trade merely permits
Americans and everybody else to trade
anywhere or everywhere. "
The Crete Vidette in a recent issue
publishes the foregoing and then de
livers a lecture on the diabolism of per
mitting people to trade when and where
they please. But it forgets that nobody
trades continuously anywhere except at
a profit or gain , and that therefore pro
hibitory tariffs cripple or kill off only
that trade which is mutually profitable
to buyer and seller.
The Vidette forgets also that the
disastrous financial cyclone of 1873 was
under the high protective Merrill tariff
and the one of 1898 under the McKinley
tariff. As to the Cobden Club of
which President Garfield was an
honored member and of which the
editor of The Conservative became a
member many years ago it has done
a great and good work for international
trade. It declared against "the period
of exolnsiveness in trade" long before
President McKinley made his Buffalo
speech Sept. 5th , 1901 against it. We
refer to his last utterance on political
economy in which he declared that "we
cannot forever sell and never buy , " and
that it would not be good for us if we
could.
The Hon. William L. Wilson , than
whom there never lived a purer patriot ,
was never entertained by the Manufac
turers' Union in London , though he was
a guest at the London Board of Trade
banquet in September , 1894 , as were
several other Americans , including Con
gressman Isador Straus of New York ,
Joy Morton , Paul Morton and their
father.
The Conservative is amused by the
advocate of protective duties who
eulogizes the United States as a country
of great wealth , magnificent resources ,
inexhaustible manufacturing advant
ages ; blessed with the most intelligent
and skillful laborers , mechanics and
artisans , and then tearfully , between
sobs , declares "but it cannot compete
with the ignorance and pauperism of
Europe" in the world's markets.
In the Convention of 1787 , which
formed the Constitution of the United
States after long and thoughtful debate ,
it was agreed and declared that trade
between the several states of the Union
shall be forever free. And so it has
been and so it remains and the several
states are said to be quite prosperous in
spite of this constitutionally secured
Free Trade.
The Conservative
HEREDITY. has always advocat
ed the improvement
of the breeds of men. It has frequently
said that if human beings were as care
fully mated with a view to an improved
or superior progeny as the lower order
of animals are by their owners , the
breeds of human kind would advance in
physical and intellectual power.
The subjoined cablegram shows that
in Austria the improvement of the race ,
by permitting only competent persons
to marry , is about to begin and that the
law of heredity is respected by those
who would have statutory preventives
against the propagation of degenerates :
Vienna , Dec. 13. The Bohemian So
ciety of Physicians has procured the
introduction of a bill in the Reichsrath
making a medical certificate of physical
and mental capacity obligatory on can
didates for matrimony.
Thoughtful per
CHRISTMAS sons are again sad
TREES. dened to see their
fellow-citizens in
the grasp of their annual lunacy ,
which leads them to encourage , by
purchase , the cutting down of sym
metrical young conifers for Christmas
trees. Every city railroad yard in the
country now presents the sorrowful
spectacle of cars loaded to their capa
city with these pitiful babies of the
forest , massacred in commemoration
of the Prince of Peace. Recently a
big ship sank off the coast of Maine ,
which was loaded with nothing else.
The cargo consisted of hundreds of
thousands of Christmas trees ; they
were Jonahs to that vessel.
For the fleeting pleasure of the
children of today , we destroy the trees
that the men and women of a few
years later will need for building
human homes. And in doing this
wanton wickedness , with total disre
gard of those who follow us in the
little march from birth to death , we
violate every good thing which Christ
taught.