AN GAODHAL.
379
ering of persons interested in the cultivation of I¬
rish. All who would wish will not be able to be
present, but those who do attend can formulate
some definite line of action which may be tried with
profit. I think myself the desire to learn Irish is
not so dead as we generally think — the embers
must be stirred up, the listless must be roused, and
I think if the exertion wasted in fault-finding were
only expended in encouraging, more results would
follow. The place of holding the convention can
be decided on by the places (societies) desiring to
send delegates.
Yours fraternally,
P. J. McTighe.
The Democratic politicians claim that Irishmen
owe them party fealty because they championed
the rights of foreign born citizens in ages past.
We admit that claim to be reasonable if the
Democratic leaders did not expect too much of a
sacrifice in return. But, the rank and file of the
Democracy having to earn their living by the sweat
of their brow, it would be unreasonable to expect
of them to support a party which now seeks to keep
them in abject poverty, by throwing open our ports
to the pauper labor of Europe. Free Trade would,
of course, benefit the few who can live on their
money, but it would not be right to sacrifice the
many for the sake of the few. The advocates of
Free Trade, of both political parties, are those who
think that a working man's family should live well
enough on a dollar a day. Mr. Beecher so declar¬
ed, and all the Free Trade advocates are of the
same mind.
The best mechanic in Europe cannot earn more
than £2 a week — equal to $10 ; an ordinarary me¬
chanic $7, and a laborer about $3. Throw open
American ports to the free import of the commod¬
ities produced by these mechanics and our best ar¬
tisans could not earn $10 a week, because the cost
of transportation would amount to little or noth¬
ing. Take one or two articles as an instance. —
Marble polishers, we presume, earn $4 00 a day
in this country. In Italy, where the best marble
is found, the best marble polisher does not com¬
mand more than 25 cents a day. It marble were
free of duty, the captains of trading vessels who
now use water &c. as ballast, could substitute mar¬
ble, and so flood this country with it that the na¬
tives should get out of the business altogether. A
tailor will make a good overcoat in the old coun¬
try for $3.00 (by being supplied with the goods).
It will take him, at least, three days to make it;
throw our ports open to that class of goods and
the tailoring trade will vanish. A shoemaker gets
about 60 cents for bottoming a pair of boots; it is
a good day's work to bottom a pair and a half.
Throw our ports open to that class of goods and the
shoemaking trade vanishes. Count up all the oth¬
er trades which would be similarly affected by Free
Trade, and ask yourself what these artisans are
going to turn themselves to: Of course, they will
turn themselves into carpenters, painters, plaster¬
ers, bricklayers, &c. and glut the market in their
regard, that they, too, must come down to starva¬
tion wages. But our Free Traders say that the
cost of living would decrease in proportion. This
is a falacy. You pay as much for flour, tea, sugar
beef, &c. in England as you do here. Again, we
are told that people lived here before the war as
well as they do now. But at that time a mechan¬
ic's wife or daughter would go to church in the
morning with a cloud on her head and a calico
suit on her back (the same as they do in the Old
Country.) Now they go as well dressed as the
bosses themselves, and herein lies the whole secret
of this Free Trade cry. The would-be aristocrats
don't want to have the working element on a social
par with themselves. But it is in the hands of the
workers to protect themselves; and if they do not
do so their wailing and howling for the bare nec¬
essaries of life by and by deserve no commisseration
The fancied claim of no party should induce a man
to injure his own prospects in life, and if it be to
subserve their own party purposes that the Dem¬
ocratic party championed the right of franchise to
foreign born citizens, no party fealty is due them.
Democracy in its broadest sense we interpret as
that which dispenses the greatest amount of good
to the largest number of persons, and whichever
party, whether it goes by the name of Republican
or Democrat, does that, is the real democratic par¬
ty. Then, when that which goes by the name of
the Democratic party veers away from and be¬
comes inimical to the interests of the mass of the
people, it ceases to be Democratic, and the rank
and file of the party are justified, nay, compelled
by the very instinct of self-preservation, to rebel
against their leaders, or it might be more to the
point to say that the leaders have deserted their
colors.
There are now two new parties about to spring
up in this country which will be recruited from
the ranks of the two parties now in existence —
namely, Protectionists and Free Traders. Those
who have to live by their labor will, of course, be¬
long to the former, and they should lose no time
in taking their stand accordingly.
The condition of Ireland and her lan¬
guage never appeared more hopeful
than they do at the present time. The
Gael being the only organ of the lan¬
guage this side the water, will not
those who lisped it in loving accents
at their mother's knee and those who
do not wish to see the "Language of
the slave" the language of their coun¬
try, try and make it more presentable?
Get subscribers and you do this.
