Speech #530128971

This is the briefest. truest. most concise. and most compreheasivo statement of the question between free trade and protection. The wages of laborby which is to be understood not merely the wages which are paid by the capitalist to hired hand. but the wages also whicharo earned by labor of any kind working on its own accountare now higher in this country than in any other beneatli the sun. If anybody doubts thi. let him stop the first immigrant whom lie meets in the streets and ask him why he came over here. what condition he left behind him. and in what circumstances he finds himselfwithin six months after his arrival. If anybodydoubts this. let him turn to the Parliamentary debaters. the economical essayists. or even the corn.law rhymers of England. and see what they say as to the condition of the great mass of British operatives. Listen to Charles Buller. in his admirable speech on systematic emigration as the only relief for the pauper labor of his country. while he tells you Iof human beings huddled togetherin defiance of comfort. of shame. and of health. in garrets and in cellars. and in the same hovels with their pigs. of workhouses crowded. of even the gaol resorted to for shelter and maintenance. of human beings prevented from actually dying of starvation in the open streets. or of others allowed to expire from inanition in the obscurity of their own dwelling places." Listen to him again. while he gives you an account "of thousands of men. women. and children congregited together without any regard to decency or comfort in noisome sites and wretched hovels. of those who wear out their lives in the darkness of coal and iron mines. doing what is commonly considered the work of brutes. In a moral and intellectual state hardly raised ibove that of the more animal. of the shirtmalkors. who get tenpence for making a dozen shirts. and of the 15.000 milliners in this metropolis [London]. habitually working for the scantiest wages in close rooms. always for thirteen or fourteen hours a day. sometimes for days and nights together. nine out of ten losing their health in the occupation. and scores of them falling victims to consumption. or rendered incurably blind whenever a court mourning or any festivity of particular magnitude tasks their powers more than usual." * * Mr. Chairman. the fact Is Indisputable.