Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1891 — Labor and Commodities. [ARTICLE]

Labor and Commodities.

The system of protection is defended upon the ground that it will create more labor. Here is a favorite protectiouist maxim; “The best system for a country is that which secures for it the greatest amount of labor.” But labor is t not an end in Itself; we labor solely fer the sake of the commodities we need. Most people of ordinary common s nse think that the best : system is that wh'ch secures the greatest, amount of commodities. They are quite content to save their labor, and will even invent curious and cunning laborsaving machinery in order to spare themselves unnecessary toil. If the protection theory is sound then Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, was a great foe to women,, since he made it possible for one woman to do the work of ten; and the inventors of the self-binding reaper did great harm to the farmers by making it possible to reap their grain with one-tenth of the labor needed under the old system. No; the best system is not that which, gives us more labor, but more, goods, more food and clothing.' The shortest road to these is the system requiring the least labor. W f hen men are let alond they take that road of themselves; pro-1 tection only steps in to make men take the longest road, since in it they will have to take, more steps In order td reach the same point.